If you have just received a new dental crown – congratulations and welcome to both your newly restored smile and your renewed personal comfort and confidence! Your dental crown is surely fast-becoming a tooth restoration to treasure as you can no doubt see and feel the perfect functional and aesthetic benefits which we proudly took the time to expertly craft and deliver at Wimpole Street Dental Clinic.
From our professional experience we would suggest to all our valued patients now fitted with dental crowns, that this new-found sense of joy and satisfaction is best preserved for the long-term when it is coupled with a sense of profound responsibility to clean and to care for your dental crowns from day one. We would like you to feel as good tomorrow and into the future about the quality of your smile and indeed the current condition of your oral health as you do today – and one way to secure this feeling is to commit to carefully maintaining your new dental crown(s).
So, post-procedure, you may be wondering about the answer to this key question – how to clean dental crowns? Here we explain our approach on just how to clean dental crowns and how to care for them plus why it is so vital to do so and to start as soon as you get home safely.
Our clinical principle – saving teeth
Know that our clear clinical principle of recommending and then fitting a dental crown is always to save teeth. In our clinic, we use dental crowns to restore, repair and strengthen extensively damaged teeth. A dental crown is a tooth-shaped cap designed to protect and conceal a damaged tooth, shielding it from further harm from functional risk factors such as chips or fractures or even aesthetic risk factors such as continued discolouration and of course protect it from new tooth decay.
With these dental care imperatives in mind, we strongly urge all patients with dental crowns to adopt the highest possible standards of oral hygiene to be practised at home in combination with a robust commitment to scheduling and attending regular routine dental check-ups with both your dentist and your dental hygienist, too – for professional teeth and dental crown cleaning. Know that hygienist appointments, in particular, can guard against the possible onset of periodontitis (gum disease). Know that periodontitis could make your tooth carrying the dental crown unstable over time which means if you leave the periodontal disease untreated you may loose the tooth.
In practice we would always ask you to consider cleaning your new dental crowns with as much care and attention as you offer your own natural teeth since the dental crown itself is cemented to them. Every member of your expert dental team who contributed to the craftmanship of your new dental crown wishes them to be long-lasting and to continue to be in the best possible condition so that you, our patient, get to really enjoy the benefits you are now experiencing.
Our top tips:
How to clean dental crowns
- Conduct a visual check on your new dental crown in the mirror once daily when brushing your teeth with fluoride toothpaste, especially at the start, for signs of plaque build-up, wear or fitting issues
- Floss your dental crown alongside your natural teeth at least once daily and/or brush with interdental brushes
- Never use excessive force when cleaning to minimise risk of potential chips or cracks appearing
- Always act fast if you are concerned about your dental crown, by booking an appointment in clinic so your dentist can examine your dental crown, identify the cause of the issue and recommend the best course of treatment, if necessary.
How to care for dental crowns
- Consider some aspects of your lifestyle through the lens of your new and ongoing need to preserve the current pristine nature of your dental crowns
- Think about refraining from eating excessively hard or crunchy foods to minimise the risk of developing accidental chips or cracks
- When playing contact sports, invest in a mouthguard to reduce the risk of injury to your dental crown
- If you suffer from bruxism – invest in a nightguard to reduce any potential harm from the effects of teeth grinding on the all-ceramic material used to craft your bespoke dental crown
Our all-ceramic dental crowns can last between 15-20 years so surely the best way to remember exactly how to clean dental crowns is to remember how you feel now, every time you smile!