How long do dental implants take from start to finish?
Cited to 5 sources. Reviewed 2026-08-25.
A straightforward single implant in healthy bone usually takes about four to seven months from consultation to final crown, most of which is waiting for osseointegration. Add an extraction, a bone graft or a sinus lift and the total commonly runs nine to sixteen months. A minority of well selected cases get a temporary tooth on the day of surgery, but the final crown still waits for integration. Your bone quality and site decide which scenario you are in.
- Simple implant, healed site
- About 4 to 7 months
- Extraction then implant
- About 7 to 12 months
- Staged bone graft
- About 9 to 14 months
- Sinus lift, staged
- About 9 to 16 months
The steps, and what each one costs you in time
Almost all of the total is biological waiting, not appointments. You will typically be in the chair for four to six visits across the whole treatment.
| Step | Time it takes | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Consultation and 3D scan | 1 visit | Bone volume assessed, plan and any grafting decided |
| Extraction, if needed | 1 visit | Then 0 to 6 months of socket healing depending on the plan |
| Bone graft or sinus lift, if needed | 1 visit | Then about 3 to 9 months of graft maturation |
| Implant placement | 1 visit, often under an hour per implant | Soft tissue heals in 1 to 2 weeks |
| Osseointegration | About 3 to 6 months | Cleveland Clinic gives a range of 3 to 9 months |
| Abutment and impressions | 1 visit | Sometimes combined with the stability check |
| Final crown | About 2 to 6 weeks after impressions | Laboratory fabrication and fitting |
Your scenario, roughly
Find the row that matches how you arrived at the implant. These are typical ranges rather than promises, and your surgeon's scan beats any general figure.
| Scenario | Consult to final crown |
|---|---|
| Healed site, good bone, lower jaw | About 4 to 5 months |
| Healed site, good bone, upper jaw | About 5 to 7 months |
| Extraction with immediate implant placement | About 4 to 7 months |
| Extraction, socket preservation, then implant | About 7 to 12 months |
| Staged ridge augmentation, then implant | About 9 to 14 months |
| Sinus lift staged, then implant | About 9 to 16 months |
| Immediate placement and immediate temporary crown | Tooth same day, final crown still 4 to 7 months |
Why osseointegration sets the floor
You cannot compress the middle of this timeline, because bone growth runs at the speed bone grows. Cleveland Clinic puts osseointegration at three to nine months depending on how fast you heal, with three to six being the usual working range.
There is one exception worth understanding properly. Immediate and early loading protocols attach a restoration within days or weeks rather than months, and a Cochrane review of loading strategies found that implants can be successfully loaded immediately or early in selected patients, with a high degree of primary stability at placement being a prerequisite. Note the word selected. Whether you qualify depends on insertion torque and bone quality measured at the time of surgery, not on how much you want a tooth sooner.
What lengthens it, and what does not
The things that add real time are structural rather than behavioural: grafting, infection at the site, and soft upper back jaw bone. The things that add time unnecessarily are usually avoidable.
- Adds time: any bone graft or sinus lift, particularly staged ones
- Adds time: an infected socket that has to be cleared before placing
- Adds time: smoking, which slows healing and roughly doubles the early failure risk
- Adds time: uncontrolled diabetes or untreated gum disease, which is often treated first
- Adds time: a failed implant that has to be removed, healed and redone
- Does not add time: mild swelling, bruising, or how you felt in the first week
- Does not add time: paying more. Biology sets the schedule.
Is the wait worth it
It is a long process compared with a bridge or a denture, and the honest reason people accept it is durability. Systematic reviews pooling ten year follow up data report implant survival at roughly 95 percent or better, and reviews of studies with at least ten years of follow up report mean cumulative survival in the mid 90s.
Those numbers assume the maintenance side is done too. The American Academy of Periodontology is clear that implants need regular brushing, flossing and professional check ups, because peri-implant disease can destroy the bone around an implant long after it has integrated.
Call your dentist or oral surgeon if
- Any movement of the implant at any point in the process
- Pain or swelling that increases after day 3, or returns weeks later
- Pus, a persistent bad taste, or a bad smell at the site
- Fever or swollen lymph nodes in the neck
- Gum around the implant that is red, tender, or bleeds when brushed
- Numbness in the lip or chin that does not resolve
- Being told the implant is ready to load much earlier than planned without an explanation you understand
Related questions
Can I get teeth in a day?
Some patients can get a temporary restoration on the day of surgery, but that requires enough primary stability at placement and is a case by case decision. The final crown still waits for osseointegration, so same day teeth means same day temporary teeth.
Why is my friend's implant faster than mine?
Almost always bone. Dense lower jaw bone in a healed site integrates near three months. Soft upper back jaw bone, a fresh extraction site, or a graft all push the timeline out, and none of that is under your control.
How many appointments will I have?
Typically four to six for a straightforward single implant: consult and scan, placement, a healing check, a stability check with abutment and impressions, and crown fitting. Grafting adds at least one surgical visit and one review.
Sources
- Dental Implants (Cleveland Clinic)
- Different loading strategies of dental implants: a Cochrane systematic review of randomised controlled clinical trials (PubMed)
- Long-term (10-year) dental implant survival: A systematic review and sensitivity meta-analysis (PubMed)
- Dental Implant Procedures (American Academy of Periodontology)
- Implants (American Dental Association (MouthHealthy))
Reviewed against the sources above on 2026-08-25. General information only, not dental advice. Your own provider's aftercare instructions come first.
Keep reading
Dental implant healing runs in three stages. Soft tissue heals over the first 1 to 2 weeks, osseointegration (bone fusing to the implant) takes roughly 3 to 6 months and can run as long as 9 months, and then the abutment and final crown are fitted over another few weeks. If you needed a bone graft or sinus lift first, add several more months before the implant is even placed.
Osseointegration is the process where living jawbone grows directly onto the surface of a titanium implant and locks it in place. It takes roughly three to six months for most people, and Cleveland Clinic gives a range of three to nine months depending on how you heal. Dense lower jaw bone integrates faster than soft upper jaw bone. It happens silently, so feeling fine after two weeks tells you nothing about whether it is complete.
There are three standard options. Immediate placement puts the implant into the socket during the same appointment as the extraction. Immediate-delayed or early placement waits a few weeks to about two months for the gum to heal. Delayed placement waits until the bone has healed, commonly three to six months. Cochrane found there is not enough evidence to declare one clearly better, so the choice comes down to your infection status, bone volume and your surgeon's judgement.
It depends on whether the graft was done before the implant or alongside it. A staged graft placed first typically needs about three to six months to mature before the implant goes in, which adds that time to the front of your treatment. A small graft placed at the same time as the implant often adds little or nothing, since it matures during the same osseointegration window. A sinus lift usually adds the most, often four to nine months.