Title:
Radiolucency at apex 3 weeks after implant #12 — normal healing or early issue?
Post:
26F, healthy.
I fractured #12 about 7 years ago from a fall and had a crown placed. The crown recently came out with the underlying tooth, so I had it extracted and got an immediate implant with bone graft on 4/10. I was told the tooth looked healthy at the time (no decay or infection).
19 days later at a follow-up (4/29/26), dentist thinks I might have a superficial infection. Might be a failing implant.
Hurt a lot when he probed around/pushed on it and a small amount of pus drained from the most inferior part of my gum line at tooth 12. Otherwise, I have been in NO PAIN AT ALL. I was completely blindsided by this as soon as he started pushing on it when I got there yesterday.
I've never had a single cavity in my life - I swear my mouth is clean. But I'm a brain dead medical student and forgot to take my amox after the procedure. I only did like 3 doses out of 5 fulls days of amox
X-ray shows what looks like more radiolucency around the apex of the implant compared to right after surgery.
Current treatment:
Augmentin 875/125 BID (3 doses in) & Therabreath CPC mouthwash after meals/AM/PM (I added this myself)
Questions:
- At around 3 weeks, can this radiolucency be normal changes as the bone graft/implant osseointegrates, or does this look implantitis bad?
- How much would using a Zyn/snus (on the opposite side of my mouth) affect the prognosis of the implant at this point?
- Should I ask for rx chlorhexidine rinse, or is what I’m using enough?
- Is there anything else I should be doing to help this heal properly?
- I'm assuming I should stop wearing my retainer trays to bed for now?
- What do you think? Is this mucositis? Peri-implantitis? Or is it just too soon to tell? I'm trying
X-rays from before, immediately after implant, and current attached. Current pictures attached as well. I'm just trying to figure out everything I can do to prevent this from failing