What is a Dental Follow-Up Appointment?
A dental follow-up appointment is scheduled after more extensive dental work, such as an extraction or dental implant surgery. The follow-up appointment is specifically designed to make sure that your teeth and mouth are in good health and that you’re healing well. Dental follow-up appointments may seem unnecessary, especially if you don’t think that there is a problem, but only a dental professional can tell you if your mouth and teeth are healing properly and that there are no infections or other issues present.
What Can Happen if a Follow-Up Appointment is Missed or Ignored?
Missed follow-up appointments can potentially be harmful to your health. Minor issues that go undetected and unchecked can turn into major problems that result in the need for more extensive work. Some issues that can occur include:
Infections
Dry Socket
Shifting Teeth
Prolonged Orthodontic Treatment
Bone Loss
Common Procedures That Require a Follow-Up
Dental Implants
- Dental implant surgery can take several months for the titanium root to fuse naturally with the bone and routine follow-up appointments are necessary to ensure that the implant is healing correctly.
Extractions
- Even minor teeth extractions may require a follow-up appointment to check on how well the gums are healing and any signs of infection or dry socket. In some cases, follow-up appointments involve removing sutures as well.
Braces and Orthodontic Treatment
- Braces and corresponding orthodontic treatments require routine follow-up appointments to check for tooth alignment, progression and to make necessary adjustments.
Crowns
- Just because you left the office with a temporary crown does not mean that the procedure is finished. A temporary crown itself is not meant to last longer than a few weeks and needs to be replaced with a permanent dental crown during your follow-up visit.
Emergency Dental Surgeries
- Most types of dental surgery need to be met with a follow-up appointment, especially procedures that are considered a dental emergency. This is essential when it comes to checking for infections, detecting signs of dry socket and removing sutures. Depending on the situation, temporary treatments may have been used to stop the bleeding or pain, but a more comprehensive surgery will be needed to fix the damage completely.
Dentures
- Patients fitted for dentures should go for follow-up appointments to ensure that the new plates are fitting well, feel comfortable, and have improved overall functionality.
Is It Too Late for a Follow-Up Appointment?
Some patients may wonder if it’s too late to go for a follow-up appointment. For instance, you might have gone for a new crown a month or two ago, missed the follow-up appointment and never bothered going back to have the permanent crown placed. In any situation, it is not too late to go to the office for a follow-up appointment to get the dental care you need.
The follow-up appointment is designed to check for complications and other oral-related problems, which can occur at any time after a more extensive procedure has been done. Dental professionals understand that things happen that may cause you to miss your appointment, but it’s so important to get the best care for you and your family. Contact your dentist today to schedule your follow-up visit to ensure your dental procedure was a success.
Call us now at Dr. Nikhil's Dental Clinic at 9812912946 for your appointments.
https://panipatdentist.com/book-now/