All-on-4 may be a complex dental procedure, but the good news is that All-on-4 cleaning is far from complicated. In fact, you’ll likely only need to make a few small changes to your oral hygiene routine to ensure your new All-on-4 smile stays in top shape.
Maintaining good oral health is key to ensuring the long-term success of your All-on-4 treatment. And caring for your All-on-4 teeth is no different to caring for your natural teeth. Let us walk you through how to clean your All-on-4 dental implants in this easy guide.
How to clean All-on-4 implants
Think cleaning All-on-4 dental implants must be difficult and time-consuming? Think again! The truth is that it only takes a few minutes of dental care each day to ensure you get the best out of your All-on-4 teeth for many years to come.
If you’re wondering how to care for All-on-4 dental implants at home, it’s simple: treat them just like natural teeth. That means regular brushing, interdental flossing and dental check-ups to keep your implant teeth and gums healthy.
So, how do you clean All-on-4 dental implants? We’ve broken it down into a few easy steps:
1. Brush your teeth
Be sure to brush your teeth at least twice daily or ideally after every meal. Using a soft manual toothbrush with a small head, gently brush over your entire tooth bridge, gum line and tongue for about 2 minutes. This will help to prevent the build-up of bacteria and plaque on your implant teeth. Food particles often get stuck near the tooth bridge attachments so always take extra care when brushing around the gum line. Remember, your gums may feel a little sensitive for a few weeks after your All-on-4 procedure but keep brushing them gently. With time, the tenderness will subside.
2. Floss under your tooth bridge
As we mentioned earlier, small food particles love to hide in the spaces between your tooth bridge and gums. If they aren’t cleared away, they can cause plaque build-up and gum inflammation. This is why it’s so important to floss underneath your tooth bridge.
Flossing underneath your tooth bridge can be a little tricky at first, but don’t worry! You’ll get the hang of it in no time. Specially designed dental implant floss, such as X-Floss and Super Floss will help make this job much easier. All you need to do is thread the floss under your tooth bridge and slowly glide it back and forth between your implants. Thanks to All-on-4’s dental implant placement technique, you’ll likely only have around 4 (or in some cases, up to 6) dental implants securing your tooth bridge so it won’t take much time to floss between each section. Don’t forget to floss behind the back molars as well.
You may also use interdental brushes like Piksters to gently clean between your tooth bridge and gums, but check with your dentist first. They’ll be able to assess whether an interdental brush is appropriate for you and advise on the correct size to use.
3. Use a water flosser
In addition to regular flossing, we also recommend that you use a water flosser like Waterpik in your All-on-4 implants cleaning routine. What is a water flosser, you ask? It’s *exactly* what it sounds like — a dental cleaning device that uses a high-pressure stream of water to clean between the teeth and gums and dislodge any food particles that may be stuck in hard-to-reach areas. This may be an extra step to add to your oral hygiene routine but trust us, using a water flosser is super quick and easy. In fact, most dental implant patients from our Gregory Hills and Moss Vale clinics say it’s even a little bit fun!
4. Use a gum stimulator
A gum stimulator not only helps to encourage blood flow to the implant sites and promote healing, but it can also be a helpful tool in dislodging those pesky food particles. Simply massage the rubber tip along the edge of your gum line and tooth bridge.
