Know Before You Go To Your Teeth Cleaning
At the very least, we should all visit the dentist twice a year for a professional teeth cleaning treatment to prevent the excessive build-up of plaque. Left untreated, plaque can lead to tooth decay and diseased gums. People often neglect the simple chore of visiting their dentist for a good teeth cleaning.
Teeth cleanings are essential not just for clean teeth, but a healthy mind and body as well. But for such a routine visit, there’s lots that people don’t know about. Here’s what you should know and what you should expect out of your next teeth cleaning.
Many people see the mouth as separate from the rest of their body. But the reality is that it’s all connected — and problems in your mouth can cause or even act as an indicator of disease in other parts of your body — including dementia and heart disease. Teeth cleanings are an essential part of keeping your mouth, and the rest of your body, disease-free. I’ve designed this guide to give you everything you need to know to get a quality teeth cleaning, get your money’s worth, and what to expect.
Find Out Your Family History
You might know if there is cancer or heart disease in your family in case your doctor asks — and gum disease family history is just as important. Find out what type of gum disease and how severe. It’s not exactly dinner time conversation but it doesn’t hurt to ask. There’s a strong genetic predilection for gum disease and this information can help your dentist with your teeth cleanings and overall care.
How often should I get my teeth cleaned?
Responsible dental care will give you clean teeth, a healthy mouth, and a confident smile. The American Dental Association recommends that you visit your dentist at least once a year to get a routine examination and cleaning. If you have a history of periodontal disease, you should get your teeth cleaned more often in order to prevent the recurrence of infections or disease. You should also have your teeth cleaned more often if you suffer from chronic conditions such as diabetes or heart disease due to their link to dental problems.
If you smoke, you should consider quitting. Smoking can permanently stain your teeth and create other tooth and gum problems. If you do not intend to quit smoking, you should get your teeth cleaned more frequently. Talk to your dentist to find out exactly how often you should get your teeth cleaned.
Find Out If You’ll Need an Antibiotic
We all have bacteria in our mouths and certain dental treatments can allow that bacteria to enter the bloodstream (called bacteremia). For most of us, this isn’t a problem. A healthy immune system prevents these bacteria from causing any harm. When you have a teeth cleaning, the bacteria that are in your mouth can get into the bloodstream after the proceure. This is very common, well-known, and safe — if you’re healthy. For certain groups of people, there is concern that this bacteremia could cause an infection elsewhere in the body. An antibiotic makes sure you cover all your bases.
We need teeth cleanings for two reasons:
The mouth is an area that’s completely different from the entire body, and it takes quite a beating from the food we eat and the talking we do all day long. And this unique environment requires special care. Teeth cleanings remove the buildup of plaque and tartar. This buildup is for the most part natural — kind of like how a boat picks up barnacles just by being in the ocean. But too much buildup leads to gum disease. The reason tartar needs to be removed is because your body sees it as a foreign invader. As with any other foreign invader, like a flu bug or an infection, your body “sends in the troops” using the immune system to fight off the infection. There is a battle in your mouth at all times, and the war is never over. Teeth cleanings level the playing field by keeping things in check.
Gum disease is when your body’s immune system is responding to this tartar buildup with inflamed and bleeding gums. The immune system response is successful at killing off invaders like infection and flu bugs, but at a cost: like a war, there are innocent bystanders that get slaughtered. As gum disease progresses, so does the destruction to your bone and tissues in your mouth. Your immune system is meant only to fight off infection for a short period of time — chronic activation of the immune system means it can get worn out and it won’t be as strong to fight off an illness. Chronic activation of the immune system can lead to diseases in the rest of your body. That’s why preventing gum disease reduces risk of stroke, heart disease, and dementia.
At a certain stage, this damage is irreversible, so prevention is the best way to maintain overall health and keep beautiful teeth for a lifetime — and teeth cleanings are a critical piece of this prevention.
What Is a Teeth Cleaning?
A professional teeth cleaning is done by the hygienist at a dentist’s office. The hygienist uses tools to remove tartar from your teeth — both above and below where the gum meets the tooth.
What to Ask For
While you’re there for your teeth cleaning, ask your dentist for a diagnosis for stage of gum disease. This will give you some idea of where to go from here. You can have direction until you know where you’re starting from.
During the Appointment What You Should Expect
Your hygienist should explain what work is being done, why it’s being done, and why your teeth may be sensitive or why your gums are bleeding. You can ask for a mirror or an intra-oral camera (a more hi-tech version of the mirror) which will allow you to watch your hygienist working and understand what’s being done to your teeth. It’s one thing to hear your hygienist say, “You really need to pay more attention to your back molars.” But it’s quite another thing to actually see your hygienist scraping tartar from your back molars so you can following up with proper brushing and flossing at home. Your dentist or hygienist should give you an updated primer on proper brushing and flossing technique. Follow through after a teeth cleaning is everything, so use this opportunity to get a full demo of what you should be doing at home to keep your mouth disease-free and healthy.
