Many believe that to have healthy teeth it is enough to wash them regularly. However, with the traditional toothbrush it is not possible to clean all the alluvium and the discoloration. Should you check your fore-teeth in the mirror once from the back you will see the brownie-yellow discoloration between the gum and the tooth. This alluvium is the plaque which cannot be removed with the simple washing.
Since plaque is the nest of bacteria multiplication, neglecting it may lead to numerous gum diseases and can be the source of further complications. Therefore we suggest to our patients to participate on a dental hygienic treatment at least two times a year that can be connected to the regular yearly check-ups.
Steps of the dental hygienic treatment:
- Ultrasound plaque removal (scaling)
- Prophyflex treatment (polishing)
- Counselling
Ultrasound plaque removal-scaling
The first step of the dental hygienic treatment is the professional cleaning of the teeth from dental plaque and alluvium. During the scaling process using an ultrasound machine we remove the tough plaque above and under the gum border. It is needed to cool the teeth due to the arosen heat-and besides cooling the petrolantum also extracts and washes away the plaque from the teeth. This treatment may only be inconvenient for patients whose tooth-neck is oversensitive-so for them this is carried out in local anesthesia.
Prophyflex treatment
The tooth surface we polish with a modern machine, Prophyflex, after the scaling. During polishing we actually blow abrasive material to the surface of the teeth on high pressure. That is a bicarbonate powder that mixed with high pressured water removes the different alluvium and discoloring from the teeth surface. It can be used safely for cleaning the hardly available coves and grooves. Polishing happens with a brush and a rubber bell which polishes the tooth surface with abrasive ( granular ) polishing paste. It is appropriate to smoothen the fillings and the sides of the teeth without damaging the gum.
Counselling
The final step of dental hygienic treatment is the counselling. We can prevent or delay the recreation of the plaque with proper counselling, that is why we find it to be important to demonstrate and to practise the applicable dental hygienic steps. We provide several useful information to our patients concerning the usage of proper equipment and treatments as well.