Dental implants: how to care for your new implant

Dental implants are designed to last around 15 years if cared for properly. However, many people overlook proper dental hygiene, and this often carries on when they receive a dental implant. It is likely that your dental implants won’t live out its optimal lifespan if not cared for properly, so it is vitally important that you take the steps to ensure your dental implants are able to work efficiently over its desired lifespan.

Follow these tips to ensure healthy dental implants:

1. Use a specially-designated brush

Dental technology has come a long way in the 21st Century, and now you pick up specialised brushes that are designed to clean teeth and gums that have implants in them. These specialised brushes are designed to reach the areas of the mouth your everyday supermarket toothbrush can’t, and they are a great option for people looking to care for their Dental Implants Perth.

As per usual, you should aim to brush your teeth at least twice a day for around two minutes each time, taking care to brush each area of the mouth, including the gums and where the gums and teeth connect.

2. Avoid sticky foods

Sticky foods like caramels, toffee, chocolates, gum, jerky etc. can yank at the teeth and compromise the implant’s structure. This can potentially make it weaker, something that should always be avoided if you want to maintain the implant’s structural integrity.

It’s also a good idea to avoid hard foods that could potentially break your teeth - teeth breakage typically only leads to needing more implants in the future and should therefore be minimised.

3. Avoid smoking & limit alcohol

Smoking is bad for your implant on two levels:

A: It is bad for your oral health, which in turn impedes on the implant’s recovery time, and;

B: It can potentially compromise the bone structure in the mouth which is important for oral health.

Whilst the occasional alcoholic beverage is fine, drinking too much alcohol is bad for your overall oral hygiene and can have negative results for your implant and teeth in general.

4. Continue to floss

Regardless of whether you have a dental implant or not you should be flossing at least once a day. However, this is emphasised when you have a dental implant, as you don’t want to allow plaque and food particles to build up around the implant (which could cause problems for other teeth in the area).

So, continue to floss once a day to maintain the health of your dental implant. And teeth health in general.

5. Keep heading to your dentist

After a procedure like a dental implant, it’s important to head back to your dentist once in a while to ensure that your dental implant is getting the job done. You may be able to tell if there is a problem with your implant, but your dentist will certainly be able to pinpoint if it is doing its intended job.

So, keep up the occasional appearance at your trusted dentist and they will be able to tell you if your dental implant is working efficiently.

See, caring for your teeth post-dental implant isn’t the most difficult thing. It just comes down to a series of tasks that you would typically do if you didn’t have the implant. However you might want to be more diligent about ensuring these minor tasks are completed to maintain your implant’s health!

If you're looking at replacing missing teeth with dental implants, you can check out this dentist in Sunnyside to get started.