How Long Can I Wait Before Getting a Dental Implant?

Hi

Once tooth is extracted and grafted, I usually wait about 5-6 months before I place an implant. Although if it is longer, it is often fine. The graft tends to preserve the bone and stays stable for much later.

 

Dr. Kazemi

Hi there, 
Sine you need to wait typically at least 6-8 weeks for the graft to integrate to the host bed, you’ve got 2 months of wait time right there already. Typically, you should try and get your implant placed within about 6 months after grafting. Any longer and you risk loss of bone again. Good luck! 

Ideally you want to wait 4-6 months. The longer one waits after an extraction and bone graft, the bone density and height starts to decrease over time. There is no "hard and fast" rule in regards to how long to wait. That would depend on factors like age, health, and position of missing tooth/space in the mouth. Please understand that missing teeth create gaps. Teeth then start to shift and drop into the space. So in addition to possibly requiring extra bone grafting procedures over time, you may also need braces and orthodontic tooth movement. So don't wait too long. Maximum a year to two years. 

It depends on the severity of the infection, the location of the tooth and the condotion  of your health. Not knowing all these prarameters,   i can only give some broad guidelines. If  the infection is vsevere and broad and there is a lot of pus and exudates, it may not be prudent to do the bone grafting on the day of extraction as the success of the will decrease because of the highly acidic environment.  sometimes it is better to wait six to eight weeks and go back in the extraction site and graft.  once the socket is grafted depending on the location (top or bottom jaw), the current protocol is wait a minimum of 8 to 12 weeks before the implant is placed. If you are not ready to place the implant right away, it is ok to wait for to a year.  Keeping in mind that the other teeth are shifting into the empty space.  if in doubt, search the advice of a dentist who is familiar with implant treatment.

  I would not wait longer than 12 months to implant as the area of bone will atrophy and then you might not be able to have an implant without having more bone grafting.  In addition,  teeth work together as partners and when one tooth is removed the other teeth can shift in response.  The teeth shifting that can occur varies from person to person but the teeth can shift and make the implant restoration difficult or impossible.  Once the infected tooth is removed and the area is bone grafted, the implant can be placed as early as 3 to 4 months after the extraction.  You might want to consider care credit and get the procedure done and not risk any further deterioration.

I would recommend the extraction and the bone graft, but I would no wait longer than 6-8 months to get the implant because basically there is no case waiting longer. Just remember the antibiotics are imperative to take. if you place the implant immediately after the extraction (in your case, with an infection) there is a higher risk that you can lose it because you currently have an infection.

usually we prefer to extract a tooth, and place bone graft and get back in there to place the implant 3-6 month later.  Now this is not a one size fit all, and if your tooth is infected, you cannot even place the bone graft in successfully when the socket is full of puss.

 

So if your tooth is infected extract ASAP. the longer you keep the infected tooth in , the more bone loss happens , the more bone graft you need, and the less success for implant.

once the tooth is extracted, place implant no later than 6-8 months. teeth will shift and if you place bone graft, it will  resorb and you need t o place again and delay the treatment another 3 months.

The modern protocol with implant placement in anterior aesthetic area and posterior sites (molar teeth) does not recommend immediate placement after tooth extraction. It is never performed in the infection sites eather.  Delayed implant placement is recommended due to better control and predictability of the aesthetic outcome of the implant- it`s more predictable to place implant exactly where it belongs after the gum and bone are stable, without guessing where the bone will end up after extraction remodeling. Also this protocol involves mandatory socket grafting with bone grafting material in order to preserve the remaining bone and get the maximum volume of it. After the socket grafting is done that will preserve the bone you can take your time for up to 1 year for implant placement. 

There is 2 ways to do this procedure. If the infection is not too severe maybe the dentist could do a post-extraction implant and do the bone grafting and implant immediately. I do this lots at my clinic and have had great success.

 

However the conservative approach would be extracting the tooth and doing the bone grafting. From this you could wait as long as you need to get the implant usually up too a year.