Tooth Tightness: Why Does Your New Dental Implant Feel Tight?
You don't exactly want your teeth to feel loose—except during childhood when your baby teeth loosen before detaching. Be that as it may, you probably don't want your teeth to feel too tight either. This is an uncommon, fairly minor issue that some people who receive dental implants may encounter.
Bone Integration
The implant placed in your jawbone should be tight. In fact, it must be. It has actually integrated with the bone, and it's impossible to get a tighter connection than that. Any curious feelings of tightness with a new dental implant are likely to be related to the prosthetic tooth attached to it.
Your Prosthetic Tooth
The utmost diligence is used when designing and constructing the prosthetic tooth attached to your implant. A digital model or physical impression was taken of your mouth to obtain the necessary dimensions of the missing tooth, allowing the implant's prosthetic tooth to be an exact replica. However, if the diameter of the prosthesis is even fractionally too large for the space it's going to fill, it may exert pressure on the teeth on either side of it—hence the feeling of tightness.
Rigid and Immoveable
Once a dental implant has integrated with the bone, it becomes rigid and immoveable, which is somewhat the point. Natural teeth, on the other hand, are connected to the bone via periodontal ligaments, which permit a small amount of elasticity. When the diameter of the prosthetic tooth exceeds the available space, the prosthesis places pressure on its neighbors, and may even begin to subtly reposition them, much like how dental braces apply pressure to realign teeth. Of course, when a prosthetic tooth does this, your teeth are in fact being misaligned.
Talk to Your Dentist
A strange sensation of tightness should be reported to your dentist. This is not a catastrophe and is a fairly minor concern—although treatment is essential. Failure to have the issue addressed can misalign your teeth, meaning more comprehensive intervention will be needed in the future. When there's inadequate interdental space (the natural gap between teeth), oral hygiene becomes difficult too, which is another potential complication.
Straightforward Solutions
Your dentist can address the situation in a number of ways. Remember that the prosthetic tooth is a solid object, and so it can be resized (filed down). Alternatively, it may be necessary to construct an entirely new prosthesis. The good news is that the implant in your jaw is unlikely to be unaffected, with the problem solely existing above your gum line, making treatment all the more straightforward.
Once a dental implant is finished, with its prosthetic tooth bonded into place, you shouldn't even know that it's there. But when the implant seems to be applying pressure to your dental arch, it's important to visit your dentist to have that pressure relieved.