Garak-dong Implants: Do Smoking and Drinking Make or Break the Outcome?

Hello. I’m Shin Seung-hwan, the chief dentist at Yonsei Yuline Dental Clinic, Garak-dong Branch, near Garak Market Station in Garak-dong, Songpa-gu.

Today, I’d like to explain in a bit more detail the smoking and drinking restrictions that must be followed before and after implants and tooth extraction.

Many people say, “Quitting smoking is the hardest,” or “Isn’t a little alcohol okay?”

If so, you need to know exactly why they are harmful and from when to when you should be careful.

First, you should think about the reason a tooth has to be extracted.

People usually experience extraction for the first time in their 40s at the earliest, and in their 50s to 60s in many cases. The biggest cause is usually periodontal disease, that is, gum disease.

And the representative factors that worsen this gum disease are smoking and drinking.

Even if an implant is fortunately placed well, smoking is also one of the biggest causes of implant failure when it comes to long-term maintenance afterward.

What is especially important is care before surgery and immediately after surgery.

What I mean by before surgery here is the period after tooth extraction.

After a tooth is extracted, it may seem as if nothing happens in that spot, but in reality a blood clot forms over the wound.

This blood clot must remain firmly in place so that bone and tissue can grow inside it and healing can proceed.

To put it simply, it is like a scab forming over a wound and then repeatedly being peeled off.

Of course, the wound will get worse and healing will be delayed.

When you smoke, negative pressure forms in the mouth, and bleeding continues at the extraction site.

The blood should clot and turn into a scab, but it keeps being disturbed.

Then the wound does not heal,

and the timing of the implant is also delayed further and further.

In addition, nicotine in cigarette smoke slows wound healing, and carbon monoxide and numerous harmful substances interfere with tissue regeneration itself.

In particular, for implants accompanied by bone grafting,

if you smoke, the success rate drops sharply.

To be honest, I do not recommend bone-graft implants to patients who continue smoking.

Even if there seems to be no problem at the moment,

I have seen too many cases where problems arise much faster than with properly maintained implants.

Drinking is just as important.

After surgery, patients usually take antibiotics and anti-inflammatory painkillers for about 1 to 2 weeks,

and drinking alcohol during this period not only increases the burden on the liver, but alcohol itself can worsen the wound and interfere with recovery.

Even for a simple procedure, it is better to avoid alcohol for at least 2 weeks,

and if the implant involves bone grafting, you should avoid alcohol until the doctor in charge says, “It is okay now.”

How long do you need to hold off on smoking?

The answer is simple. The best thing is not to do it at all, continuously.

Thinking, “I’ll smoke only until the day of the implant and then quit,” is already too late.

Smoking should stop from the moment the tooth is extracted for the wound to heal properly, and only then can the implant be used stably afterward.

Extraction is hard, surgery is hard,

and the waiting period is long.

If you have to remove and redo the implant that was so difficult to place, how difficult would that be for you?

An implant is not a treatment that ends after one procedure;

it is a treatment that must be used for a long time.

That is why not smoking and not drinking before and after surgery are not optional, but essential.

Please keep these two things firmly in mind if you want to use your hard-earned implant without problems for a long time.

This has been Yonsei Yuline Dental Clinic in Garak-dong, Songpa-gu.