As well as regularly visiting your dentist, hygiene appointments should also be essential to your dental care. Hygienists are qualified members of the dental team who focus on preventing and treating gum disease by promoting good oral hygiene.
Regularly visiting a hygienist will help maintain healthy teeth and gums and protect your overall well-being. Poor gum health has been linked to more severe conditions such as heart disease, respiratory infections, diabetes and dementia.
When plaque and tartar build-up on the surface of your teeth, it creates a perfect environment for bacteria to grow. This bacteria infects the gum tissue and causes it to become inflamed.
The symptoms of gum disease are:
- Inflammation
- Redness
- Bleeding after brushing
- Receding gums
- Bad breath
- Bright red or purplish gums
- Changes in the way your teeth fit together
The early stage of gum disease, also called gingivitis, can be missed as sometimes the symptoms are hard to spot. This stage is treatable, however, and a hygienist can stop it from progressing by removing plaque and tartar from the teeth.
If the gum tissue becomes infected, the condition becomes more severe and develops into periodontitis. This condition can only be treated and not cured. A hygienist or periodontist must see you regularly to stabilise your gum health. In this stage, your gums can start to recede, and so cause your teeth to become loose.
During an appointment, the hygienist will assess the health of your gums and teeth and look for any signs of swelling, inflammation or bleeding. The hygienist may also measure where the gum attaches to the tooth and check for signs of oral cancer.
A hygienist’s role is to carry out the removal of any build-up of plaque and tartar. We use specially designed instruments to remove tartar from the tooth surface and underneath the gum line.
If gum disease has progressed beyond the early stages, a hygienist can remove tartar from the root surface to smooth the area and reduce inflammation of the gum tissue.
We offer Airflow in our Hygiene appointments. AirFlow Stain Removal not only lifts off stubborn stains that can’t be moved with routine brushing but also removes tartar and plaque around the gum line. It is a non-intrusive cleaning method and is known to be much more comfortable than the standard scaling-out treatments.
Airflow uses a fine jet of compressed air, water and fine powder particles to remove staining caused by coffee, tea, red wine, tobacco and some mouthwashes.
