So you’ve got a Dental Implant hooray!! These little guys are the closest things to your natural teeth you’re going to get. They are expensive yes and you’ve also invested a lot of your time in appointments getting this dental implant as well. As part of my job role I’m going to coach you in protecting your investment. Lucky you.

There’s a lot to go over here so settle in and remember if you need to ask me any questions you can message me via the contact us section of the website or via a DM on my Instagram account.

Now, there are a lot of old wives tales going round about implants and the biggest and baddest couple seem to be that once you get dental implants

You no longer need to visit the Dentist
You no longer need to take care of your teeth at home

Hopefully before you have had your implants placed your Dentist has stressed the importance of attending regularly and cleaning your dental implants properly but just to clarify this once and for all….

You will need to spend more time on these little beauties than you have ever spent on anything (ok, I’m exaggerating but they need a hell of a lot of TLC)
You will need to find and see a Dental Hygienist very regularly, usually a minimum of 4 times a year
You will need to keep seeing your Dentist and usually, if you didn’t have your implants fitted at your usual dental practice, the Dentist who placed them unless they say otherwise

Pretty different wouldn’t you agree?

So many of my patients now have dental implants, some of you guys have been seeing me for years - hello and thankyou, some of you guys maybe saw me for the first time today and are checking out this blog post - hello and thankyou to you too :)

I thought it would be a good idea to put together some guidelines for looking after your implants to either

Summarise what we have went over at your appointment, and lets face it sometimes there is a LOT to go over

Look back on if you’re not too sure
Give you an idea of what you should be doing even if you’ve never seen me before but have some dental implant(s) and would like to take care of them as best as you can - although if this is the case I would always recommend visiting a Dental Hygienist as you will probably need a pretty bespoke routine

So first things first, 20% of implants will fail. Fact. Given the amount of dental implants that are placed around the world on a daily basis this is a LOT of dental implants.

An implant is essentially a titanium screw which sits in bone and is covered by gum. When the time comes and your Dentist/Implantologist is happy with the implant they will attach a dental crown or bridge or something called an abutment which can hold in a denture. Without bone being present we have nothing holding the implant screw, which means the bits we can see, the crown/bridge/denture could be lost along with all the money and time we have spent on them. Not ideal.

When we loose the bone around the implant it means that the implant is failing or has failed, like we were talking about up above, that scary 20%. Now, sometimes dental implants will fail due to circumstances that are beyond our control. But a lot of the time poor oral hygiene (even just average oral hygiene) is the culprit so we want to prevent this where possible and a guaranteed way of reducing the risk of your implant(s) failing is by improving your plaque control at home.

Dental implants need to be cleaned thoroughly everyday if not twice a day.

They are made of different substances than natural teeth
They are shaped differently than natural teeth
They will react to plaque differently than natural teeth do

So we simply CAN’T treat them like we would our natural teeth (and lets face it some people don’t treat their natural teeth very well to begin with).

When plaque sits around the gum line of a dental implant it will cause inflammation and bleeding. This is called Implant Mucositis, now don’t get bamboozled by the name, this is a lot like Gingivitis which occurs due to plaque sitting at the gum line of a natural tooth and luckily both of these conditions are completely reversible with a change in your oral hygiene routine at home. Good news.

Now, if this plaque sits at the gum line of your dental implant(s) for long enough without us changing our habits and cleaning the area better, we will start to lose the bone that holds the implant in place. This is called Peri-Implantitis which is pretty much Gum Disease that happens around an implant rather than a natural tooth. This process is irreversible. Not good. To add insult to injury, unlike Gum Disease which usually happens over a fairly long period of time, this can happen quite quickly around a dental implant.

Just like Gingivitis is the first step to Gum Disease in natural teeth, Implant Mucositis is the first step to Peri-Implantitis around dental implants so it’s very important that we either prevent this or nip it in the bud as soon as it starts around implants and a gold standard oral hygiene routine at home is the only way to do this.

But fear not because I bring you the DENTAL IMPLANT CARE KIT (applause, hooray , fanfare) a list of products which you can use some of, and ideally all of, to clean your dental implants properly and hopefully help to avoid problems with your dental implants in the future.

I don’t get paid to talk about any of these products and this is not an advertisement. Some have been gifted to me which I will mention as and when, and I have left some clickable links in the pictures below.

In your kit you will need…

1) Toothbrush

Alright, I’m hopefully stating the obvious here, but with dental implants and your natural teeth you need to be:

Brushed twice a day
Everyday
For 2 minutes, timed either using the built in timer with your toothbrush or a separate timer eg on your phone
Keeping the toothbrush at a 45 degree angle of the gum line so you are gently brushing your gums as well as the tooth or implant surface
Without applying too much pressure so you minimise the chances of causing your gums to recede.
Changing your electric toothbrush head or manual toothbrush every 3 months

I’ve got some more information on toothbrushing techniques on this on a different blog post which I will link here. I would say about 90% of patients I see tend to get on better with an electric toothbrush, you can see some of my favourite ones, which have been gifted to me, at the end of my 12 Dental Products of Christmas blog but if you would prefer to use a manual toothbrush its hard to go wrong with the Curaprox 5460 which I’ve blogged about here - again these have been gifted.

