4 Temporary Ways To Replace Missing Teeth While Your Dental Implants Heal

After implant surgery, unless you had crowns placed on your implants immediately, you'll appear toothless when you smile. In the front of the mouth, this is a problem. Fortunately, there are several temporary tooth-replacement options available to you.

If you are having dental implants placed in the front of your mouth, then one of the following temporary approaches will replace those missing teeth until your implants are ready for their crowns.

1. A Flipper

A flipper or partial denture is useful for replacing at least one missing tooth after dental implant surgery. But because flippers are acrylic, which is quite a hard material that touches your soft tissues, you may need to wait around ten days for healing to occur. After that, you can safely wear a flipper.

2. An Essix Retainer

An Essix retainer is similar to an Invisalign aligner because it is made of thin plastic and fits over the teeth. Your dentist can place false teeth into the retainer to replace missing teeth. And you can usually wear Essix retainers immediately after surgery since they only fit over your teeth and not your gum tissue.

While eating, you need to make sure you take your Essix retainer out. This is because these retainers are thin and can wear out if exposed to chewing forces every day.

3. A Temporary Implant Bridge

Another option for replacing one or more teeth is a temporary implant bridge. These bridges attach to your implant abutments with either a screw or composite resin and support the false teeth that cover the gaps where your missing teeth were. Using this method, you can replace a single tooth or even a whole row of missing teeth.

These bridges are also useful for protecting your healing implant sites. But you will need to ensure that you remove food from under and around these bridges to keep infection at bay.  

4. A Full Denture

If you are replacing all your teeth with dental implants, then a full denture can replace the missing teeth. This is useful if you are transitioning from full dentures to dental implants. To ensure that your denture is comfortable, your dentist will reline the underside of the denture with a soft material.

Speak to your dentist about these measures before you go in for dental implant surgery. Your dentist will help you to choose the approach that is most comfortable and convenient for you.