Why is Dental Cleaning essential ?

Why is Dental Cleaning essential ?

Dental Cleaning is a procedure in which the dental professionals aim to clean the external and internal surfaces of the teeth, ensuring complete ORAL HYGIENE.

Patient’s Mouth or Oral Cavity is actually said to be a MIRROR as in, the healthy state of oral cavity reflects a healthy state of entire body, and, similarly the unhealthy state of Oral cavity depicts the unhealthy state of the Body.

Maintenance of a Good Oral health is mandatory to ensure the overall health of a human body.

General Oral Hygiene practices like Tooth brushing, Flossing, Using Mouth washes, etc. can be done effectively by the patients themselves and these should be done regularly in order to maintain good oral hygiene.

TOOTH BRUSHING is recommended to be done at least twice daily, once in the Morning and once before going to Bed, by the application of light pressure onto the brush and using a MEDIUM or Least hard bristled Tooth brush. Tooth Brushing is the most effective if done properly and consistently and thus contributes the most to the maintenance of Good Oral Hygiene.

FLOSSING should also be done at least twice daily or after every meal, is specially recommended in patients having spaces between the Teeth; which become the potential sites for Food Lodgement, eventually resulting in DENTAL CAVITIES, precipitating symptoms like Pain and Sensitivity.

MOUTH WASHES are also advised to be used to maintain oral hygiene. The mouth washes are usually comprised of chemical compounds like Chlorhexidine, Hydrogen Peroxide etc. which have got an antimicrobial action, and chemicals like Peppermint which help the patients with Bad breath, also known as Halitosis, by delivering a certain feeling of freshness in the Oral Cavity.

All of these are the general oral hygiene measures which can be performed by the patients at their homes.

Then there is Dental Cleaning, called SCALING, which is performed by the DENTAL PROFESSIONALS, in their DENTAL CLINICS.   

SCALING is done by the help of instruments known as ‘SCALERS’ which use the ultrasonic vibrations on the surface of teeth, in order to get rid of all the unwanted substances covering the teeth.

IS PROFESSIONAL DENTAL CLEANING ESSENTIAL ?

Whenever we have our Meals, the tooth surfaces get covered by a Soft, thin, BIOFILM called PLAQUE. The PLAQUE comprises of Food Debris, Saliva and Micro-organisms. Since it is soft, it can be easily removed by the general oral hygiene measures as discussed earlier.

But if the oral hygiene measures are not carried out properly and consistently by the patient either deliberately or due to any other reason; like old age, any physical/mental deformity, or any other dental abnormlalities.

Then overtime, this PLAQUE starts getting calcified and leads to the formation of a hard and calcific material on the tooth surface called CALCULUS. The CALCULUS cannot be removed by tooth brushes, and it is this reason for which PROFESSIONAL CLEANING IS RECOMMENDED.

This is usually advised to be done every 6 months for a patient, or 3 months depending upon the oral hygiene of the patient.

This can be easily carried out in a single sitting or takes a maximum of 2 sittings. It is extremely comfortable to the patients.

This is necessary to ensure healthy Gums because otherwise the plaque and calculus deposition may lead to inflammation in the gums, and the patients start noticing Bleeding from Gums, or even Swollen Gums.

Gums are the support system of the teeth, thus inflamed Gums may lead to the loosening of the teeth and therefore, the patients may have difficulty while eating food.

Looking forward to serve you at DENTEM.

 Dr. Aayushi Narang

(Endodontist, DENTEM)