Implant or bridge?

brook2jack

Any tooth prepared for a bridge or a crown has a 25% chance of dying off and needing root treatment. A root filled tooth is much more brittle than alive tooth and is at greater risk of breaking under the load of a bridge.

Bridges should be cleaned with superfloss which is fluffy and has a waxed end to thread underneath the false tooth.

Implants should be cleaned cleaned with a combination of Tepe brush , super floss , cross floss, waterpik that your implantologist/hygienist has advised you to use.

Mands

silvercar wrote: »

Tepe brushes, making sure they go as far under the (implant) tooth as they can.

brook2jack wrote: »

Implants should be cleaned cleaned with a combination of Tepe brush , super floss , cross floss, waterpik that your implantologist/hygienist has advised you to use.

Excellent, many thanks both.

Toothsmith

The implantologist I refer to really doesn't like Tepe brushes around his implants. I think that's based on the ADA guidelines. (American Dental Association)

It's the metal twist in the centre that holds the bristles in that is the problem. They can scratch the highly prepared and very delicate coating of the implant. A scratched implant will attract much more plaque than one with the coating & polish intact.

So, Superfloss or bridge floss down to the depths of the implant, or possibly fully plastic interdental brushes like Cleanbetweens

Wisdom Clean Between Fine Blue Brushes - Pack of 2, Total 40 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005H8S5ZC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_Xcd3DbR6VDXYR

Around expensive things like implants - please don't be tempted by cheapy look-alikes either, and also change them regularly. A brush that looks like a proper one may well be either more abrasive, or bits drop off it more readily, than the real ones. Scratches, or little bits of debris from the brushes will both spell disaster for the implant.

silvercar

Toothsmith wrote: »

The implantologist I refer to really doesn't like Tepe brushes around his implants. I think that's based on the ADA guidelines. (American Dental Association)

It's the metal twist in the centre that holds the bristles in that is the problem. They can scratch the highly prepared and very delicate coating of the implant. A scratched implant will attract much more plaque than one with the coating & polish intact.

So, Superfloss or bridge floss down to the depths of the implant, or possibly fully plastic interdental brushes like Cleanbetweens

Wisdom Clean Between Fine Blue Brushes - Pack of 2, Total 40 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B005H8S5ZC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_Xcd3DbR6VDXYR

Around expensive things like implants - please don't be tempted by cheapy look-alikes either, and also change them regularly. A brush that looks like a proper one may well be either more abrasive, or bits drop off it more readily, than the real ones. Scratches, or little bits of debris from the brushes will both spell disaster for the implant.

That’s new to me. Would you say the same risk of the metal scratching applied to normal fillings too?

zagubov

Had the seem sweet tooth as you, and a drill-happy and extraction-happy dentist.

Had a tooth extracted as a teenager, then at uni, my pal who was studying dentistry offered to replace it with a bridge, for free.

I went to see him at the dental hospital several times and he gave the two teeth behind the gap a crown and a three-quarters crown to support the bridge.

Told me that it might last 20 years but if it fell out I had to keep the gold as it was worth about £300 back then and it was my property.

It's lasted a good 40 years and never a moments problems. I totally forget I've got a bridge.

Toothsmith

silvercar wrote: »

That’s new to me. Would you say the same risk of the metal scratching applied to normal fillings too?

No. They're fine round teeth & fillings, so long as you're not too over-exuberant!!