How To Protect Your Dental Implants So They Last For Years

When you choose to invest in your oral health and have dental implants placed in your mouth, you will want to protect that investment. To do so effectively, there are a few key areas which you should pay attention to so you can keep your implants healthy and strong.

Careful Consumption Helps Protect Dental Implants

Since part of the large appeal of dental implants is that they look and perform just like your natural teeth, your consumption habits do not need to change drastically. There are just a few areas related to consumption where you may want to be careful.

• Hot drinks – This is less about your implant and more about overall discomfort. But if you like your drinks boiling hot, the metal post in your implant will quickly tell you that you need to ease of the heat. Worse case, you can cause inflammation at the site of your dental implant.
• Mixing hot and cold – The porcelain of the crown of your dental implant can expand and contract depending on the temperature. Don’t follow foods of temperature extremes up with each other, like a lava cake with ice cream. Let your implants adjust naturally or you risk cracking them.
• Improper application – Your teeth are not impromptu scissors, so don’t open things with them. You may also want to be careful around hard foods like corn nuts and dishes which may contain bones.

Tweak Your Oral Hygiene Routine

Oral hygiene is a large part of maintaining the longevity of your dental implants. Depending on what you are currently doing, you may have to make some adjustments to your current oral hygiene routine.

• Floss with care – Your natural teeth have pain receptors to warn you if you are flossing too hard. However, your dental implant has no such receptors to keep you from cracking the seal between your implant and your gumline. So while you do need to keep flossing, do so carefully around your dental implant.
• Nix vibrating toothbrush – While not all electric toothbrushes vibrate, many do vibrate to help loosen food particles. This isn’t a good idea for your dental implant as it is attached to a post in your jaw via a screw. To avoid loosening your implant, switch to a regular toothbrush or an electric one with a rotating head with no vibrating component.

Communicate With Dental Staff

Good communication with the staff in our dental office is vital when it comes to maintaining your oral health. Be sure that you:

• Tell your hygienist you have implants. They have special tools for cleaning around dental implants so that they don’t damage them.
• Let our dentist check the implant once a year. As you go in for your bi-annual dental cleaning, make sure your dentist checks your dental implant.

By taking some simple steps, you can help prolong the life of your dental implant and enjoy good oral health for years to come.