How do I clean around crown and bridge work?

Do you know if you don’t floss you’re leaving as much as 40% of your tooth surfaces untouched and uncleaned? Super flossing is an essential part of your daily oral hygiene for crown and bridge work.

You should brush and clean between your teeth as you would normally. However, food and plaque are more likely to get trapped along the edges of a crown and under a bridge. Therefore, careful cleaning around these restorations is essential every day.

Use dental floss daily to remove plaque from between your natural teeth, and to remove food particles and plaque from around and under your bridge.

How to Floss

1. Thread the floss between the natural tooth (acting as an anchorage to the bridge) and the false tooth of the bridge.

2. Using a sideways action, gently pass the dental floss over the tops of the bridge teeth to clean between the bridge and the gum. Take care not to use excessive force which might dislodge the bridge, and never use a "sawing" action to get the floss between your teeth.

3. Always clean the accessible sides of the anchoring natural teeth too.

It is important that you are comfortable with your new bridge, and that it will last you a long time. Whilst there are several ways to care for it you should ask your First Bite dentist to recommend the best method and technique for you.

Bridges prevent you from using a normal flossing technique, so choose a threading floss that has a stiffened end allowing you to thread it through the gap between the bridge and gums.