2)X-Floss/X-Floss lite

This is my absolute go to product for cleaning dental implants, it’s a bit fiddly, ok very fiddly. Yesterday I spent 10 minutes using XFloss to clean a dental implants for ONE patient so also you need to give yourself plenty of time and don’t do it when you’re rushing out the door.

Dental implants are kind of like mini bridges, especially when you add a crown the size of a molar on top of the implant screw so you need to get right underneath this crown an the XFloss is perfect for this. I usually like to demonstrate this for my patients around they actual implants so they can see how to do it in the mirror properly so you know exactly what to do but the basics are:

Thread the floss through the gap between your tooth and your implant or between your implants
Move the thicker blue/green area of the floss along the edge of the crown at the gum line to disturb the plaque

I’ll leave this video here which will hopefully make the process a bit clearer, it shows you how to clean an implant bridge too. Oral B Super floss does a similar job to Xfloss and XFloss lite so if its all you can find use it in exactly the same way. Again pick what is in your budget, XFloss as a brand can be a bit more expensive. It just comes down to personal preference for me, I prefer the XFloss and so do most of my patients. Its also great to soak the floss in a chlorhexidine based mouthwash like Corsodyl Daily before you use it to get a bit of extra anti-bacterial action going on. Always check for allergies though, and any taste disturbances or strange sensations in your mouth stop using the mouthwash. Bare in mind as well that it can also cause some staining.

3) A Single Tufted Brush

These are especially helpful if you have an dental implant closer to the front of your mouth (an anterior implant). I have had these gifted to me by several different brands.

4)Universal Care Brush

This brush used to be only for dental implants but it was rebranded because it was so useful. I get my patients to use this for everything but it is especially good for implants closer to the back of your mouth (posterior implants). Implants are more tulip shaped than the more bulbous natural tooth so they don’t always sit flush alongside natural teeth. Even a gap of 1mm can mean that the gum line of your implant is missed by even the fanciest electric toothbrush so these brushes really can make all the difference. Oh and you don’t need toothpaste, just use them as they are and replace every 3 months

5) Toothpaste

I usually get asked which toothpaste I would recommend for dental implants, in my experience and after listening to several leaders in the field at conferences etc we’re all a bit back and forward about it, some say SLS free, some not. My advice would be pick a toothpaste that works for your natural teeth, for example if you have tooth sensitivity, pick a toothpaste that will help you with that and if in doubt speak to your Dental Hygienist or Dentist about which is the best one for you.

You can read some more about single tufted and universal care brushes in my blog post Above & Beyond Brushing but i think this video from the blog is really helpful so I’ll leave it below.

6) Waterflosser

These can be real dental implant savers, especially if you find using the Xfloss or the Single Tufted Brush/Universal Care Brush difficult to use or can’t devote the time to doing it. Again I have an entire blog post dedicated to these which I will link here . The Waterpik 560-UK Cordless Advanced water flosser is my favourite which I purchased at a trade show and is retailling at about £90 but lots of different companies make these at various price points. My advice would be to go for something cordless and rechargeable. Waterpik water flossers have a plaque search tip which along with the pulsating water, agitates the gum line around the implant helping to remove plaque and debris and used before brushing should reduce plaque, bleeding and inflammation around you dental implant. Takes a bit of practice but definitely worth it in the long run.

7) Interdental Brushes

Probably something you should do as well as what we have already talked about. Generally my patients who have the least amount of problems with their dental implants aren’t just using interdental brushes alone, but I’ve added them in here because a lot of you are using them already and they will still remove a lot of plaque from the surfaces of your implant. The issue again is the shape of the dental implant, so you still need the single tufted brush/universal care brush/XFloss/Water flosser to keep the area completely plaque free. If you have just had your dental implants placed I would 100% recommend resizing the interdental brushes with your Dental Hygienist because we will probably need to change some of your brushes or add an extra brush into your routine. Lots of different brands available, again pick one thats in your budget.

Ta-Da! The complete toolkit for looking after your dental implants. Its also really important to look after your oral hygiene in general because plaque bacteria can jump around different areas of your mouth, so its all well and good keeping the implant clean, but if other areas are covered in plaque it could all be for nothing. Luckily, you can use all of these products to clean your natural teeth, crowns and bridges too so no excuses! Again if you’re unsure speak to your Dental Hygienist or Dentist.

So there you have it, kind of a clip show blog on looking after your dental implant. Hopefully, even if you haven’t had time to read all the links to the other blogs this will still give you a good overview and a reminder of what we have talked about at your appointment. Yes, its going to cost you quite a lot of money to get this toolkit going and if you need to get bits of it in stages thats ok. Yes, its going to take a lot more time to do this all properly and you just have to MAKE THE TIME, everyday, to help avoid problems with your dental implants. Oh and visit your Dental Hygienist regularly, every 3 months if you can.

Protect the investment you’ve already made, yes dental implants are expensive and to do this all might seem like an additional expense financially and in the actual time you spend on them but there’s no getting around it. In the long term though, dental implants are the most cost effective option and the closest thing to your natural teeth. They’re great :) they just need plenty of TLC.

Happy cleaning :). Any questions message me or you can make an appointment to see me at Moira Cosmetic Dental or Bupa Dental Care Glengormley.