The Care of Dental Implants

 

Oral Hygiene

Proper care of your implants is important to their continued function and good health. While they are not subject to cavities as our natural teeth are, they can develop gum inflammation, and even infection and bone loss if not properly maintained.

Whereas localized inflammation and infection around your teeth is known as periodontal disease, a similar process can occur around the implants and is known as peri-implantitis. At the Penrith Dental Implant Centre we will ensure you are shown and understand the proper techniques for keeping your implants clean and the surrounding tissues healthy — but above all else, brushing and flossing is necessary. We will also show you other tools like Water Flosser that can help keep your teeth and implants clean and healthy.

 

Implant Maintenance checks

Your “new teeth” will require periodic 6 monthly checking to ensure the surrounding gums and bone are maintained and healthy. To monitor and evaluate the level of bone around your implants periodic x-rays are required. The dental restorations attached to your implants will also require periodic checking to verify that they are secure and functioning properly.

It is rare but the screws that attach your restoration to the actual implants or abutments may loosen over time. This usually entails simply removing the dental restoration, cleaning it and replacing it with new or re-tightened screws. Similarly, if your dental restoration is cemented to the underlying implant, they may also loosen periodically. If this happens, we will need to remove the restoration, clean it, ensure that it fits as designed and re-cement it to the implant. While these are minor complications, however inconvenient, and they should not be ignored. Allowing the restoration to remain in place when it is not properly attached to the implant can create more significant problems.