Home care for your Dental Implants

Good oral hygiene must take place before, during, and after placement of dental implants to ensure the health of the implant. Care for your dental implants just as well as you would care for your natural teeth. The tissue surrounding the implant should appear pink, firm, and keratinized with no signs of infection. Thorough oral hygiene is necessary to prevent diseases around the implants. With proper home care and regular professional maintenance, you can keep your new teeth throughout life.

Nylon coated interdental brushes/ proxabrushes are excellent to clean around implants. Apply with resistence to effectively dislodge plaque and rests of food. For optimal cleaning, it is important to choose an interdental brush of the right size. The gaps may vary, so you may need more than one size. Use the largest size of interdental brush that easily fits smoothly between your teeth, without it feeling tight. Band proxabrush in 90 degree angle for easy application and access in the back teeth. If you clean your interdental spaces every day, plaque never gets the chance to harden into tartar.

If the wire of the interdental brush does not suit you, try to use soft plastic interdental brushes without the wire called “Soft Picks”.

To floss the implant, use implant-specific floss in order to protect the tissue surrounding the implant. This floss called superfloss.  Insert the stiff end of the superfloss in the gap in between the teeth. Wrap in a circle and crisscross in front, switch hands, and move in a shoe-shine motion or in a back and front movement under the gumline. Research shows that using a tufted floss with a lassoing, circumferential technique (a 360-flossing motion) is the most effective method to disrupt the biofilm subgingivally. You can also use a floss threader to slide the superfloss more easily into the gap between. The floss threader looks like a needle.

Solo (single or end-tufted) brush helps clean better along the gum line. Brush without toothpaste. Holding the brush like a pencil will make it easy to use. Gently clean with circular movements. Don´t scrub. Follow the gum line.

Water picks (tooth showers), also known as oral water irrigators, are suitable for massage of the gums.