subject: Dental Cleaning For Healthier Teeth [print this page] When you go to a dentist like Richmond dentist for a tooth cleaning, the dentist will clean your teeth, scrape off hard food deposits, perform a gum evaluation and possibly polish your teeth. The main reason of having your teeth cleaned is to prevent or delay the progression of gum diseases.
The frequency of professional teeth cleaning depends on the health of your teeth and gums. If the cleaning is part of a yearly check-up, the dentist may also wish to take X-rays at this time to make certain no cavities are present and usually, a dental hygienist performs most of the dental cleaning. The dentist will normally take a last look, and perhaps perform some difficult plaque removal toward the end of the cleaning, as well as evaluate the gums for gum disease.
There may be no deposits building up on your teeth if you follow correct dental habit like proper brushing and flossing. But if you have hard food deposits on your teeth, your dentist will have to use tools that may be painful and the tools most commonly used to remove hard deposits from teeth are: hand scalers and ultrasonic scalers. Scalers look a bit like metal hooks and are used to remove hard plaque, especially between teeth. When the dentist is using these scalers this may feel uncomfortable to painful depending upon one's sensitivity level and pain threshold. The length of time since one's last cleaning and the case of plaque build-up are the other factors that may influence pain reaction.
Dentists may also employ a device that shoots water into the mouth, so the person can rinse out plaque several times during the process of dental cleaning. The dentist sometimes uses mouthwash for the same purpose in some cases.
You can request that you dentist use a local anesthetic if you do not want to experience any pain during your cleaning. The local anesthetic enables the cleaning to be more thorough and pain-free. There will be some pain during a tooth cleaning in most cases however painless cleanings happens when there are no hard deposits of food between your teeth.
After the procedure expect a dentist to inquire about your brushing and flossing routine. To maintain your healthy teeth, the dentist like the way Richmond cosmetic dentist do will give advice about proper cleaning and other good dental practices.
