How to Clean All-on-4 Dental Implants

Learn How to Clean All-on-4 Correctly

The All-on-4 prosthetic can sound a little complicated - but in reality, it’s made up of three parts:

1. The dental implant (lives inside the bone)
2. The abutment (connects the implant to the crown below the gum line)
3. The dental crown (the visible part - the fake tooth)

Unlike conventional implant dentures, which are removable and cleaned outside of the mouth, All-on-4 is a fixed full-arch prosthetic, which means you should clean them like you would your natural teeth.

Guide to cleaning your All-on-4 prosthetic

• You can’t clean the implant as it’s placed deep into your jawbone.
• The dental crown is cleaned by brushing with an electric toothbrush.
• The abutment requires careful care with daily flossing.

It’s the dental abutment which will require more specific care and attention

The dental abutment (the connector between the implant post and crown), which will sit at the gumline, can accumulate plaque and tartar when not cleaned properly.While you won’t need to worry about the titanium implant post and abutment being susceptible to dental decay like natural teeth, it’s essential to know that they’re prone to their own issues caused by improper care and oral hygiene.

Failure to clean around the abutment can cause:

• Peri-implant mucositis: Where plaque around the implant abutment leads to inflammation of the gums.
• Peri-implantitis: An advanced stage of tartar accumulation which can cause an infection that causes bone loss around the implants, increasing the likelihood of failure.

That said, don’t feel intimidated - this can happen due to not caring for your prosthetic and fake teeth. It will be easy and possible for you to pass floss down deep around the abutment site without causing discomfort, pain or bleeding. Patients with All-on-4 should aim to floss daily as part of their oral hygiene routine to ensure bacteria from the abutment is removed and cleaned regularly.

The best way to clean All-on-4

The best way to maintain your prosthetic is by treating it like natural teeth, where you’ll need to floss around the abutment areas and use an electric toothbrush for the fake teeth.

• Products we recommend include Super Floss (£2.78 at Superdrug)

Super Floss is split into three parts: a stiffened end to floss under appliances, a spongy part to clean around appliances and wide spaces and regular floss to remove plaque under the gum line.

• The green section of the floss is firmer and will allow you to floss adequately under the bridge, doing all of the cleaning for you.
• Then, the foamy part, which is thicker, will mechanically clean the underside of the bridge and the gums. With Super Floss, you can clean your whole mouth.

Plus, when we hand-make your prosthetic at our clinic in London, we’ll spend a lot of time on the design process to ensure your bridge is as easy to clean as possible.

Explore All-on-4 further

• The costs
• The treatment
• The procedure
• Alternative options