With the right care, dental implants can last a lifetime. Here are five tips that you can follow to help you to care for your new teeth.
1. Brush Gently
Dental implants are not sensitive like natural teeth, which means that it can be difficult to tell how hard you are brushing them. Applying too much pressure to dental implants can lead to tiny scratches appearing in their surfaces, dulling their appearance. To avoid this problem, invest in an electric toothbrush with a pressure sensor to tell you when you need to back off.
2. Use Fluoride Toothpaste
Regular toothpaste with fluoride is the best choice for cleaning your teeth when you have dental implants, particularly if you have a mixture of implants and natural teeth. The fluoride in the paste strengthens natural tooth enamel, therefore helping to preserve the original teeth you still have. Meanwhile, the foaming agents in the paste create a lather that is perfect for scrubbing stains away from your dental implants. Avoid natural toothpaste recipes, which sometimes contain abrasive ingredients that can damage your implants.
3. Floss Daily
If you thought that getting dental implants meant an end to daily flossing, you're in for a disappointment. Flossing is still essential to remove small pieces of food from the spaces around and between your dental implants, therefore preventing bacteria from using them as a source of energy. You can use string floss, dental picks, or a water flosser — the tool doesn't matter as long as you make flossing a part of your daily dental hygiene routine.
4. Stimulate Your Gums
Good blood flow in the gums is essential to help your dental implants integrate into the bone and soft tissue. You can improve blood flow by using the gum massage mode that is present on many brands of electric toothbrush. Chewing fibrous food can also help to promote good blood flow to the gums, as well as keeping your jaw bone strong and healthy.
5. Avoid Smoking and Drinking
Cigarette smoke and alcohol are both harmful for people who have dental implants. The chemicals in cigarette smoke reduce the body's capacity to heal, which could mean that you have a much longer recovery period from your dental implant surgery if you smoke. Meanwhile, drinking alcohol reduces the likelihood of dental implants fully integrating into the gums and jaw bone. Try to ditch both habits, or at least cut back, to give your dental implants a good chance of success.
For more information about dental implants, contact a dentist.
Share25 November 2020
When I had my first child, I was a nervous wreck. Every book I read gave different advice, and I just wanted to be right! By the time I had my third child, some of the stress had abated. I now realised, there were tons of different perspectives on everything related to raising children including dentistry. To help parents, I have created this blog dedicated to unraveling dental myths about children. I am including posts that weigh both sides of issues such as thumb sucking, dental caries, breastfeeding, flossing and any other topic I can think of. I hope you find the information you need to unravel dental myths, but most importantly, I hope you find some peace of mind. With kids and dentistry, there can be more than one right answer, and I want you to be able to relax and go with the answer that's right for you.
