Tips For Caring For Your Dental Implants

–Toothbrushing. Usual toothbrushing applies. It is recommended that you brush twice a day but it is even more beneficial to brush after every meal if that is possible.

–Flossing. Using a water floss or picksters to clean around implants. Flossing is able to clean around the dental implants. Just because the dental implants cannot get tooth decay it does not mean you cannot lose them. Bone loss is still possible around the dental implants which can lead to their loss.

–Maintain Regular Dental Visits.  It is important to examine the implants regularly, at least once per year along with your regular professional cleaning schedule. We will evaluate the bone levels along with the soft tissues and occlusion. This is important to catch any issues that might arise early enough so proper corrections can take place.

–Do Not Smoke. Smoking has been known to decrease oxygen flow to the gum tissues. This results in delayed healing, deterioration of the oral tissues, and bone loss. Bone loss and inflammation will cause your implant to loosen and fall out. If you want to protect your investment, do not smoke.
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–Avoid Extremely Hot Liquids. Dental implants are made of metal and metal has ability to retain heat more readily than our oral tissues. If you drink extremely hot liquids, the metal of the dental implant  may heat up from the liquid and stay hot. The heat may cause a burning of a thin layer of cells around the implant. With repeated small damages this may cause inflammation around the implant. This is not backed by research, but is worth mentioning.

Wisdom teeth extraction is a dreaded procedure. Many patients tend to avoid or delay. However, the procedure is not as bad as thought it is to be. You should expect to get relief from your impacted wisdom teeth without having to endure needless pain.
Wisdom teeth don’t always get impacted, but when they do, the results are painful and can negatively affect your dental health. Incoming wisdom teeth in a mouth that’s not big enough to accommodate them can cause some of the following dental health issues:
– Crowding; which can knock your other teeth out of the proper bite alignment.
– Infection; gum infection due to the tooth improperly breaking through the gum line.
– Jaw pain that may prevent you from eating normally.
– Damage to the neighboring teeth and bone.

If you are experiencing any pain from your wisdom teeth, or the rest of your teeth are negatively impacted by its emergence, then the usually recommended course of action is wisdom teeth removal by an experienced dentist.
The procedure is painless, since your tooth, jawbone, and surrounding gum tissue will be numbed using a local anesthetic. You may feel pressure from the dentist widening your tooth socket to ease tooth removal.
Recovering from the tooth extraction procedure can be quick and free of complications, as long as you do your best to follow after care instructions carefully. If you experience bleeding after the procedure, you can place a moist gauze over the empty tooth socket and bite down on it for 45 minutes. It’s best that you avoid rinsing or spitting for at least 24 hours after the extraction, so that the clot being formed in the empty tooth socket doesn’t get dislodged.
It can be easy to sabotage your own healing process if you are careless about your eating and drinking habits after the procedure. Just because the pain is gone after taking medication doesn’t mean you can immediately go back to eating and drinking like you did before the extraction. Simple things like eating nachos too soon can injure the empty tooth socket and result in a dry socket, which means that the clot either didn’t form or got dislodged.
The key to quick healing lies in patience and the willingness to follow the after care instructions of your dentist. Though most patients would rather avoid having to experience dental surgery and recovery, it is a necessary treatment if your wisdom teeth are negatively affecting your oral health. The important thing to remember is that there is nothing to be afraid of, and that prolonged pain and agony are a thing of the past. So if you are suffering from impacted wisdom teeth, don’t endure the pain you’re feeling now because you’re afraid that wisdom teeth removal will be even more painful. Make sure to see your dentist as soon as possible, so you can discover for yourself just how gentle and pain-free the procedure can be.

When you bring your children to us, for routine dental clean and check, chances are we will conclude the treatment with fluoride application.
Does it work? what is the science behind it?
Fluoride changes the shape of teeth while developing to have shallower fissures. Making them less retentive to decay-causing bacteria. It also strengthens the teeth and makes enamel more resistant to acid.
Are there any studies on the effect?
A study done recently reviewed all the evidence on the safety and effectiveness of fluoride gel for the prevention of tooth decay in children and adolescents.
The results showed advantages for topical treatment. The review assessed evidence from 28 scientific studies in which over 9000 children (aged 2 to 15 years) were included. On average there was a 28% reduction in decayed, missing and filled tooth surfaces for children who received topical fluoride treatment. Studies that looked specifically at first or baby teeth showed a 20% reduction. The authors of the review concluded that the application of fluoride gel results in a large reduction in tooth decay in both permanent and baby teeth.

