Dental Implant Maintenance

With proper maintenance of your new dental implant you should enjoy the feeling of eating what you want and the improved appearance of your smile for years to come. At the Oral Facial & Implant Centre our thorough initial consultation and implant planning will mean your dental implant will be placed in optimum bone, with optimum soft tissue collar and in the ideal functional and cosmetic position that is achievable in your mouth. 

Our commitment to you does not end after placement of the implant as we continue to care for you and support your restorative dentist in years to come to ensure you achieve the long-term predictable outcome Dr John Webster demands of his dental implant surgery.
Couple Smiling

How do I care for my dental implants in the Recovery Phase?

During the recovery phase of your dental implants you will experience common symptoms to all oral surgical procedures. See our post-op instructions section of this website for instructions of how to care for mouth post oral surgery.

Old couple smiling on the mirror while brushing teeth

After you have recovered from the initial surgery and you have completely healed you will enter the maintenance phase of your care pathway.

Looking after your implants is a simple procedure that requires regular home care and intermittent visits to your regular general Dentist or oral hygiene professional.

A single tooth implant only requires regular brushing and flossing as a similar routine to your natural teeth.

How do I care for my dental implants in Maintenance Phase?

A single tooth implant only requires regular brushing and flossing as a similar routine to your natural teeth. Your Dentist or Oral Hygienist may recommend a special implant cleaning brush or Piksters to enable effective cleaning between the implant and adjacent implant or teeth. A rubber tip gum stimulator is an important instrument used to trace gently around your gum line. With dental implants the soft tissue collar is never as tight as in the case with natural teeth therefore food debris can get stuck around the implant or tooth replacement and can lead to infection. One way the Oral Facial & Implant Centre assists is to ensure you have the right quality and quantity of soft tissue around the implant to produce the tightest soft tissue collar around your dental implant.


Multiple dental implants and full arch replacement like All-on-4® implants also require the brushing and flossing as above and also the use of a Waterpik® high-pressure water system twice a day to clean around the implant prosthesis (tooth replacement structure/denture). This must be done as the acrylic in the prosthesis used will accumulate plaque, calculus and stains which must be removed every few years and cleaned by your Dentist or Specialist Prosthodontist.


This suggested routine during the Maintenance Phase will add a little more time to your everyday oral hygiene routine, but the benefits of maintaining excellent oral hygiene will be the key to a long and pain-free experience with your dental implant investment.

What other issues can occur during the Maintenance Phase?

 

  • Loose Healing Abutment
  • Lost Healing Abutment
  • Broken Temporary Tooth Replacement Bridge/Crown
  • Loose Final Tooth Replacement Bridge /Crown
  • Fracture of Tooth Replacement
  • Fracture of Abutment
  • Fracture of Implant
  • Soft Tissue Infection
  • Peri-Implantitis

 

If any of the above occur during the Recovery or Maintenance Phase it is important to contact your Dentist or the Oral Facial & Implant Centre to seek urgent advice on how best to manage your issues as often early intervention can result in return to long term health of the dental implant.

What happens if you don’t follow the recommended care guidelines?

It is quite common for Dr John Webster to be asked to review patients suffering with complications of dental implants. If you don’t follow the care guidelines bacteria can build up between the soft tissue collar and the dental implant and tooth replacement materials and lead to peri-implantitis and loss of the dental implant.

The care guidelines help to reduce the incidence of complications and improve access to regular follow-up where any early problems can be addressed early. Overall the complication rate is low and the success of dental implants is quite high.

However with the rise of medical/dental tourism, use of inferior materials not approved by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) in Australia, increasing dental implant placement by inexperienced clinicians, placement in suboptimal bone and/or with suboptimal adjacent soft tissues, then it is expected that more and more patients referred to the Oral Facial & Implant Centre will be having issues and failure of expensive overseas complex treatments such as full-arch and All-on-4® type treatments.

Any warranty on the services completed at the Oral Facial & Implant Centre, and dental implant manufacturer warranty may be void if maintenance phase guidelines are not followed.

What is the Oral Facial & Implant Centre Care Philosophy?

Our treatment philosophy is to make your dental implant treatment journey simple to understand, affordable to achieve and provide long-term successful solutions for your missing teeth. 

Our initial consultation and 3D patient specific digital planning ensure your dental implant treatment is in the optimum functional and cosmetic location, with the ideal bone and soft tissue support so you have no issues.
Happy old woman
All you have to do to ensure success is modify your oral hygiene regime a little and continue with six monthly dental visits to have a long-term pain free tooth replacement solution with dental implants.
If you would like to know how we can help you further, or to book a no obligation dental implant consultation 
Please phone 07 4580 4733 or alternatively request an appointment now online.