When you get your dental implants, you’ll be stunned by how similar they are to your natural teeth. The fact that they’re actually connected to your jaw gives them stunning stability and realism, something that can be hard to replicate with other methods of tooth replacement.
Another useful thing about dental implants is that they can be cleaned just like your regular teeth—with regular brushing and flossing. However, the way that you floss your dental implant will be a little bit different, and you could face problems if you do it incorrectly. Here’s what you should know.
The Difference Between Dental Implants and Teeth
The reason why your flossing has to change is because your dental implants aren’t connected to your gums in the same way as your natural teeth are. The latter are attached to the surrounding gums by thin ligaments, while the former are sealed off from the outside by an artificial seal.
While both are strong enough to protect the interior of your gums from the outside, the dental implant seal doesn’t have nerve endings in it. This means that if you were to break this barrier, you wouldn’t be aware of it—bacteria would be able to penetrate deep beneath the gums without you being any the wiser.
How to Floss Dental Implants
For this reason, it’s heavily recommended that you avoid pressing far beneath the gum ridge when you floss. If you do this too often, you might accidentally break the seal connecting your gums to your dental implant, making you susceptible to infection.
Making it Easy
At first, this can be a challenge if you aren’t used to flossing this way. Patients with mobility issues in particular might struggle to clean in between the teeth without pushing down to guide themselves.
There are several options that can help you; floss threaders are capable of guiding the dental floss in between your teeth much more easily. There are also interdental brushes that can scrub between your teeth, and oral irrigators that use pressurized water to clean the gums.
It might be worth asking your dentist to recommend alternatives if you’ve found that it’s difficult to clean between your dental implants unassisted.
About Our Practice
At Family Dental Center of East Texas, we know that your oral health touches every part of your life. That’s why we do everything that we can to make taking care of your teeth as easy as it can possibly be, both in and out of our office. We also know that dental implants can seem difficult to take care of, so we’ll be happy to show you firsthand that there’s nothing to be intimidated by.
If you have any questions about dental implants, we can be reached at our website or by phone at (936) 427-9070.