An important consideration when placing an implant, is timing. When should an implant be placed in the jaw bone? how soon can you get your smile back?
There are different situations, that affect the timeline for placing an implant.

An important element that is central to the implant timeline and will affect when and how implant tooth replacement can be achieved in different situations for the permanent replacement of teeth is, complete immobility of the implant components, to allow the process of fusing to bone and healing to occur. Any force that causes even minute movement of the implants in the early healing phase can ruin the integration process, resulting in implant failure.
Implant Placement Timing

1. Immediate Placement
   A hopeless tooth is removed and an implant placed simultaneously, in just one surgery. The difficulty here is placing an implant into a socket into which it may not fit precisely; there will likely be space around the implant that must heal and fill with new bone. The same is true of the gum tissue that must also surround and support the implant. Incomplete bony healing and gum shrinkage can result in implant exposure and gum recession. These problems can generally be addressed by grafting procedures (of both bone and gum tissue), at the time of implant placement but the surgical site will need to be carefully protected in the ensuing weeks. This application is usually predicated upon having an intact socket with no loss of tooth supporting bone.
2. Early Placement With Gum Tissue Healing
   This refers to a delay of approximately 4 to 8 weeks after tooth removal to allow initial gum tissue healing to close and seal the wound. An implant placed in the socket bone at this time ensures that it is protected by a gum tissue seal — the body’s natural barrier. There will also be less possibility of gum shrinkage, resulting in a better and more predictable final aesthetic result, but there are no guarantees especially if additional bone loss occurs. To mitigate this possibility, the socket may be bone grafted at the time of extraction to limit resorption.
3. Placement With Partial Bone Healing
   Implants are not placed in this situation until bone healing has started to fill the socket, usually in 2 to 4 months. Bone grafting of sockets is often used to minimize any changes in the bony anatomy, or even regenerate lost bone socket walls. Placing an implant later while bone is actually growing aids the process of fusion. This promotes implant stability at placement and faster healing increasing the predictability of successful integration.
4. Late Placement After Complete Bony Healing
   Waiting until the extraction site has fully healed or regenerated at about 4 to 6 months, provides the most stable foundation in which to place implants. It also allows for complete healing and maturation of sites following regeneration techniques to rebuild lost bone, when the socket has been compromised by disease.

When is the next stage? that is placing the teeth on the implants.Single Tooth Replacement
If you are having a single tooth replaced with a dental implant, it is possible to attach a temporary crown to the implant, at the time it is placed. It is essential to avoid biting contact by fabricating the crown so that it does not contact the opposing tooth. This will ensure as far as possible, that the early and fragile process of fusion to bone is not disturbed. When the implant is fully integrated — generally at 2-4 months depending upon the circumstances at placement — a permanent crown can be attached to the implant that can withstand normal biting contact and force.
Replacing All Teeth In One Day
Today’s state-of-the-art implant systems enable a minimum number of implants to support a maximum number of teeth. That means as few as four to six implants can be used to support a full arch (upper or lower jaw) of fixed, non-removable temporary teeth. And this remarkable life-changing event can be accomplished in a single day, but proper planning and case studying is the most important step in the success of such procedure.

The main thing to keep in mind is that you want your implant tooth replacements to be successful. A few or even several months may seem like a long time to wait, but not when you consider how long your new teeth will last if things go right — and they almost always do: long-term success rates for dental implants according to many clinicians exceed 95%. If things don’t go right, however, it is always a good idea to have that discussion before treatment begins so you understand what the worse case scenario could be. Every situation is different and having a good relationship and understanding with your dental implant team is extremely important for your peace of mind.
It is possible, in the right circumstances, for temporary crowns to be attached to dental implants that have just been placed so that you can have a great-looking smile immediately after your implant surgery. However, it is also sometimes advisable to wait until the implants have fully healed before any replacement teeth are attached.