How To Care for Dental Implants

Every year, 500,000 Americans discover that dental implants offer an effective, permanent, and natural-looking solution for tooth loss. They can reignite your long-lost smile, restore your ability to eat and speak naturally and confidently, and promote jaw bone growth and good oral health.

Dental implants have come a long way from 500 AD when history says that Mayan women had pieces of shell hammered into their jaw to replace missing teeth. Thanks to Swedish orthopedic surgeon P. I. Branemark’s 1951 discovery that titanium bonded naturally to human bone tissue, dental implants have been built using ever-improving titanium products.

Even the most advanced materials and technologies require proper care and maintenance to preserve their lifespan and functionality, though. In this article, we’ll tell you how to care for your dental implants in Davie.

Why is caring for dental implants important?

Regular oral care consisting of brushing, flossing, and routine dental appointments is essential for maintaining natural teeth and oral health. A regular routine of caring for your dental implants is just as important for two reasons.

First, your goal in receiving dental implants in Davie was likely to obtain a permanent solution for tooth loss that restored your natural function and smile. Regular care for your implants will preserve their potentially decades-long life span, and keep your renewed smile looking as natural and pristine as you envisioned. 

Second, keeping your implants clean can prevent the development of infections in your mouth. Patients with dental implants can experience an inflammatory condition called peri-implant mucositis that can develop into peri-implantitis. At its worst, peri-implantitis can result in the loss of your dental implant. 

What is the role of dental hygienists when it comes to implants?

The dental hygienists at your dentist in Davie have a role to play in caring for your dentures, and have the training experience to do so carefully and properly.  For example, the hygienists will not use scalers that they would ordinarily use on natural teeth, because those substances can scratch an implant. When caring for implants in Davie, hygienists use materials made of plastics and resins that produce the same results without any damage.

Your implant care routine will vary depending on your type of implant: single implants or overdentures.

Six steps for caring for single implants at home

There are six elements to caring for your single implants at home:

• Using a soft-bristled toothbrush, clean your implant at least twice each day
• When cleaning your implant, use a low-abrasive toothpaste
• Be thorough, remembering to brush under and around the implant crown
• For areas not reached effectively with a brush, use an interdental brush coated with nylon
• Just as with natural teeth, floss daily using floss specifically designed for implants or unwaxed tape
• If you use an oral irrigator — sometimes called water toothpicks or water flossers — use one your dentist recommends.

Six steps for caring for overdentures at home 

Caring for overdentures — dentures which clip onto and rest on titanium posts bonded to your jaw bone tissue — involves six different steps:

• Remove you dentures every day and soak them in a cleaner according to the product’s instructions
• Each time you remove your overdentures, look carefully at the o-rings, clips, and locator caps 
• If any o-ring, clip, or locator cap is missing, damaged, or worn, let a dental office near you know
• On an annual basis speak to a dentist near you about replacing the o-rings and locator caps
• Use a denture brush to gently brush the under-surface of the denture (where it meets your gums)
• Before replacing the dentures in your mouth, rinse them thoroughly with clean water.

When you chose to get implants in the first place, you probably made that decision with their long life-span and effective results in mind. You can preserve that life span, those results, and your oral health by caring for them carefully at home. If you have any questions, get in touch with a dentist to talk about dental implants in Davie.