Dental Hygienists Save Implants

Dental Hygienists Saves Your Dental Implants

Implants can be a great way to replace missing teeth.  However, like your natural teeth, dental implants also need to be looked after carefully to keep them healthy. This involves good patient care and regular dental hygienist care.

At home, all plaque needs to be removed every day to prevent the development of inflammation of the gums around both the natural teeth and around implants. While most people are capable of achieving good plaque control, it is uncommon for tooth brushing to be perfect every day and the result of incomplete plaque removal is an inflammatory response in the gum designed to protect the tissues from the bacterial plaque and bacterial toxic products that can irritate the gum margins leading to disease. This initial inflammatory response affects the soft tissue cuff around teeth and implants.   We call this inflammation “gingivitis” when it is around teeth, and “peri-implant mucositis” when it is around an implant.

Early-Stage Inflammation

This early-stage inflammation can be considered a protective response of the body to prevent disease developing. It is confined only to the soft tissue of the gum and does not affect the bone surrounding the tooth or implant, and being non-destructive it can be resolved easily by re-introducing regular and effective plaque removal.  A visit to the dental hygienist is required for help with plaque control and for removal of any bacterial deposits or hard deposits of tartar from between teeth or implants and beneath the gum margins. This is necessary to allow elimination of the inflammation to allow a return to gum health. Early-stage protective inflammation has the potential to progress to a destructive inflammatory disease state called “Periodontitis or Peri-implantitis” leading to bone destruction and gum recession. Such damage occurs around both natural teeth and dental implants.

For that reason it is extremely important that patients who have implants should see a dentist regularly so that the soft tissues can be carefully examined to identify this inflammation at the earliest possible time, and ideally well before it progresses to the later destructive stage of inflammatory disease. Only regular dental examination can identify this plaque related inflammation before it progresses.

Peri-implantitis

Peri-implantitis is very common in patients with implants who fail to follow up their implant therapy with regular dental hygiene maintenance with a dentist/hygienist experienced in the maintenance of dental implants. Nearly 50% of implants have been found to have such peri-implant inflammation in a number of dental health surveys carried out in several countries. However, those patients receiving regular care of their implants and who maintain a high standard of plaque control at home are likely to avoid this condition and enjoy a trouble-free future with their implants and replacement teeth.

Like a car, implants need servicing at regular intervals. If they fail to receive care and maintenance, things begin to go wrong and the longer they are left the greater is the chance that they will fail completely and have to be removed. In 2019 make our dental hygienist a priority in your healthcare. Contact NQ Surgical Dentistry today to book your appointment.