Dental cleaning is part of your oral hygiene and involves the removal of dental plaque and tartar from teeth with the intention of preventing cavities (dental caries), gingivitis, and periodontal disease. Professional dental cleanings help keep a fresh, healthy and beautiful smile, and prevent more costly dental work.

Gingivitis

When plaque is left around the teeth, it creates the right condition for bacteria to grow. These bacteria can irritate the gums and create gingivitis (inflammation of the gums). This makes the gums red and more likely to bleed easily. Gingivitis can easily be treated by a professional cleaning and polishing. Afterwars, the patient should use a medicated mouthwash and brush and floss.

If gingivitis is left untreated, the inflammation will work its way down the tooth and form a “pocket”. This pocket is created because the bacterial are actually causing you to loose the bone around your teeth. We can measure the amount of bone loss around each tooth by doing Periodontal Pocket Measurements. Once these pockets have formed, it is much more difficult to clean the bacteria and you will need a scaling or deep cleaning of the pockets to get them clean. At this stage, gingivitis (inflammation of the gums) becomes periodontal disease (disease of the bone and supporting structures).

Periodontal Disease

Periodontal Disease is a silent disease and can slowly erode the bone and supporting structures of the mouth without any noticeable signs to the patient. If you wait too long, the teeth will actually become loose and by then, it is usually too late to reverse the process.