Habits to Adopt (and Break) After Dental Implant Surgery

Tooth loss is more common and more serious than you might think. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) indicates that by the time Americans reach age 50, they’ve lost an average of 12 teeth.

Missing teeth affects how you feel about yourself and how you appear to others, to say nothing about its negative impact on your oral health. There’s no upside to losing teeth.

At Fluegge Family Dentistry in East Wenatchee, Washington, Dr. Matthew Fluegge and our team are experts at placing dental implants as one of several tooth restoration options. While implants look and function like your natural teeth, there are some habits you should adopt (and some you should break) following implant surgery. Here, the team explains more about both.

How dental implants improve your oral health

Titanium dental implants first appeared in 1965, but they’ve now become the gold standard for restoration due to their superiority over other options. They’re permanent, whole-tooth replacements that look and function like natural teeth.

Today’s implants use materials that follow international consensus standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or ASTM International. These standards contain specifics about what makes a material safe. 

While most dental implants are titanium or zirconium oxide, other materials may be used, including gold, cobalt, titanium alloys, or ceramic materials. All have well-known safety profiles.

Dental implants require time, unlike crowns and bridges, which we can place relatively quickly.

At your first appointment, Dr. Fluegge inserts the titanium screw into the tooth socket in the jawbone, where it serves as the new “root,” anchoring the visible parts of the tooth in the supporting bone. It’s a fairly quick office visit.

After that, you need to wait about 3-4 months for your mouth to heal and for osseointegration — the bone’s fusion with the screw — to take place.

Once healed, you return to the office for the second and much shorter part. Dr. Fluegge attaches an abutment (connector) to the screw and tops it with a custom-made bridge, dental crown, or overdenture — a full arch of acrylic teeth that snap onto the abutments to hold the teeth in place. 

If you choose an overdenture, you remove it every night to clean. You must also brush around the implants to ensure no food gets trapped.

Implants offer several advantages for your oral health:

• Acrylic in the crown/denture is acid- and decay-resistant
• Stable, strong, and permanent teeth fit your mouth and are well-aligned
• Fuse with your jawbone, acting as stable tooth roots
• Replicate the natural chewing pressure needed for jaw bone growth, preventing atrophy
• Don’t require extra care beyond standard brushing, flossing, and dental check-ups

And good oral health, with natural-looking implants, makes you more likely to smile and show the world how good they look.

Habits to adopt after dental implant surgery

There are a number of habits that will make your implants last you a lifetime.

1. Brush your implants gently twice a day. Use a small-head, soft-bristled manual or electric toothbrush to clean the tooth faces and the critical areas where the implants meet the gums. Interdental brush heads can reach those hard-to-reach spaces without scratching the implant’s surface.
2. Choose a low-abrasive, tartar-control toothpaste with fluoride.
3. Use a Waterpik® flosser or other oral irrigation system. These are ideal if you have trouble flossing, as they can eliminate hard-to-reach plaque, sticky biofilms, and inflammation. Some studies show that a water flosser works just as well as regular floss in removing plaque between teeth after a single use.
4. Use a mouth rinse with antimicrobial properties. If your gums are inflamed, try diluting an alcohol-free antimicrobial rinse with chlorhexidine gluconate. Both products are available by prescription and OTC. 
5. As you return to your usual diet, cut your food into small pieces rather than biting or ripping off large chunks with your teeth. With less stress, your implants will remain strong.
6. Schedule your next dental cleaning and keep it up twice yearly to keep your new teeth in great shape. It also gives us a chance to make sure everything is okay.

Habits to break after dental implant surgery

1. Avoid toothpaste marked “whitening” or “brightening” and those that contain baking soda or activated charcoal. Stain-removing toothpastes are too abrasive for the new teeth.
2. Never use your teeth as tools, such as opening packaging, bottles, or cans. The implants may buckle with the stress, and you’ll crack the teeth.
3. Once the bone fuses with the implant, your tooth will regain strength, but you should still avoid popcorn kernels, ice, gummies, hard candies, taffy, caramel apples, and seeds.
4. Never smoke. If you’re a smoker, quit before the surgery. It’s one of the most significant contributing factors to various dental problems and failed healing.

Are you thinking about getting dental implants but aren’t sure how to care for them? Fluegge Family Dentistry can help. Call our office at 509-888-3384 to schedule an appointment or book online today.