Dental implants are an excellent restoration option for patients who suffer from tooth loss. They stimulate healthy jawbone growth, and their tooth-colored aesthetic makes differentiating them from your natural teeth impossible.
Beyond enriching your smile, dental implants will boost your self-confidence because you won’t have to worry about them sliding or shifting around in your mouth while you eat and socialize, like dentures.
Use Gentle Products
One of the many advantages of dental implants is their natural care regimen. You clean them the same way you clean your natural teeth—with daily brushing and flossing. We recommend brushing after meals and snacks as well, but that applies to both, dental implants and your natural teeth.
When caring for dental implants, we advise our patients to choose soft, non-abrasive hygiene products. If you avoid this advice, you could scratch your implant and irritate the soft gum tissue that surrounds them.
Choosing the Right Toothbrush & Toothpaste
Selecting a toothbrush that’s ideal for dental implants boils down to finding one with soft or extra soft bristles. The soft bristles will decrease your chances of scratching the porcelain crown or titanium implant. Both electric and traditional toothbrushes are acceptable, as long as you brush for the correct amount of time and cover all surfaces of your teeth.
Regarding toothpaste, we recommend avoiding any that contain harsh ingredients to protect your implant and its surround gums. Abrasive ingredients are found in whitening toothpaste, as well as any that include baking soda. Baking soda—when used continuously—can damage your enamel. Furthermore, baking soda lacks fluoride, which prevents cavities by strengthening your teeth.
Selecting Appropriate Dental Floss
Moving on, the next oral hygiene product to think about is dental floss. Daily flossing is crucial for maintaining good dental health. It removes plaque and debris from hard-to-reach spots that your toothbrush can’t reach. As you floss with dental implants, be sure to use nylon-coated floss because it’s designed to glide against your teeth and gums, minimizing the risk of damaging your implant. Multiple companies sell floss that’s used solely with dental implants.
Picking the Ideal Mouthwash
Finally, the last hygiene product we’ll discuss is antibacterial mouthwash, which helps your mouth fend off unwanted bacteria and gum disease. For the same reason that we recommended avoiding whitening toothpaste, the same goes for whitening mouthwash. Furthermore, mouthwash that contains alcohol can cause dry mouth—saliva is your mouth’s first line of defense when fighting off dangerous bacteria.