Implant Restoration Care & Maintenance

Your implant Restoration is similar to your original tooth.  Each implant is a biologic restoration in that it extends from your bone through the gum and into the crown on top of the implant.  Just like a real tooth it can collect food, plaque and bacteria which all must be cleaned away.

There are multiple instruments you have available to you to accomplish this.

Flossing 

If normal flossing is possible just be sure to pull the floss a little under the implant crown. This is due to the fact that an implant is slight bit more narrow than your prior tooth’s root. Don’t force anything or use a sawing motion. Just smoothly move down under and out.  As you move on to the next tooth floss as ususual.

Inter Dental Brushes

If you have been given interdental brushes you should gently scrub once or twice with the correctly sized brush. We are recommending the TePe Interdental brushes which can be found here.

They are soft metal with a Teflon coating we find they are well made and reusable. When used properly they can help to prevent buildup implant and tooth harming bacterial colonies. Scanning the QR code will show you a short video lesson. These can be used for single teeth or bridges.

Spongy Floss (mainly for bridges)

Multiple companies make Spongy floss or Super Floss. This has one end that is firm and can be threaded between the teeth and then worked under a bridge. This cleans below the portion of the bridge that is suspended over but lightly touches the gum tissue. The QR code will give a short tutorial on proper threading and cleaning.

Water Flossers

WaterPik makes a few models of water flossers. The forced water can get into places that other methods cannot. These give you the ability to wash out food and bacteria from between teeth and from areas around an implant. Always aim the water stream perpendicular to tooth surfaces and not down into the gum tissue. The goal is to push unwanted buildup out toward the tongue not further into the gum sulcus.

Special Brushes

There are times when a certain shaped brush can help get into difficult areas. The dentist or hygienist will have discussed this with you. Feel free to ask us any questions if you are having any difficulties cleaning certain areas of an implant or any location within the mouth. Below is a link to TePe which is one of many companies that sell such products to help you maintain your dental implant.

https://www.tepeusa.com/products/tepe-implant-care-kit?variant=12434363154522