Cleaning Your Implants 101

 

Implants are a permanent solution to replace crooked or missing teeth. Instead of altering any teeth, implants replicate the root of the natural tooth and bond to your jawbone. Unlike dentures, implants feel like natural teeth and are meant to be cared for like natural teeth. At Ardas Family Dental in Parker, CO, Dr. Roopi Kattaura provides effective dental implants to transform your smile. But first, let’s take a look at how to properly clean your implants.

Proper Hygiene Routine

When it comes to oral health, it should be a no-brainer to practice good hygiene habits. But if you have dental implants, it’s even more important to brush your teeth, floss, and use a good antimicrobial mouthwash daily. Implants need to be handled gently, so you may have to adjust your oral hygiene routine slightly. Consider opting for a low-abrasive toothbrush or floss threaders to carefully floss between implants.

Avoid Harmful Foods and Practices

Dental implants are meant to be taken care of like your natural teeth. This means maintaining a healthy diet with lots of fruits, vegetables, and non-processed foods. Your Parker, CO dentist also advises patients with dental implants to avoid tobacco because it increases your susceptibility to gum disease. Stay away from any foods that could stain your implants as well. 

Visit Your Dentist

If you’re struggling with taking care of your dental implants or just want to stay healthy, Ardas Family Dental in Parker, CO is here for you. Regular visits to the dentist for cleanings and check-ups are a great way to preserve your implants and your smile for the long-run. Contact our office today!

Dr. Roopi Kattaura operates Ardas Family Dental at 10233 S Parker Rd, Suite 205, Parker, Colorado. Call 720-459-8420 or visit Ardas Family Dental and fill out a contact sheet.

Treating Cracked Teeth at Ardas Family Dental

Tooth sensitivity is unfortunately common, but don’t think that means you have to live with it, or that it’s not a big deal. At Ardas Family Dental in Parker, Colorado, we provide patients with all sorts of restorations, including implants. When a tooth is especially sensitive, or when the gum is inflamed around it, the tooth may be cracked. In those cases, we’d have several treatment options available, but patients need to be aware of the importance of getting treated as soon as possible.

Cracks can develop for all sorts of reasons, including biting down on something too hard, loss of structural integrity to tooth decay, and teeth clenching or grinding. (The last has gotten more common during the pandemic.) Sometimes, small cracks called craze lines can develop simply due to age. A craze line could be covered with a veneer, but a crack in the crown may necessitate the placement of a partial crown, or for the entire natural crown to be filed down and replaced with a prosthetic. If the crack is deep enough to reach the dental pulp, we would also do a root canal to ensure the patient is not suffering from an infection that could progress into an abscess or blood poisoning.

If a tooth is cracked below the gum line, it would likely have to be replaced entirely. If so, it may be possible for us to replace it with either an implant-supported crown or a partial denture. An implant would have the advantages of preserving the patient’s jaw bone structure, allowing them to continue their regular oral hygiene routine, and wouldn’t need to be refitted, but would also have to be replaced if the implant were to fracture. Regardless, a cracked tooth won’t heal on its own, and is likely to continue to cause the patient pain and may become an avenue for infection until it is treated.

Dr. Roopi Kattaura operates Ardas Family Dental at 10233 S Parker Rd, Suite 205, Parker, Colorado. Call 720-459-8420 or visit Ardas Family Dental and fill out a contact sheet.

Diabetes and Thrush

At Ardas Family Dental in Parker, Colorado, we provide general dental care for people of all ages and facing all kinds of oral conditions. People with diabetes are especially at-risk for a host of oral health problems, and in the past, we’ve described how we help them to combat gum disease and to qualify for the placement of dental implants. But people with diabetes are also at risk for the development of thrush, particularly if they have removable dentures, so we wanted to give that a bit of focus and help our patients to recognize it.

We always have a variety of microbes growing in our mouths, and for the most part, these are harmless or even helpful. But when fungus called candida grow out of control, a patient develops a yeast infection, or thrush. A person suffering from thrush may experience cracks in the corners of their mouth, as well as the development of painful white or red patches and the loss of taste. Thrush is especially common in places covered by the ridges of dentures, which people sometimes have difficulty cleaning.

Thrush rarely develops in healthy adults, but it can appear in people with uncontrolled diabetes. Why is unclear, although people with diabetes have more difficulty fighting off infections in general, and their saliva contains elevated levels of sugar, making it a better food source for candida. There are oral antibiotics to combat thrush outbreaks, but people can also practice prevention by brushing their teeth twice a day and drinking enough water to wash away sugary residue. People with dentures may also want to look into using an American Dental Association-approved cleaning solution and to be sure they’re using specialized toothpaste to avoid scratching their dentures’ plastic.

Dr. Roopi Kattaura operates Ardas Family Dental at 10233 S Parker Rd, Suite 205, Parker, Colorado. Call 720-459-8420 or visit Ardas Family Dental and fill out a contact sheet.

Floss to Prevent Plaque in Parker, CO

Flossing is one of the most essential parts of oral hygiene. It needs to be done everyday, and preferably before food debris has had much time to fuel the growth of oral bacteria. But it’s not enough to just rub floss in between the teeth. At Ardas Family Dental in Parker, we provide comprehensive dental care to people of all ages, and as part of our preventive care efforts, we want to ensure our patients are flossing correctly.

The first step of proper flossing is to use a long enough strand. We recommend using fifteen inches, so that each end of the floss can be wrapped around the user’s middle fingers. The user can manipulate the floss using their index fingers and thumbs, and as they move from tooth to tooth, they can unspool the strand from one middle finger and wrap it around the other. This will prevent them from transferring food debris between teeth.

Flossing is meant to remove plaque from the teeth as well as food debris, so it’s necessary to rub the floss against the side of each tooth, and not just to clear space between them. Users should bend the strand into a c-shape and rub it along the tooth and slightly into the gingival margin. They shouldn’t go deep enough for this to be painful or cause bleeding, but they should be thorough. They’ll also need to get the backs of the back teeth. A person may experience some irritation if they already have a mild gum infection, but we can provide flossing during a regular deep cleaning and offer an in-person demonstration of proper technique for people who are still struggling.

Dr. Roopi Kattaura operates Ardas Family Dental at 10233 S Parker Rd, Suite 205, Parker, Colorado. Call 720-459-8420 or visit Ardas Family Dental and fill out a contact sheet.