My Approach

What to do

• In the first 24 hours, hold ice against your cheek for 20 minutes at a time, with a 20-minute break in between. Swelling usually increases over the first two or three days and then goes down gradually, and cold applied locally keeps it in check more easily on the first day.
• In the first few days, choose soft foods, cold or lukewarm, such as yoghurt, purée, eggs or lukewarm soup. Strong heat usually makes the throbbing in the area more noticeable.
• Rinse gently with warm salt water from the second day, letting the liquid pass over the area without any pressure.
• Take the prescribed medication at set times, even if you are not in pain. As a rule, it works better when you take it steadily than when you start it too late.
• Come back for your scheduled check-ups. Integration of the implant into the bone usually takes between three and six months, and the pace differs from person to person.

What to avoid

• Do not smoke for at least two weeks. Smoking reduces blood circulation in the gum and makes it harder for the bone around the implant to heal.
• Do not rinse vigorously or spit in the first 24 hours. The blood clot acts as a natural dressing for the wound, and if it comes away, healing is delayed and the area can become painful.
• Avoid hard, crunchy or hot foods for a few days, as well as foods with small seeds, which can collect in the implant area.
• Do not press on the implant area with your tongue or finger, and do not lift your lip to look at it, because repeated handling irritates the wound.
• Do not put off your check-ups. Changes around the implant usually show on examination and on a radiograph before they cause any symptoms, and if I find them early, they are, as a rule, easier to treat.

What to do

• Drink plenty of water and keep up your usual hygiene. Whitening changes nothing about brushing twice a day or using dental floss.
• Use a sensitivity toothpaste if I recommend one. It is common for teeth to be sensitive to cold after whitening, and the sensation usually passes within a few days.
• For the first 48 hours, choose light-coloured foods, such as chicken, fish, rice, white pasta or bananas. Straight after the appointment, enamel takes up pigments more easily.
• If I have prescribed a remineralising gel, apply it exactly as I have instructed you. Its purpose is to calm sensitivity and to support the remineralisation of the enamel.

What to avoid

• Avoid coffee, black tea, red wine and fizzy drinks for at least 48 hours. If you cannot do without coffee, it helps to drink it through a straw.
• Do not smoke in the first 48 hours. After whitening, the tooth surface picks up pigments more easily, and smoke quickly leaves visible marks.
• Avoid intensely coloured foods, such as beetroot, tomato sauce, turmeric or blueberries. A practical rule you can go by is that what stains a tablecloth usually stains a tooth as well.
• Do not use coloured mouthwashes or ones with a lot of alcohol during this period. The coloured ones leave pigment behind, and alcohol can increase dryness and sensitivity.

What to do

• Floss every day, including around the crown and under the gum margin. Plaque builds up along the line where the restoration meets the tooth, even if you cannot see it.
• Brush gently at the base of the crown, with soft bristles and small movements, because the surrounding gum is more sensitive to pressure.
• Come back for the check-ups we agree on, so that I can examine the margins of the restoration and the surrounding gum. A margin that begins to open is, as a rule, easier to deal with when I notice it early.
• Tell me if sensitivity appears and does not go away, or if the restoration feels high when you bite. Often it is simply a contact that needs adjusting.

What to avoid

• Do not bite directly into very hard foods, such as unshelled nuts, stones in fruit or ice. Ceramic copes well with ordinary chewing, but not with a short, sudden impact.
• Do not open packaging or bottles with teeth that have a crown or a veneer, because it is sideways force that dislodges the restoration.
• Do not overlook tooth grinding. If you wake up with a tired jaw or with your teeth clenched, ask me about a night guard.
• Do not ignore sensitivity that appears a few days after cementation. Some passing sensitivity is common, but if it persists, it is worth having a look at it together.

What to do

• Brush twice a day and floss every day, starting that same evening. The gum settles once plaque no longer has the chance to rebuild day after day.
• If I have recommended an antibacterial mouthwash, use it as an aid to brushing, not as a replacement for it.
• Drink water and avoid intensely coloured foods for 24 hours if you have also had air-powder polishing. The cleaning removes the film that normally covers the tooth, and this film takes a day to re-form. Until then, the tooth surface picks up pigment more easily.
• Schedule your professional cleaning roughly once every six months, or at the interval I recommend, because tartar builds up again at a different pace from one patient to another.

