Immediately after your appointment (first day)
- Wait an hour or so before eating. Drinking is fine straight away, so if you're starving, smoothies are a great call.
- Stick to softer foods for the first 24 hours, nothing too crunchy or chewy.
- Brush your teeth as normal, just be gentle when going over your new gems. Gentle pressure with a manual brush. If you've got an electric brush, turn it off when brushing over your gem tooth for the first few days.
A note on electric toothbrushes: they're generally not recommended for tooth gems because of the strong vibrations, but I'm not about to tell you to chuck your £80+ brush away just because you've got a temporary gem. My advice is to use it on its lowest setting when going over your gems for the first few days, and whenever it pops into your head after that, just to minimise the impact of the vibrations on the gem.
Maintenance
Healthy teeth = healthy tooth gems. I'm going to sound very similar to your dentist here, but make sure you're keeping up with good oral hygiene, brushing twice a day, flossing, all that good stuff. The healthier your teeth, the better your gems will hold.
A few other things that help:
- Favour chewing on the opposite side to your tooth gems
- Make mindful decisions about certain foods. I don't expect anyone to change their life just because they've got tooth gems, but cutting up apples rather than biting straight into them, that kind of thing, makes a real difference.
Whitening your teeth
Whitening is okay to an extent, but excessive whitening can change your enamel, which means gems might not last as long if you get a lot of whitening done.
One thing people worry about is the tooth underneath the gem not getting whitened, but honestly 99% of the time you won't notice a difference. That part of the tooth is protected by the gem, so it's not exposed to the things staining your teeth between whitening sessions. Obviously if you do some really extreme shade change then maybe, but more often than not it's not noticeable.
Staining
On the other end of the spectrum, staining. The same things that can stain your teeth (coffee, smoking, red wine, turmeric-heavy foods, etc) can also stain the composite around your gem. I recommend following any of the above with a glass of water, and then just making sure you're keeping up with your brushing and flossing will keep stains at bay.
The short version
Look after your teeth, be gentle for the first day or two, and use common sense with anything too hard, crunchy, or staining. That's really all there is to it.
If your gem ever comes loose or you've got a question, message me on WhatsApp and I'll help you out.
Just had your gem done? Book a refresh appointment here when you're ready for a new one, or check the FAQ on my homepage.