Dental Implant Aftercare Tips
Published by
Gary Moynes
on
Dental implant aftercare is vital in order to maximise the lifetime of your implants, as well as providing secondary benefits like caring for your remaining teeth and maintaining dental hygiene. Just like with natural teeth, to keep your dental implants healthy for life it’s important to properly clean them every day and see a dental professional regularly.
Dental implant patients must pay closer attention to flossing and brushing below the gum line in order to protect the bone structure that secures the implanted tooth in the mouth. Proper brushing also protects the tooth crown itself from chips and cracks. Lifestyle factors that increase your risk of gum disease, or other dental problems,
should also be avoided to ensure that your implants last as long as possible.
Avoiding Gum Disease
Gum disease is caused by excessive plaque build-up, and is one of the most common causes of tooth loss in the UK. It can also have a big impact on the lifetime of your dental implants, and avoiding the build-up of plaque that can result in gum disease can make the difference for your implants!
To avoid the excessive build-up of plaque, and so avoid gum disease, the NHS recommends the following:
- Brushing your teeth for about 2 minutes last thing at night before you go to bed and on 1 other occasion every day. For maximum protection of your implants, make sure that you clean your teeth thoroughly.
- Flossing your teeth or using interdental brushes regularly – preferably daily, before brushing your teeth.
- Not smoking - Smoking is one of the most significant risk factors for gum disease
- Regularly visiting your dentist – at least once every 1 to 2 years, but more frequently if necessary.
Tooth Grinding
Grinding your teeth wears your teeth down, and is a major cause of teeth becoming chipped or cracked over time. As most tooth grinding occurs at night, you may not even be aware of the damage it is doing to your teeth - and dental implants are even more susceptible to this kind of damage.
The best way to protect your teeth from damage due to tooth grinding is to wear a special dental appliance at night. This appliance is small and discrete, but highly effective at reducing grinding and eliminating the damage to your teeth caused by it. For more information on tooth grinding, and what solutions might be right for you, consult your dentist.
A Healthy Diet
One key to a healthy diet and for healthier teeth is the reduction of sugar, particularly what experts call ‘free sugar’ (or sugar which isn’t naturally occurring in the food - Sugar found naturally in milk, fruit and vegetables does not count as ‘free sugar’).
Limiting the amount of sugar you eat and drink is vitally important in preventing tooth decay. Sugars can be avoided by reducing intake of foods and drinks such as sweets, chocolate, cakes and biscuits, sugary drinks (including soft drinks, fizzy drinks, milky drinks with added sugar, and alcohol) fruit juice (including unsweetened fresh fruit juice and smoothies), sugary breakfast cereals, jams, marmalades, honey and syrups, ice cream and sorbets, dried fruit or fruit in syrup, syrups and sweet sauces.