My Approach

What to do

• Apply ice to your cheek, 20 minutes on and 20 minutes off, in the first 24 hours. Swelling usually builds over the first two or three days and then subsides gradually, and cold keeps it more manageable on the first day.
• Eat soft food, cold or lukewarm, in the first few days: yoghurt, purée, egg, 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 medication you have been prescribed at set times, even if you are not in pain: as a rule it works better taken steadily than started 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: smoke reduces the blood supply to 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 is the wound's natural dressing, 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 operated area.
• Do not press on the implant area with your tongue or finger, and do not lift your lip to look at it: 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 give any sign, and picked up early they are usually easier to treat.

What to do

• Drink plenty of water and keep up your usual hygiene: brushing twice a day and flossing stay the same after whitening.
• Use a sensitivity toothpaste if your dentist recommends one: sensitivity to cold is common after whitening and usually settles within a few days.
• Choose light-coloured foods for the first 48 hours: chicken, fish, rice, white pasta, bananas. Enamel picks up pigment more easily straight after the appointment.
• Apply the remineralising gel exactly as it was explained to you, if it was prescribed: its role 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; a straw helps, if you cannot do without your coffee.
• Do not smoke in the first 48 hours: after whitening, the tooth surface picks up pigment more easily, and smoke leaves visible marks quickly.
• Avoid intensely coloured foods: beetroot, tomato sauce, turmeric, blueberries. What stains a tablecloth usually stains a tooth as well.
• Do not use coloured mouthwashes or ones high in alcohol during this period: the first leave pigment behind, and alcohol can add to dryness and sensitivity.

What to do

• Floss daily, including around the crown and under the gum margin. Plaque gathers along the line where the restoration meets the tooth, without showing.
• Brush gently at the base of the crown, with soft bristles and small movements: the surrounding gum is more sensitive to pressure.
• Come back for an annual check-up, so your dentist can check the margins of the restoration and the gum around it. A margin that starts to open is usually easier to deal with if it is noticed early.
• Tell your dentist if sensitivity appears that does not settle, or if the restoration feels high when you bite: often it is only 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 a tooth that carries a crown or a veneer: it is the sideways force that lifts the restoration off.
• Do not leave tooth grinding unchecked: if you wake with a tired jaw or with your teeth clenched, ask your dentist about a night guard.
• Do not brush aside sensitivity that appears a few days after cementation: the passing kind is common, the kind that persists is worth looking at.

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.
• Use an antibacterial mouthwash if your dentist has recommended one: its role is to support brushing, not to replace it.
• Drink water and avoid intensely coloured foods for 24 hours if you have also had air-flow: after cleaning, the film that normally covers the tooth is removed and takes a day to re-form, and during that time the surface picks up pigment more easily.
• Plan your cleaning at around six months, or at the interval your dentist advises: tartar builds up at different rates from person to person.

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 give up brushing because your teeth feel more sensitive. The feeling appears because the surfaces freed of tartar are 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: 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

• Every day, use floss made for implants (with a stiff end and a spongy section), floss carried in with a threader, or a water flosser, under the margin of the restoration. That is where plaque collects, between the crown and the gum, out of reach of an ordinary toothbrush, and cleaning that space matters.
• Brush gently, with soft bristles or a sonic electric toothbrush, including the gum around the implant. Do not press: an implant has none of 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. Your dentist checks how the restoration is adapting and, when necessary, the bone level around the implant on a radiograph; these are things you cannot feel at home, but they show in good time at the practice.
• Tell your dentist if you feel the crown moving, if chewing becomes uncomfortable, or if the gum around the implant swells or bleeds. A slightly loosened screw can usually be tightened at the practice, if it is noticed 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 force very hard foods with your teeth, such as unshelled nuts, stones in fruit 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 the teeth. Peri-implantitis, the inflammation of the tissues around the implant, starts mainly from bacterial plaque left in place, and in the early stages it is usually silent: sometimes the only sign is a little bleeding when brushing. That is exactly why it is worth taking seriously.
• Do not smoke. Smoke reduces the blood supply to the gum and weakens its local defences, which raises the long-term risk of peri-implantitis and makes healing harder if a problem does appear.
• Do not skip the regular check-ups and the radiographs your dentist recommends. Small bone loss around an implant shows on a radiograph before it causes any symptom, and followed from that stage it can often be kept in check with hygiene and more frequent check-ups; your dentist decides case by case whether more is needed.

What to do

• Take the painkillers you have been advised to take on the schedule you were given, not only when it hurts: as a rule they work better if their level stays steady than if they are started too late.
• Chew on the other side until the final restoration: for now the tooth has only a temporary filling, which does not stand up to loading.
• Keep up your usual hygiene and treat the tooth as one that needs support: after root canal treatment it is left with less structure, so as a rule it is protected with a crown or an inlay that 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: sensitivity that gradually eases is common, sensitivity that increases is worth looking at.
• Do not chew hard foods on the treated tooth before the crown is fitted: its walls are thinned, and one unlucky bite can be enough.
• Do not put off the final restoration. Root canal treatment is aimed at removing the infection from inside the tooth, but it does not give the tooth its strength back; without a crown or an inlay, the tooth remains vulnerable to fracture.
• Call the practice if the temporary filling falls out or cracks: the cleaned canal is left exposed to the bacteria in your saliva.