For many dental patients, follow-up appointments seem like just a formality. However, attending your follow-up appointments is an important part of making sure that you’re healing properly and allowing your dentist to spot the signs of potential problems early on. If you skip your follow-ups, you may suffer from major dental problems, which can have an effect on your overall health.
Skipping Dental Follow-Up Appointments
Follow-up appointments are usually recommended after intensive dental work such as tooth extractions, root canal therapy, and dental implant surgery. Your follow-up is designed to ensure that the mouth is healing properly, and the teeth are healthy. Even if you feel that your mouth is healing correctly, a dental professional can catch things that you may otherwise miss.
Choosing to skip your follow-up appointments can have negative consequences in the form of damaging your dental and overall health. Small issues that may otherwise not be noticed can become larger problems, sometimes resulting in even more dental work. These problems can include:
- Infection – There’s always a risk of infection in any oral surgery, but some patients are at a higher risk. A follow-up appointment is the best way to detect and treat infections.
- Dry Socket – In the event that a tooth has been lost or extracted, you may develop dry sockets. Dry sockets develop if the blood clot has been dislodged and they can be painful. Your dentist can detect and ease the pain of dry sockets at a follow-up visit.
- Bone Loss – If a tooth has been extracted or lost, the jawbone underneath the lost tooth can become brittle. As bone loss occurs, the jaw may begin to shrink.
- Shifting Teeth – Lastly, teeth can shift as a result of ill-fitting dental crowns, bridges, or dental implants. Shifting teeth can create pressure from changes in the bite pattern. Your follow-up appointment allows the dentist to make sure everything fits properly so shifting does not occur.
If you’ve missed your follow-up appointment for a periodontal procedure or dental implants, it’s not too late to schedule now! It’s still important for us to make sure you’ve healed correctly and that you’re receiving the proper dental care.
To schedule your follow-up appointment here at Littleton Implants and Periodontics, please contact our Littleton, Colorado office today. Specializing in cosmetic, LAPIP & LANAP, and dental surgery in Littleton, CO.