Dental crowns and bridges are effective options for restoring damaged or missing teeth. A crown is generally recommended if you have a broken or decayed tooth, while a dental bridge is an ideal solution for replacing a few adjacent missing teeth. To maintain your dental restorations, routine oral care is a must. However, flossing around crowns and bridges can be challenging. Here are some helpful tips you can follow to ensure your dental work remains clean and functional for many years!
Flossing Around a Dental Crown
Dental crowns resemble the shape of your natural teeth. You can brush them gently with a toothbrush to prevent plaque deposits on their surface. To clean them with dental floss, use the same technique as for healthy teeth.
Cut a small length of waxed dental floss, which doesn’t have stray threads, and wrap the ends around your fingers. Gently slide the floss around the dental crown in a C-shaped movement, ensuring you clean the areas between your teeth and gums.
Take your time to remove stuck food particles and plaque in these areas. After cleaning one side, carefully pull out the floss and move to the next side to prevent the floss thread from getting trapped in the crown margins.
Flossing Around a Dental Bridge
Flossing around a bridge can be more tricky as the artificial teeth are fused to one another. This prevents the up-and-down gliding movement of the floss thread. Since food debris can accumulate along the bridge margins, you need to clean this area.
For easy access, you can use a floss threader. It resembles a needle with a small loop at one end. Slide your dental floss through the loop and carefully thread it under the bridge margins. Use gentle to-and-fro motions to clean this region.
Dental Tools To Clean Around Crowns and Bridges
If you find it challenging to floss the areas around your dental crown or bridge, you can consult your dentist for other helpful tools. They include:
- Interdental Brush: It is a special brush designed to clean the areas between teeth. Slide it carefully under a bridge or around a crown to clean those areas.
- Dental Picks: These are small, angled plastic tools that help clean hard-to-reach areas between your teeth. Use the pointed end of a dental pick to remove stuck food.
- Water flosser: This advanced tool releases a thin stream of water at a consistent pressure to clean areas between teeth and gums. It takes less time and provides efficient results.
In addition to at-home oral care, it is also important to get regular dental checkups and cleanings to ensure that your teeth and dental work remain functional for many more years.
Summing Up
Flossing around dental crowns or bridges can be tricky, but with practice, you can easily make it a part of your oral care routine. If you have any questions, visit us at DentaLand Dentistry of Houston or call (832) 674-8377 to schedule an appointment.