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Dental Implant Care & Maintenance
Dental Implant Maintenance: Protecting Your Lifetime Investment
You’ve invested time and money into restoring your smile with dental implants. Now, the most important step is keeping them healthy. While dental implants cannot get cavities, they are still vulnerable to gum disease.
At Gardens Implant & Cosmetic Dentistry, we offer specialized Dental Implant Maintenance to ensure your new teeth last a lifetime.
Just like natural teeth, implants rely on healthy gum tissue and bone for support. Without proper care, bacteria can attack this foundation, leading to a condition called Peri-Implantitis, the #1 cause of implant failure. Our specialized hygiene protocol is designed to prevent this infection and protect your smile.
Why Choose Gardens for Implant Care?
Cleaning an implant is not the same as cleaning a natural tooth. It requires specific tools and knowledge to avoid damaging the delicate titanium surface.
Specialized Instruments: We use instruments made of resin or carbon fiber, rather than traditional metal scrapers. Metal tools can scratch the titanium implant, creating a rough surface where bacteria can hide. Our tools clean safely and effectively.
Periodontal Expertise: With our in-house Periodontist, Dr. Jesse Lemoine, we are experts in soft tissue health. We monitor the seal of the gum around your implant at every visit to catch the earliest signs of inflammation.
Advanced Diagnostics: We use digital X-rays to monitor the bone levels around your implant threads. Stable bone is the key to a stable implant.
PROCEDURE
The Implant Maintenance Visit
Your implant cleaning is a vital part of your long-term success. Here is what we do:
Visual Inspection: We check for signs of redness, bleeding, or swelling in the gum tissue surrounding the implant.
Stability Check: We check the implant crown or bridge for any looseness. Sometimes, the tiny screw holding the tooth in place simply needs tightening.
Deep Cleaning: Using our specialized tools, we gently remove plaque and calculus (tartar) from the implant post and the prosthetic tooth, ensuring the area below the gumline is bacteria-free.
Occlusal Check: We check your bite. If your bite forces are uneven, it can put too much stress on the implant. We may adjust the crown slightly to protect the implant from overload.
TESTIMONIAL
Patient Success Story: Saving a Failing Implant
Actual Patient Scenario
The Challenge: "Robert," a 60-year-old patient, had an implant placed 10 years ago at another office. He noticed the gum around it was red and tender. He thought it was normal, but it started to bleed when he brushed.
The Solution: Robert came to Dr. Lemoine for an evaluation. We diagnosed early Peri-Implantitis. Because he came in time, we didn't need surgery. We performed a specialized laser decontamination cleaning and placed him on a stricter maintenance schedule.
The Result: The inflammation resolved within two weeks. The gum tissue tightened up, and the implant was saved. Robert now comes in every 4 months for maintenance. He told us, "I didn't know implants could get infected. I'm just glad you caught it before I lost it."
FAQs
