Self-care is the most important aspect of maintaining your implants. As the placement of dental implants and replacement tooth or teeth can make maintaining oral hygiene more challenging, full, customised instruction will be given by a clinician, tailored to your individual needs. It is essential that bacterial plaque around the gum-line is kept to a minimum to prevent inflammation, disease progression and loss of the implant.

The dentist can aid this process by ensuring the shape of the prosthesis allows for adequate cleaning.

Regular professional surveillance and maintenance will be required. A dental hygienist may need to see you regularly to ensure optimum plaque control is maintained and to support you with self-care techniques and products such as specific brushes, interdental brushes and flosses.

Occasionally fixed prostheses need to be removed to facilitate professional cleaning.

Denture care is very important to keep the skin in the mouth healthy and to prevent plaque-induced disease around the implants. They are often hidden beneath the denture and the material the denture is made from can cause a greater amount of bacterial plaque to collect around the implants. Different care regimens are needed depending on which materials your denture is made from.

Guidance on the appropriate self-performed oral hygiene around implants can be found within the BSP patient information leaflet entitled “Caring for your Implant.”