Dental Hygiene
Keeping your teeth and gums healthy is just as important as keeping the rest of your body healthy. In addition to regular brushing and flossing at home, routine dental cleanings by our hygienists remove a build-up of bacteria. At your cleaning we treat and prevent a variety of problems including tooth decay and gum and bone infections.
Consistent dental cleanings keep your teeth and gums healthy, and can actually aid in the reduction of your risk for heart disease, stroke, and diabetes and even cancer. The same bacteria found in the mouth can cause major systemic and immune system disease.
Gum Disease
Gum disease or periodontal disease is one of the leading causes of tooth loss. Part of your comprehensive exam is a periodontal assessment which includes measuring the depth of the periodontal pockets around each tooth. Based on the depth of the pockets, your treatment plan for periodontal therapy is determined. If you have no evidence of pocketing you are one of the lucky people that a preventive (or regular) level of cleaning works well for.
If you have active disease present which is represented by bleeding, tenderness or increased depth of the pockets around your teeth, then a more therapeutic level of care is what is needed for you. Scaling and root planing is a thorough removal of deposits that have attached to the roots of the teeth. Typically there is a loss of the supportive bone surrounding the teeth because of the hard deposit and plaque present. Based on the number of pockets present in your mouth a treatment plan is discussed to include preventive cleaning or scaling and root planing.
In summary, always remember there are levels of hygiene care this will be part of your discussion with our hygienists and Dr. Woolwine. Feel free to give us a call if you have any questions.