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Dental Health and Food: Learning to Eat Better

My intense love for candy, cakes, and everything in between started as a child. I simply couldn't go one day without something sweet to eat. But my love for all things sweet took a toll on my teeth. My dentist diagnosed me with seven cavities, each one a different size and depth. After sitting through four long dental appointments, I decided to make a change. I now monitor my diet and only eat things that benefit my oral health. I'm here to help you take better care of your teeth. My blog offers tips on how to improve your diet, maintain good oral hygiene, and many other topics. Hopefully, you can learn to overcome your bad habits just as I did. Good luck with your future dental health.

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Dental Health and Food: Learning to Eat Better

Stains On Your Dental Implants? Here's What You'll Want To Know

by Eric Bailey

Dental implants are a great way of not just restoring your smile, but also the confidence to enjoy your favorite foods. Although dental implants are impervious to tooth decay, they're not entirely invincible. For starters, unsightly stains can still develop on the surface if the implant isn't cared for properly. The following shows how stains can form on dental implants and what you can do to not only remove those stains, but also prevent them from showing up in the future.

How Stains Can Form

Unlike your natural teeth, ceramic, porcelain and resin dental implant crowns are highly resistant to staining and long-term discoloration. In fact, one common issue among patients is that their natural teeth darken as they age, making their dental implants stand out from the surrounding natural teeth. Nevertheless, there are a couple of situations where stains can appear on your dental implants.

Stains can occur when the glazed finish on the implants wears down, usually through constant contact with abrasive or acidic materials. Polishing your dental implants with abrasive instruments can strip away this protective finish, leaving behind a rough surface that's vulnerable to staining. Likewise, acid fluoride treatments can also remove glazed finishes and make dental implant surfaces more prone to stains.

It's not just damaged dental implants that are susceptible to discoloration. The bonding material that holds your dental implant in place can also change color over time, resulting in visible stains along the gum line.

How to Remove Stains

Your dentist may be able to correct the damage done to your dental implants through careful polishing with a rubber cup and a non-abrasive paste. Professional polishing can also help remove gum line stains caused by the bonding material.

You can also choose to have veneers installed over your dental implants. Like the implants themselves, the porcelain veneers are extremely resistant to stains and discoloration, plus they can be matched to the shade of your natural teeth.

Ordinary whitening treatments meant for natural teeth won't work on dental implants. If you do decide to have your natural teeth whitened, it's best to have that taken care of before having the implant done. This way, your dentist will be able to better match the implant to your natural teeth's new shade.

Tips for Preventing Dental Implant Stains

When it comes to protecting the look and functionality of your dental implants, prevention is the best policy. There are several preventative steps you can take to keep your smile vibrant and healthy:

  • Avoid smoking and chewing tobacco. Not only can these bad habits affect the health of your natural teeth, but the nicotine and other compounds found in tobacco can leave behind stains on your dental implants.
  • Stay away from highly-abrasive toothpastes. Your dentist may recommend a non-abrasive toothpaste that's safe to use on dental implants.
  • Keep your consumption of teeth-staining foods to a minimum. Certain foods and drinks, such as red wine, coffee, tea, blackberries and pomegranates, contain tannins that can contribute heavily towards teeth staining. Starchy foods and acidic beverages like sodas can also leave behind stains.
  • If you do consume teeth-staining foods, don't forget to brush and rinse. A thorough brushing after consuming teeth-staining foods can help reduce the possible appearance of stains. Likewise, a quick rinse of your mouth with pure water after eating or drinking teeth-staining foods and drinks can also prevent stains.

Of course, you'll also want to maintain regularly-scheduled visits to your dentist for regular checkups and maintenance. Through regular visits, your dentist can catch signs of dental implant discoloration and take proactive measures to keep your smile looking its best. For more information on implants, talk to a dental office like Gordon Dental.

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