After you have dental implants, it’s important to keep your teeth and gums clean to prevent gum disease and to maximize the chances of your implants remaining healthy and properly anchored. However, you should ask your dentist about the most appropriate tools to use for brushing and flossing as your implants heal.
Caring for Your Implants after Surgery
Immediately after surgery, it’s important to follow your dentist’s instructions to care for your implants as well as your incisions. The implants need time to heal, and the bone needs time to bond to the new artificial tooth roots. Using an electronic toothbrush during this initial healing period could interfere with the bonding process, since it causes vibrations in the tooth roots.
Initially, you probably won’t be able to brush at all. Talk to your dentist about how to clean your mouth and teeth until the incisions in your gums heal. Rinsing with warm salt water helps reduce the likelihood of infection and also helps clean bacteria out of the mouth. When you are able to brush again, brush gently. If you’re accustomed to using an electric toothbrush, ask your dentist when it’s appropriate to use it again on a regular basis.
Caring for Your New Implants
In the long term, you should clean your teeth regularly by brushing and flossing. Even though your new teeth won’t suffer from decay, any remaining teeth could, and it’s very important to keep your gums healthy when you have dental implants. You might need to see your dentist more often than usual to monitor your healing and the health of your gums. If you have a denture that’s held in place by implants, you need to be sure it also remains clean. You should also floss around the abutments of your implants to keep them free of plaque and food debris.
Maintaining good oral hygiene is an important part of ensuring the long-term success of your implants. After healing is complete and your dentist gives the okay, you can return to using your electronic toothbrush.
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