I Have a Dental Implant... What Now?
We have the privilege of placing hundreds of dental implants each year. Once we are happy with the integration of the implant with the body, we teach our patients how to take good care of their implants at home. If you have an implant and you need a refresher, keep reading!
Brushing
Brushing your teeth when you have a dental implant should be very similar to how you brush your regular teeth. Make sure you brush each surface - inside, outside, and chewing surfaces - using the techniques you can find in our previous blog here. We recommend both manual and electric toothbrushes, so long as you are using the right techniques, and a fluoridated toothpaste.
Flossing
Flossing your dental implant is a little different to flossing your other teeth, but it is imperative if you want to make sure it lasts as long as possible. We teach our patients a technique called ‘360 Flossing’. As shown in the picture opposite, you want to wrap the floss all the way around the implant and gently pull the floss back and forth, working your way around the entire implant. We also recommend that you avoid any flosses with fibres that can get stuck between your teeth - or ‘furry floss’ as we call it.
Maintenance Appointments
We recommend that our patients return for an implant maintenance appointment at least every 1-2 years (or more frequently in special circumstances). This is to do a deep clean under the gum with a special plastic or titanium scaler which won’t damage the surface of the implant. We will also sometimes take an X-ray image of the implant, ensuring that the bone around it still looks healthy. Doing these things also means that the implant warranty remains valid!
Unfortunately when appointments are so spread out, it can be easy to fall off the wagon. So if you haven’t come back for a maintenance appointment for a while, we advise you to get in touch and book in as soon as possible on 09 524 2855.
Good luck!