Teeth Cleaning Specialist
Professional teeth cleaning is an essential part of maintaining your oral health. Ramin Ghassemi, DDS, MS, Nina Mojaver, DMD, and the team at Fifth Avenue Dental Arts in San Diego, California, offer both traditional and laser teeth cleanings. Regular teeth cleanings can help you avoid serious issues like tooth decay, gum disease, and even tooth loss. To schedule your next teeth cleaning, call the office, or request an appointment online today.
Teeth Cleaning Q & A
Why are teeth cleanings important?
Although brushing at home is essential, a professional teeth cleaning is the best way to avoid many common oral health concerns, including periodontitis or gum disease and tooth decay.
The primary goal of a teeth cleaning is to remove plaque, bacteria, and tartar that can damage your teeth and gums. Dental cleanings allow your dentist or dental hygienist to detect any cavities or other issues with your oral health before they become major problems. Teeth cleanings also remove surface stains, helping you maintain a bright, healthy smile. What happens during a teeth cleaning?
The first step of your dental cleaning is an oral examination. Your dentist or dental hygienist thoroughly checks your teeth and gums for signs of decay, inflammation, and other abnormalities. If an issue arises, your dentist discusses treatment to help restore your oral health as quickly as possible. The longer issues like cavities are allowed to persist, the more damage they can cause to your teeth and gums.
The next step is the removal of plaque and tartar from the surface of your teeth. Your dentist or dental hygienist uses a small tool called a scaler to scrape and remove built-up plaque and tartar from your teeth.
Bacteria in your mouth causes plaque to form a film over the surface of your teeth. Without proper daily brushing and flossing, this film can harden and turn into tartar. Tartar is very harmful to your oral health and can only be removed with a professional cleaning.
After removing your plaque and tartar, your dentist or dental hygienist uses a gritty toothpaste and a high-powered toothbrush to remove any leftover plaque and tartar and polish your teeth. Finally, your provider flosses in between your teeth to remove any remaining debris.
What is a deep cleaning?
If tartar begins to build upon the surface of your teeth, over time, it can reach below your gumline and form pockets of bacteria. The inflammation and infection caused by these pockets are key indicators of gum disease. A deep cleaning is a nonsurgical treatment used to address early-stage gum disease and remove tartar and bacteria from below your gumline.
Also known as gum therapy, or scaling and root planing, your dentist performs your deep cleaning by using a scaler to remove plaque and tartar from the surface of your teeth, as well as the pockets of bacteria below your gum line.
Fifth Avenue Dental Arts also offers cleanings using laser technology. Laser cleanings allow for a higher level of precision when removing harmful plaque and tartar from your teeth and gums and can be more comfortable than traditional cleanings.
After removing the bacteria, your dentist then smoothes the roots of your teeth to help your gums reattach to the surface of your teeth and prevent pockets from reforming. To schedule your next teeth cleaning, call the office, or request an appointment online today.