Step 1: A Physical Exam
Most teeth cleanings are performed by a dental hygienist. Before the actual cleaning process begins, they start with a physical exam of your entire mouth. The dental hygienist uses a small mirror to check around your teeth and gums for any signs of gingivitis (inflamed gums) or other potential concerns. If major problems are detected, they might call the dentist to make sure it’s okay to proceed.
Step 2: Removing Plaque and Tartar
With the small mirror to guide them, the dental hygienist uses a scaler to get rid of plaque and tartar around the gum line, as well as in between the teeth. You’ll hear scraping, but this is normal! The more tartar there is in your mouth, the more time is needed to scrape a particular spot. We brush and floss to stop plaque from building up and hardening into tartar. Once you have tartar, you can only remove it at the dentist’s office. So if this is your least favorite part of the teeth cleaning process, the lesson is to brush and floss more often!
Step 3: Gritty Toothpaste Cleaning
After your teeth are completely tartar-free, the hygienist brushes them with a high-powered electric brush. They make that infamous grinding noise. While it sounds scary, it’s a great way to get a deep clean and remove any tartar left behind from the scaler. Professional cleanings use toothpaste that smells and tastes like regular toothpaste, though you can often choose between flavors. However, it has a gritty consistency that gently scrubs your teeth. This occasional polishing of the teeth is deemed safe at the dentist’s office twice a year. But don’t be so harsh with your teeth at home, as you’ll wear down the enamel.
Step 4: Expert Flossing
Whether you floss regularly at home or not, nothing beats an expert flossing session! Your dental hygienist can get deep in between your teeth and locate any potential trouble spots where you might bleed at the gums. This might seem pointless if you floss at home, but having a professional floss your teeth also removes any leftover plaque or toothpaste from steps two and three.
Step 5: Rinse!
Next, you rinse out your mouth to get rid of any debris. Your dental hygienist will usually use a rinse that contains liquid fluoride.
Step 6: Fluoride Treatment
The last step of the cleaning process is a fluoride treatment. This treatment is used as a protectant for your teeth to help fight against cavities for several months. Your dental hygienist will ask you what flavor you like best (mint? lemon? bubblegum?). They’ll then place the foamy gel (or sometimes it is in the form of a sticky paste) into a mouthpiece that fits over your teeth. It’s usually left on your teeth for one minute.
After the Teeth Cleaning
No matter whether you have gum disease or not, or what stage gum disease you have, your oral hygiene at home is critical. Follow through after your teeth cleaning is everything.
Make sure you are:
Brushing and flossing after meals, or at least twice per day.
Eating a diet rich in vegetables
Making an appointment for every three months if you have gum disease, or every six months if you don’t have gum disease and are just maintaining good health.
Gum disease is easy to prevent, but a hard disease to get rid of. Home care is essential — your dentist and hygienist can’t do it all for you at these appointments.
Teeth cleanings and exams for children
Teeth cleanings and exams should start from a very young age. This is important for ensuring that baby teeth grow in properly and stay healthy until the adult teeth are ready to come in. Many people don’t realize how important healthy baby teeth are. Children can get cavities and gum disease just like adults do with the difference being that children are less capable of understanding or dealing with discomfort. Dental cleanings and examinations at least twice a year. This way we can remove harmful plaque and bacteria in order to prevent cavities. By building a rapport with our young patients, they will feel more relaxed during their dental appointments and visiting the dentist becomes fun instead of intimidating.
Parents should take the time to read stories about going to the dentist and play games by teaching children how to examine their toy’s teeth. These little steps can help children to feel comfortable when getting their own teeth cleaned. By doing so twice a year, their baby teeth are more likely to stay in until they are supposed to fall out, and their adult teeth will also stay healthier.
Cleaning our own teeth
The more effective we are at cleaning our own teeth, the easiest it will be when we go to the dentist’s office for a teeth cleaning. Although we have been cleaning our teeth since toddlerhood, it never hurts to go over a few simple principles for efficient teeth cleaning at home:
Concentrate on the nooks and crannies, the tiny spaces in between teeth and close to the gums to remove all plaque and old food.
Brush for at least two minutes, twice a day, in the morning and at night. Cleaning your teeth at least this frequently will help keep plaque at bay.
Visiting your dentist twice a year for a professional dental cleaning and cleaning your own teeth according to the principles above should protect your teeth and gums and keep you smiling brightly from childhood to well into your retirement.
Professional teeth cleanings are scheduled twice a year, while X-rays are normally done once a year. Still, depending on what your dentist or dental hygienist observes in your mouth, they might do other exams during your visit. For children, a dentist may recommend molar sealants to help prevent cavities in hard-to-brush areas.
Whether you need any additional steps or not, the key is to keep going back to the dentist for regular teeth cleanings to prevent problems altogether. By understanding what’s going on in advance, you’ll feel more at ease — and maybe even look forward to these important appointments!
