Immediate Dental Implants: Placing the Implant the Same Day the Tooth Comes Out

An immediate dental implant is one placed into the socket at the same appointment your tooth is taken out, rather than waiting months for the socket to heal first. For people who suit it, that removes a whole waiting phase and takes time off the overall treatment. In some cases a temporary tooth can be fitted the same day. It does not suit every tooth or every person, and the assessment beforehand is what decides that.

What “immediate” actually means

The conventional approach happens in stages. The tooth comes out, the socket is left to heal for a few months, the implant goes in, and then there is a further healing period before the final crown is made. Start to finish it usually runs to six months or more.

An immediate implant collapses that first stage. The tooth is removed and the implant is placed into the same fresh socket in one visit. Your jaw still needs time to grow onto the implant afterwards — that part cannot be rushed — but you have skipped the months of waiting for the socket to close over.

We plan and place dental implants in Cheltenham in-house, so the scan, the planning and the surgery all happen in the same building. That matters for this technique in particular, because an immediate placement depends heavily on the planning done before the tooth ever comes out.

Who it suits, and who it does not

Whether a socket can take an implant straight away comes down to a few things:

• The bone around the socket. There needs to be enough of it, and the walls of the socket need to be intact enough to hold the implant steady from day one.
• No active infection. A tooth that has been badly infected, with bone loss around it, usually needs the site to settle before an implant goes in.
• General health and habits. Smoking and poorly controlled diabetes both make healing less predictable. Some medications matter too, particularly those that affect bone.
• The shape of the roots. Front teeth and premolars are often straightforward. Back molars, with wider and more awkward root shapes, can be harder to place into immediately.

A 3D scan is what settles it. It shows the bone in three dimensions, where the nerve and the sinus sit, and whether the implant can be placed in the right position with enough grip to be stable. If the scan says no, staged treatment is the better answer — and that is not a worse outcome, just a different route to the same place.

Can you really leave with a tooth that day?

Sometimes. If the implant is solid enough once it is in, a temporary tooth can be attached the same day. It is shaped so that it does not take heavy biting force while the bone is still knitting on, so it is there for appearance and for speaking rather than for chewing.

This is most common at the front of the mouth, where a gap is most noticeable and the biting forces are lower. The temporary is replaced with the permanent crown once healing is complete. If the implant is not stable enough on the day, a temporary is not attached — pushing that decision is one of the ways implants fail.

What happens on the day

The appointment is carried out under local anaesthetic. In outline:

• The tooth is removed as gently as possible, because the bone around it is what the implant will rely on.
• The socket is cleaned out.
• The implant, a small titanium post, is placed into the socket. Grafting material is often packed around it to fill the gaps between the implant and the socket walls.
• If everything is stable and the site suits it, a temporary tooth may go on.
• You go home the same day with written aftercare instructions.

Over the following months the bone grows onto the surface of the implant and locks it in place. You will come back so we can check how that is progressing. Once it has taken, the permanent crown is made and fitted.

How well does it work?

Published research reports survival rates for immediate implants broadly comparable to implants placed into healed bone, provided cases are chosen carefully. The important words there are “chosen carefully”. Those results come from selecting the right sites and the right patients, not from the technique being better in every situation.

What happens afterwards matters as much as the surgery itself. Keeping the area clean, coming to reviews, and not smoking all make a real difference to how an implant holds up over the years.

The risks worth knowing about

Placing an implant is surgery, and it carries the risks that surgery carries. Swelling and bruising for a few days is normal and usually manageable with over-the-counter pain relief. Infection is possible. The implant may not take, in which case it is removed, the site is allowed to heal, and the situation is reassessed.

There is one risk particular to immediate placement at the front of the mouth: the gum can settle back a little over time, which can show at the edge of the crown. It is one of the reasons front teeth are planned so carefully, and one of the things we would rather talk through with you beforehand than have you discover afterwards.

We will also tell you when we do not think it is the right call. If a staged approach is more predictable for your situation, that is what we will recommend.

What it costs

The cost depends on what is actually involved — whether grafting is needed, whether a temporary tooth is made, and what the final crown requires. For that reason we do not quote implant treatment without looking first. You will get a written, itemised quote after the assessment, with the alternatives and their costs set out alongside it, so you can compare before committing to anything.

The implant consultation itself is gap-free with an eligible private health fund rebate, or $250 without cover. Our dental implants page goes through the treatment in more detail, including health funds and payment options, and our article on what dental implants cost in Melbourne explains what moves the price up or down.

Talk to us

If you are facing an extraction, the time to ask about an immediate implant is before the tooth comes out, not after. Once the socket has healed the option has passed for that site. Call our Cheltenham practice on (03) 9584 4949 or book a consultation online, and we will look at the tooth, take a scan, and tell you honestly whether placing straight away is the right move in your case.

Sources

• Dental Implants — Australian Dental Association
• Dental care — Healthdirect Australia
• Dental treatment — Better Health Channel