Caring for Your Dental Implants: Tips for Long-Term Success

Dental implants are the gold standard dentist-recommended solution for replacing missing teeth permanently. Dental implants are the only restoration that helps replace missing or damaged teeth from their roots to the crown.

Over half a million Americans have dental implants and are happy with them because they appear, feel, and function like natural teeth. Implants do not require expensive maintenance as long as you care for them like your natural teeth. In addition, implanted teeth do not attract tooth decay.

Information that implants are easy to care for should not make you confident to neglect your dental hygiene practices. If you want to keep your implanted teeth for as long as possible after making considerable investments in your smile, it helps if you follow the tips for long-term success mentioned in this article. After getting a dental implant to replace your missing teeth, you wouldn’t want to search for additional replacement options, would you?

What Are Dental Implants

Dental implants are a solution for replacing missing teeth entirely from their roots to the dental crown visible in your mouth. Biocompatible titanium posts embedded in your jawbone represent a dental implant that integrates with your body to replace your missing natural tooth root to provide a stable base for your artificial tooth.

After getting implants surgically embedded in your jawbone from dental implants in Spring, TX, expect the osteointegration process to be complete in approximately three to six months, depending on your dental and overall health. The recovery time may appear lengthy, but it is worth the wait because you receive artificial teeth appearing natural and functioning similarly after you recover.

After completing the osteointegration process, you receive a custom-created dental crown fabricated from porcelain over the implant to function as your artificial missing tooth.

How to Maintain Dental Implants?

After getting your missing teeth replaced with implants, you will undoubtedly express joy and happiness at having your mouth functionality restored and enjoy eating the foods you love and smiling at everyone around you. However, the Spring dentist recommends you maintain the implants by following the below-mentioned tips to ensure you succeed with implants as the dentist suggests.

Why Is Maintenance of Dental Implants Essential?

The material of the dental implant embedded in your jawbone is biocompatible titanium, and the tooth mounted atop it is fabricated from porcelain, making them invulnerable to tooth decay like natural teeth. However, it does not indicate they will remain resistant to harm.

Improper maintenance can damage the titanium post and the porcelain dental crown, making it essential to remain cautious. For example, using abrasive products can cause implant and crown corrosion. In addition, although you stay free from cavities, the surrounding gum tissue remains vulnerable to gum disease, an inflammatory infection that results from dental plaque buildup around your teeth, enabling the harmful bacteria in your mouth to expand beneath the gum line to weaken your jawbone.

If left untreated, the condition can progress to advanced periodontitis or peri-implantitis, resulting in bone loss, implant failure, and impacting the adjacent teeth making it crucial to care for the implanted teeth with your natural ones.

The dentist near you suggests the following tips for the maintenance of dental implants. They are:

• Brush Your Teeth Twice Daily: with dental implants, you must aim to brush all angles of the restoration without being aggressive. It would help if you did not allow your gums to recede and expose the titanium post.
• Brushing with a Soft-Bristled Toothbrush: to avoid brushing aggressively, it helps if you use a soft-bristled toothbrush, whether manual or electric, for best results.
• Non-Abrasive Toothpaste: It helps if you use a non-abrasive toothpaste for brushing because it prevents damage to the dental crown and your natural teeth. Do not consider using whitening toothpaste because they are abrasive.
• Flossing: you must aim to keep the dental implant and your gums safe by using unwaxed floss designed for dental implants.
• Water Flosser: water flossers are excellent for reducing inflammation, bleeding, and reaching difficult-to-reach spots.
• Avoiding Damaging Practices: the porcelain dental crown is incredibly durable but can chip or break, making it essential to avoid chewing on ice, hard candies, fingernails, pens, and pencils and wearing a night guard if affected by bruxism.

After receiving a dental impulse to replace missing teeth from The Smile Designer of Spring, you can extend the longevity of the placements by caring for them appropriately using the tips mentioned above. Therefore if you are missing teeth and are considering replacing them with dental implants, kindly schedule a meeting with the Spring dentist to receive a replacement lasting you for life with proper care.