What Does Dental Cleaning Involve in Dentistry?
If your dentist sent a text message reminding you about your scheduled dental cleaning, they merely mention the date of your procedure without giving details of what to expect. If you are apprehensive about dental cleanings, you should understand more about what is involved. Rather than remaining apprehensive, we suggest you read this article providing comprehensive information about dental cleanings and everything you can expect during your appointment.
Reading through this article helps ease your apprehension and enables you to enjoy minty-fresh results from your visit to the dental clinic near you.
What Can You Expect at the Dental Clinic?
A Physical Exam
Dental hygienists perform most cleanings, and before starting the cleaning process, the hygienist begins with a physical exam of your entire mouth. The dental hygienist uses tiny mirrors to view around your teeth and gums, looking for signs of gingivitis causing inflamed gums or other concerns. If any concerning issues are detected, the hygienist will call the dentist to confirm whether they can proceed.
Dental Plaque and Tartar Removal
With tiny mirrors guiding them, hygienists use a scaler to eliminate plaque buildup on your teeth and tartar in your gum line. They proceed similarly between your teeth because plaque and tartar formation also occurs in the spaces. You can expect to hear scraping sounds which are normal. If you have allowed tartar accumulation on your teeth by avoiding dental cleanings, you will likely hear more scraping sounds.
Brushing and flossing help prevent the formation of plaque hardening into tartar. Unfortunately, if you allow hardened tartar to accumulate, brushing your teeth does not help and needs assistance from the dental hygienist.
Gritty Toothpaste Brushing
After plaque and tartar removal, the dental hygienist brushes your teeth with a high-powered electric toothbrush making grinding noises using gritty toothpaste after offering you different flavours to give you a deep clean and remove any tartar remaining on and between your teeth. The grittiness of the toothpaste can make you wonder whether you can use the product at home to avoid dental cleanings later. However, professionals do not suggest using the product at home because it can likely erode tooth enamel if used regularly.
Flossing Demonstration
Whether you use dental floss at home or not hygienist flosses your teeth, getting deep between your teeth to identify trouble spots that might bleed at the gums. The flossing demonstration also helps to remove excess plaque and toothpaste from the gritty cleaning to leave you with brighter teeth.
Rinsing
A dental cleaning is incomplete without rinsing your mouth after the four steps mentioned above. However, when rinsing, you usually receive rinses containing fluoride.
Fluoride Treatment
The ultimate step of the cleaning process is receiving a fluoride treatment to protect your teeth in their fight against cavities for many months. Here again, you receive an offer from the hygienist to choose a flavour you prefer. After you have made your choice, the hygienist applies the fluoride on your teeth, leaving it there for about a minute. Fluoride hardens instantly when it contacts your mouth saliva and allows you to eat and drink 30 minutes after your dental cleaning.
Additional Information
The Canadian Dental Association recommends professional dental cleanings twice yearly and x-rays at least once a year. However, depending on the observations of the dentist in Vancouver, BC, and the hygienist, they might perform more exams during your visit. In addition, children receive suggestions for molar sealants to help prevent cavities in the challenging to brush areas of their mouths. Whether you need additional exams or not, it is crucial to revisit the dentist every six months, expecting to go through the steps mentioned above unless you have other problems affecting you when the dentist decides to perform more exams.
Dental cleanings are painless and comfortable procedures for most unless they have deliberately avoided dental visits for over a year or more and developed the problem of periodontitis in their mouths, making it essential for them to receive deep cleanings and other procedures that help control the infection and prevents its progress. However, if you see Vancouver dentistry every six months, whenever you receive a text message from them, you will find a dental cleaning appointment an excellent technique to meet your dentist to discuss your dental health and make improvements if required, as the dentist suggests.
Enhance Dental Care invites all the patients for six monthly dental cleanings to ensure they don’t have mouth infections aggravating to severe conditions. Now that you have information on what is involved in dental cleanings, you can confidently proceed with your appointment to ensure everything is fine with your dental health.