Are you suffering the embarrassment of broken or missing teeth or the discomfort of dentures? Do you often make a conscious effort to avoid smiling in public, and use other defence mechanisms to cover up the teeth? Not anymore. Dental implants are there to replace your damaged teeth or those gaps between the teeth with the most-natural-looking false teeth.
With the latest advancements in the teeth implantation techniques, dental implants have gained increasing acceptance for anchoring false teeth in the jaw bone. During the implantation, false root devices are planted into the jawbone to support a tooth, dentures, or even a whole row of missing teeth.
Dental implants can last longer than other methods of restoring damaged or lost teeth, such as dental bridges and dentures, but only if taken care of properly.
Implants are very durable and can last for well over a decade. If you take very good care of your implants, and keep your surrounding oral areas, including tongue, gums and cheek walls clean and healthy, your artificial teeth can serve you for a lifetime. Hence, following the surgery, it is important to ensure that you pursue vital oral hygiene habits, including brushing, flossing, and regular cleaning of newly implanted teeth.
Tips to Take Care of Your Dental Implants
If dental implants are taken care of as if they were natural teeth, then they tend to last for years, even for a whole lifetime. By following the below mentioned dental maintenance and safety tips, you can enjoy healthy and good-looking implanted teeth.
Take rest
Immediately after the dental implant surgery, your oral surgeon may ask you to take the rest of the day with your head elevated. It may be uncomfortable, but you should do your best to rest in order to have your implants heal correctly and quickly.
Clean Implants Every Time You Eat
You should be aware of the fact that implants feel and function like your natural teeth. So make it a habit to clean your new teeth after each meal in order to prevent infection and control bacterial biofilm. You can buy special dental instruments and brushes available in the market that can help you clean your restored set of artificial replacements in a better way, without damaging the implant’s surface. You must keep the mouth and tongue properly cleaned.
Flossing
Flossing is of utmost importance for the health of natural as well as the implanted teeth. After getting your new teeth, you should use gauze or special floss to cleanse the implanted teeth. Make sure that the implants are cleaned properly so that they continue functioning in a healthy way.
Regular Dental Check-Up
In order to keep your implants healthy and in good shape, periodic follow-up visits with the dentist is a must to make sure that your implants are not loose and that your other normal teeth and gums are healthy. Going for the checkup of your implanted artificial tooth or teeth twice in a year is recommended.
Follow your Dentist
It is of utmost importance that you follow the instructions carefully if any given by your dental surgeon after the teeth implantation.
Food and Drink
It’s perfectly okay to eat most foods after getting your new teeth implanted. But, avoiding chewing hard objects like ice and sticky foods like candies at least for a week following the implantation could be a wise idea.
To ensure the best possible outcome, you should limit your food intake to light meals like soup and yoghurt. Smoking and drinking any beverages through a straw immediately after the implants could be dangerous as both practices create suction that may pull your stitches.
Do you want to know more about Dental implants? Please refer to the Dental implant page… Click here.