How Long Will My Dental Appointment Last?

Are you going to have a dental filling for your tooth?

Are you going to get a root canal treatment for your tooth?

Are you going to have a dental implant placement or a tooth removal?

Are you going to have a cleaning for your teeth or a dental office whitening procedure?

Having your tooth treated with dental filling may take you around 1-1.5 hour including each step. Your dentist can use some anesthesia if it comes to usual carious cavity and not if you experienced your root canal treatment before. The preparation takes not so much time as modelling due to reconstructing the anatomy of a tooth. Finally, you will get your filling polished and you are done! Remember to visit your dentist every 6 months for checkups and polishing.

Root canal treatment can sometimes be lasting due to complexity of the canal structure. This type of dental work is rather precise and needs detailed working out. In most cases, such treatment takes around 1.5-2 hours but the time may vary a little depending on a tooth type and the number of canals. Your dentist may revise your root canals and fill them with sealer during your first visit and does a filling during second one (in 1-2 days) since root sealers need time to set. Remember to visit your dentist every 6 months for checkups and polishing.

Dental surgery seems to be the most serious branch of the whole dentistry. However, sometimes a tooth removal may last only 20-30 minutes depending on your jawbone structure and the reason of extraction. At the same time, a tooth removal may happen to last longer (around 2 hours) than dental implant placement. Dental implant placement duration depends on the number of implants you may need and accompanying procedures required (bone or soft tissue plastic). The average time remaining is 1-2.5 hours including local numbing, in case of general anesthesia the time may vary. Contact your dentist for more of individual information.

Dental cleaning can take you around 40 minutes including calculus removal and final polishing. In case of serious periodontal cleaning, it may take you up to 1.5 hours. That is necessary to remove visible parts of dental calculus as well as subgingival deposits to eliminate the amount of bacteria. Remember to do the professional cleaning step before your whitening session. Dental whitening usually lasts 1 – 1.15 hours including all preparations. Such procedure involves three standard 10 (15 for Zoom system) minutes sets using a LED lamp. Ending both procedures with a 2-minute mineral treatment. Remember to visit your dentist every 6 months for checkups and polishing.

Based on your answers, it is difficult to determine which particular dental work are you going to have and suppose the remaining time. Contact your dentist for more information and further examination.