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3 Tips For Taking Care Of Your New Dental Implants

by Stella Robinson

If you have just recently undergone dental implant surgery, you probably know that you need to up your game when it comes to taking care of your dental health. However, because the implants are not your regular teeth, you may be unsure as to how to take care of them properly without causing damage, especially while the implantation sites heal. If so, use the following tips to help you take care of your new dental implants.

1.  Brush Your Teeth with a Soft Toothbrush

Before you received your implants, you may have used a medium- to hard-bristled toothbrush to clean your teeth. While that type of toothbrush may work well with your natural teeth, which are firmly implanted into your gums and have hard enamel, it will not work as well with new dental implants.

Especially in the days after your procedure, your gums will be tender, and the posts on which the implants rest will still be slightly loose until the tissue grows around them. If you use a medium or hard toothbrush, you run the risk of irritating your gums or possibly dislodging the posts.

Instead, swap out your old toothbrush for one with soft bristles. The bristles will be gentler on your gums, and they will give a little when you apply pressure while brushing so as not to disturb and move the posts around too much.

2.  Learn the Proper Way to Floss Around Implants

Even in the few days after your implant procedure, flossing your teeth is vital for keeping food from becoming lodged between them. This important step can help remove a potential food source for bacteria that could lead to infection of the procedure site.

However, if you are used to flossing in a way that the floss is inserted then pulled up between the teeth, you may run the risk of dislodging the implant. Because the implants have not settled into your mouth yet, the bottom edges may still be sticking out.

If you insert the floss and pull up, the floss may snag on the exposed edges, potentially ripping out the posts and implants together. If this were to happen, you would not only experience a great deal of pain, but you would also need to have the damage repaired and the implants reinserted.

Instead of using your old way of flossing, insert the floss, then pull it straight out from the base of your teeth along the gumline. This action will eliminate the pull-up so that the floss does not damage the implants.

3.  Use a Toothpaste That Will Not Scratch the Implants

Before getting your dental implants, you may have used a toothpaste that has some sort of abrasive as one of its ingredients. It may have had baking soda to help freshen your breath and scrape off tartar, or the paste may have been for whitening your teeth that included a micro-abrasive ingredient in the formula.

While this type of toothpaste may be acceptable for natural, healthy teeth, its abrasiveness is not appropriate for use with dental implants, especially while they are still new. As with the bristles on your brush, the abrasive may irritate your gums after the surgery, increasing your discomfort.

However, the abrasiveness of the toothpaste can also damage the implants themselves. Especially if they are constructed from porcelain, an abrasive toothpaste can scratch the surface and cause permanent damage. It is better to use a toothpaste with no abrasive in it or to use an implant-specific toothpaste that your dentist recommends.

Using the above tips can help you learn how to properly take care of your new implants while they take a firm hold in your mouth. If you require further information, contact the dental implants service where you had your procedure.

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