Whether you lost some teeth in a sports game, or are getting a replacement for dentures, getting dental implants can be confusing and frightening. Here is the break down of what goes into the process, and what you might expect.

The original assessment. This involves the doctor examining your jaw and the alignment of your teeth. Before you get the implants, you may need a retainer or braces to make room for the implants. At the end of this meeting, your dental healthcare provider will most likely lay out a timeline of what needs to happen. This may need to be planned many months in advance due to the complicated nature of the implant process. This can take anywhere from three months to over nine months.

The first procedure. This is when the dentist places the implant post in your jaw. This will be the post that the prosthetic tooth is placed on later. The tooth cannot be placed on the post directly, because the bone must heal around the post first, and the area may be too tender and swollen for any pressure from the tooth.

The next step to this process is waiting for healing. During this time, you can choose your prosthetic teeth. Your dental healthcare provider should be able to help you find the closest match in color to your teeth. Note that your prosthetic tooth will not whiten with your other teeth if you choose to whiten them. For this reason, you should whiten your teeth, if you wish to, before you choose a shade of white for your prosthetic tooth.

Once the waiting is over and the healing is complete, your dental healthcare provider will order the size and shape of the tooth you need, and place it on the post. This is the end of the procedure.

Conveniently, none of these procedures typically require an overnight hospital stay, and may be considered similar to the recovery of getting your wisdom teeth out. While there may be other complications, such as a bone graph, this is the basic process for getting a dental implant.