The Importance of Regular Dental Cleanings
It doesn’t matter how hard you try to keep your mouth at peak health with a regular oral health routine at home, chances are something is quite literally going to slip through the cracks. You are almost certain to miss a spot or two that’s why it’s important to visit a downtown dentist in Vancouver for regular dental cleanings.
The teeth and gums have plenty of nooks and crannies where bacteria can hide, plaque can build up and infection and disease can gain a foothold. When that happens, the situation can become very nasty.
Regular professional cleaning is essential to ensure that doesn’t happen. Your dentist is able to get into all those nooks and crannies, removing any plaque build-up that has formed out of reach of your toothbrush or dental floss.
An unhealthy mouth not only spoils the impact of our smile, and leads to dental expenses in terms of repair, but it can also lead to serious illness. It might even cost you your life.
Breeding ground for disease
- Plaque build-up and infections in your mouth lead to tooth erosion and decay, and cause periodontal or gum disease with possible bone and tooth loss, but the trouble goes even further than that. Links have been discovered between gum disease and diabetes, one of the world’s top killer diseases. Oral bacteria and infection are said to contribute to cardiovascular diseases like strokes and clogged arteries as well as contribute to infection of the heart’s inner lining (endocarditis).
- Oral cancer, which affects the gums, tongue, mouth and throat, is becoming increasing prevalent, causing the death of one person every hour in the United States alone. Early detection could well have saved some of those people and early detection is usual made during dental cleaning procedures.
- Dental fillings do not last forever. Not expected to last more than 8 to 10 years, some can last for 20. When they do start to break down, food and bacteria can get under the old filling and cause decay deep in the tooth, forming a hidden cesspool of decay and bacteria.
Early detection can save lives
Regular dental cleaning sessions give your dentist the chance to monitor what is happening in your mouth. The earlier any signs of disease or health threats are detected, the more chance you have of preventing or treating them.
Aesthetic benefits
Professional cleaning followed by routine polishing can remove a lot of the stains that form on your teeth, brightening and whitening them considerably. This will put a whole new shine on your smile.
Types of dental cleaning
Your dentist will advise you on which type of cleaning is indicated after examining your mouth and taking X-Rays. It could be all you need is a standard prophylaxis or preventative cleaning, involving scraping off plaque and tartar from the tooth surfaces and below the gum-line.
If there are signs of gum disease, and depending on how far advanced it is, other levels of cleaning may be used. Next on the scale is a gross debridement to remove plaque and calculus as well as allow better access for probing and diagnosis.
Then comes root planing, or “deep cleaning”. This removes plaque and tartar from under the gum, right down to the bottom of the periodontal pockets of the teeth. The root surfaces are then planed or smoothed so the gum tissue can start to heal.
