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A professional teeth cleaning is one of the easiest ways to maintain a healthy smile. Having your teeth cleaned regularly at Century Dental helps reduce your risk of serious dental diseases, including gum disease and cavities. It is also an excellent way to leave your teeth feeling smooth and clean and gain beautifully fresh breath.
Hopefully, you already have a good oral care routine where you brush your teeth at least twice daily and floss every day. However, even after thoroughly cleaning your teeth, you will inevitably miss some areas. The whole point of cleaning your teeth is to remove plaque and food debris.
Dental plaque continually forms over tooth surfaces and is a sticky biofilm containing harmful bacteria that feed off leftover food particles trapped between and around your teeth after every meal. As these bacteria feed, they produce harmful toxins and acids that can damage your teeth, causing cavities and infecting and inflaming your gums, resulting in gum disease.
Plaque hardens into calculus or tartar in just two or three days and can no longer be brushed or flossed away. The presence of tartar makes it easier for more plaque to stick to your teeth, so the risk of dental problems increases. At the same time, tartar can look unattractive as it builds up around the gumline, forming a crusty layer that looks discolored and stained.
Having your teeth cleaned professionally removes all plaque and tartar buildup, including those hard-to-reach areas in between your teeth and right at the back of your mouth. Getting rid of this build up makes it easier for you to maintain a healthy mouth.
It’s also the ideal opportunity to get some excellent advice on improving your brushing and flossing routine at home. When we examine your mouth, we can easily identify areas where you may fail to brush properly or are missing entirely. We can also provide useful tips and tricks on brushing more thoroughly.
Professional dental cleaning shouldn’t feel painful, and our experienced hygienists will first examine your mouth to check the general condition of your teeth and gums before using special ultrasonic dental tools to loosen calculus buildup. Once the calculus is loosened, it is scaled or scraped away using different dental tools. After all the calculus is removed, your teeth are carefully polished.
Polishing your teeth serves two purposes: it helps to smooth the cleaned surfaces, and the smoother surface makes it harder for new plaque to adhere. Dental polishing also helps remove some surface stains, so your teeth look a little brighter and sparkle once treatment is finished. Finally, your hygienist will carefully floss between each tooth to check all tartar is thoroughly removed.
Your hygienist will also discuss your dental health and make recommendations on improving your oral care routine. If you have questions, be sure to ask them, as dental education is an important part of our practice. We love educating our patients and empowering them to take control of their dental health.
Teeth cleaning can take anywhere from half an hour to an hour to complete or longer if you have an extensive buildup of plaque and bacteria. Generally, someone with good dental health should allow an hour for a teeth cleaning and dental checkup appointment. After professional teeth cleaning, there is no downtime, and you can go about your everyday activities and eat and drink normally.
A professional dental cleaning is quick and affordable, and if you have dental insurance, it’s almost certainly covered because it is a preventive dental service.
Most adults with reasonable dental health will benefit from six monthly dental cleanings, ideally at the same time as your dental checkup. However, some people with exceptionally good dental health may only need an annual dental cleaning, while others may benefit from more frequent hygiene visits.
For example, anyone with a medical condition that can impact their dental health and increase the risk of dental disease may be advised to have more frequent dental cleanings to protect their dental and general health. Someone with existing dental problems like gum disease may also benefit from more frequent dental cleanings.
When you first visit Century Dental, we conduct a comprehensive dental exam, reviewing your dental and medical health. At this stage, we can determine how frequently you will benefit from professional teeth cleaning or if you need another service called a deep dental cleaning or teeth deep cleaning.
A deep teeth cleaning is a procedure also called scaling and root planing. It is similar to an ordinary hygiene appointment, cleaning your teeth and just below the gumline but provides a much deeper clean. We may suggest you have a deep dental cleaning if you have signs of advanced gum disease or periodontal disease and where your gums have begun to recede.
When gums recede, it exposes the tooth roots, and unlike the crowns of your teeth, these roots are not covered in protective enamel. Instead, they are covered in a layer of cementum that is more easily brushed or eroded, increasing the risk of tooth roots decaying.
During a deep dental cleaning, a hygienist will professionally clean your teeth, scaling and polishing them. They will also scale any exposed tooth roots before planing or smoothing the surfaces. Scaling the exposed tooth roots does leave them slightly rougher, so planing helps to create a smoother surface so it is easier for gum tissue to reattach to the tooth roots. The smoother surface makes it harder for more plaque and tartar to stick to the tooth roots.
A scaling and root planing treatment is very effective for removing plaque and tartar buildup and helping reduce the number of bacteria infecting and inflaming your gums. If you need a scaling and root planing treatment, you might have to repeat this procedure every three or four months to help control the gum infection.
Treatment may be ongoing because severe gum disease can become chronic. If this is the case, we can work out a regular treatment plan to help you regain and maintain good gum health.
We firmly believe dental appointments should never feel painful and take extensive precautions to ensure you feel comfortable and relaxed in the dental chair. When carrying out a deep dental cleaning, your gums may feel a little sensitive due to the infection.
If the infection is severe, we may recommend several appointments to clean your entire mouth, cleaning one or two sections at a time to ensure you feel more comfortable during treatment. We can always use a local anesthetic to reduce the discomfort if you find the process too uncomfortable.
Dental cleaning is covered by your medical or dental insurance in our office.
If it has been a while since you last had your teeth professionally cleaned, please contact Century Dental to arrange your hygiene appointment. We can clean your teeth thoroughly yet gently, leaving your mouth with that super fresh, just been to the dentist feeling and the satisfaction of knowing your gums are in good shape.
Century Medical and Dental Center is an accredited healthcare facility in NY that operates in accordance with Article 28, a public health law. This law regulates and recognizes accreditation for public healthcare facilities, ensuring they are licensed and operated correctly. By undergoing the Article 28 process and achieving accreditation, Century Medical and Dental Center demonstrates its commitment to meeting the highest standards of care.
As a multidisciplinary medical center, we have highly qualified doctors, nurses, and support staff who are working hard to provide the best medical care to patients in Midtown Manhattan, NY, Downtown Brooklyn, NY, including Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Prospect Heights, Park Slope, Clinton Hill, Boerum Hill, Red Hook, and Bedford-Stuyvesant.