What to avoid

• Do not eat hard, very hot or acidic foods straight after the appointment if your gums feel sensitive. As a rule, the feeling fades within a few days.
• Do not stop brushing if your teeth feel more sensitive. The sensation appears because the surfaces that were covered by tartar are now exposed again. It usually fades within a few days, and a soft toothbrush and a sensitivity toothpaste help.
• Do not smoke straight after the appointment, because the gum is irritated and sensitive.
• Do not put off your cleaning. Tartar left under the gum keeps the inflammation going, and over time that can progress to periodontitis, the loss of the bone support around the tooth. Bleeding when brushing is usually the first sign.

What to do

• Clean under the margin of the restoration every day. You can use special implant floss (with a stiff end and a spongy section), floss passed through a threader, or a water flosser. Plaque collects there, between the crown and the gum, where an ordinary toothbrush does not reach, so it is important to clean this space.
• Brush gently, with soft bristles or a sonic electric toothbrush, including the gum around the implant. Do not press. An implant does not have the ligament that cushions a natural tooth, so the force goes straight into the bone.
• Come back for your scheduled check-ups, as a rule every six months. At these visits I check the fit of the restoration and, when necessary, I monitor the bone level around the implant on a radiograph. These are things you cannot notice at home, but at a check-up they are picked up in good time.
• Let me know if you feel the crown moving, if chewing becomes uncomfortable, or if the gum around the implant becomes inflamed or bleeds. A slightly loosened screw can usually be tightened during an appointment, if we notice it in time.
• Keep up your daily hygiene with the same care as for a natural tooth. Ceramic does not decay, but plaque and tartar settle on the surfaces of the restoration just as readily, and the tissue around the implant reacts to them.

What to avoid

• Do not bite forcefully into very hard foods, such as nuts in their shells, fruit stones or ice. The ceramic can crack, and the impact also travels to the components that hold the restoration in place.
• Do not neglect cleaning between your teeth. Peri-implantitis, meaning inflammation of the tissues around the implant, starts mainly from bacterial plaque left in place. At first it usually progresses silently, and sometimes the only sign is slight bleeding when you brush. That is precisely why it deserves to be taken seriously.
• Do not smoke. Smoke reduces the blood flow in the gum and weakens its local defences. In the long term, this increases the risk of peri-implantitis and makes healing harder if a complication does occur.
• Do not skip your regular check-ups or the radiographs I recommend. A small amount of bone loss around an implant shows on a radiograph before it causes any symptom. If we monitor it from that stage, it can often be kept under control through oral hygiene and more frequent check-ups. I decide case by case whether more is needed.

What to do

• Take the recommended painkillers on the schedule I gave you, not only when it hurts. As a rule, they work better when their level in your body stays steady than when you start them too late.
• Until the final restoration, chew on the other side. For now the tooth has only a temporary filling, which does not hold up under load.
• Keep up your usual hygiene and look after the tooth as one that needs support. After root canal treatment it has less structure left, so as a rule I protect it with a crown or an inlay, which takes on the chewing forces.
• Come back on the date set for the final restoration. A tooth left for a long time with only a filling can crack under chewing, and a crack that runs below the gum seriously limits the options for keeping it.

What to avoid

• Do not ignore pain that gets worse after the first few days. It is common for sensitivity to ease gradually. If it increases instead, it is worth having it assessed.
• Do not chew hard foods on the treated tooth before your crown is in place. Its walls have been thinned, and one awkward bite can be enough to fracture the tooth.
• Do not put off the final restoration. Root canal treatment aims to remove the infection from inside the tooth, but it does not give the tooth back its strength. Without a crown or an inlay, the tooth remains vulnerable to fracture.
• Call me if the temporary filling falls out or cracks, because the cleaned canal is then left exposed to the bacteria in your saliva.