Implants Require Special Care
When properly looked after, dental implants can last a lifetime. As they require their own special cleaning techniques, we teach implant patients how to look after their dental implants and show them the special tools and techniques to use.
Implant-supported replacement teeth require professional cleaning just like natural teeth, and our hygienists are trained in implant cleanings. We recommend that a patient with dental implants gets two to three cleanings per year. One bonus: you won’t experience any sensitivity during your implant cleaning.
Can You Get Gum Disease Around Dental Implants?
Yes. This condition is called peri-implantitis and the causes and complications are slightly different than gum disease. The symptoms are similar to regular gum disease and typically include:
- An unpleasant taste in the mouth
- Discharge from the gum
- Bleeding when brushing
Peri-implantitis can’t be treated with regular deep cleaning, but we can treat it using our soft-tissue laser.
How soon can I return to work after cleaning or surgery?
How soon after cleaning or surgery can I go back to work? Exercise or fly? That’s a question that really depends on the treatment that you need. In the case of a deep cleaning, you can go to work the same day. You will be numb for about an hour after any area that we deep-clean. Any other areas that we treat with, say, an implant, typically, you can go to work the next day. Minimal pain. If we look at some of the more advanced procedures like gum grafting, tissue grafting, or bone grafting, sometimes those are associated with swelling, and so if there’s swelling, that might be a reason to take a day off or to have a little bit of recovery time.
