Protecting smiles from gum disease
Hygiene appointments are essential in the fight against gum disease. While your oral care routine at home cleans away most plaque and food deposits, your hygienist can carry out a more thorough clean plus check for any signs of gum disease.
Tooth cleaning during your hygiene appointment
At your hygiene appointments, we will provide you with expert advice on the methods and products to use to make sure your teeth are always clean and your breath fresh. We will also monitor your baseline hygiene and gum status. By doing this, we will be able to provide useful feedback to help you to keep your teeth and gums as clean as possible. By investing time in you and advising you on how to improve your oral care routine, we’ll help you to maintain a healthy, happy mouth.The main part of your hygiene appointment involves a thorough clean aimed at removing all plaque and tartar from your tooth surfaces. Brushing and interdental cleaning, such as flossing, at home removes most of the bacteria, however there are spots that are hard to reach which a hygienist can clean using specialist tools.A scale & polish removes stubborn tartar through first softening the tartar using a focused jet of water. This also removes stains from the tooth surfaces. Using special tools called curettes, the hygienist then scales away the tartar. Last is the polish which is a fine paste used to buff the surface, leaving the teeth smooth and silky.
What is gum disease?
Bacteria forms in plaque deposits on the surfaces of our teeth. While these are easily cleaned away when we brush our teeth, some deposits can be left behind in tricky spots, such as between teeth and at the gum line. The gum tissues become aggravated at the presence of bacteria, which causes them to become inflamed. This leads to bleeding gums and sensitivity.This early stage of gum disease, known as gingivitis, can be reversed through visits to the hygienist and regular interdental cleaning. If this stage is left untreated, it can progress to a more aggressive condition where the immune system starts to attack the gum tissue. This stage, periodontitis, isn’t reversible and has to be regularly maintained to prevent gum recession and tooth loss.
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