October 5th, 2010
In the past, a dental check up would involve the dentist examining your teeth for dental problems before spending some time giving them a basic clean. Because of the work load and appointment times dentists could offer, it often meant that they could not be as thorough as they wanted to be and your teeth were not left looking as beautifully clean as they could. These facts led to the gradual rise of the dental hygienist, a professional solely dedicated to making the teeth as clean and healthy as possible.
Dental hygienists work in tandem with dentists, discussing what the patient requires and carrying out specific hygiene tasks recommended by the patient. They do not deal with the functional and health aspects of the teeth (this is still covered by the main dental appointment) but this means that both the dentist has ample time to carry out a thorough check up and the hygienist has enough time to carry out a complete deep clean. The best of both worlds.
Hygienists primarily use techniques called scaling and polishing to ensure that the teeth are free from plaque, tartar and bacteria. They use the familiar scaling hook to scrape the tooth enamel clean, skilfully avoiding causing any pain or damage to the gums or enamel itself. They then polish the teeth smooth so that it is very hard for plaque and bacteria to stick to the newly cleaned teeth. Not only will this keep your teeth looking great but they will also have that amazing newly cleaned feeling.
Dental hygienists in West London also recommend a treatment called preventative dentistry. This aims to clean the teeth and encourage the patient to follow a dental hygiene plan so that the teeth remain as clean as they possible can. This has proved to be very effective at preventing dental problems such as decay.
February 9th, 2010
The feeling of newly cleaned teeth when you’ve just been to the dentist is hard to beat when just cleaning them yourself. Even the most thorough clean involving brushing and flossing can’t match the cleaning you can have performed by a dentist or dental hygienist. This is because the dentist or hygienist uses techniques known as scaling and polishing to completely clean the teeth. Scaling in particular is probably not the most pleasant experience in the world but it is necessary to achieve the levels of cleanliness important for healthy teeth.
When scaling the teeth, the dentist will use a small implement with a hook at the end. This is used to carefully remove tartar from the teeth without damaging any of the enamel. It is necessary to scale teeth to remove tartar because it cannot be removed with normal brushing. Unlike plaque, which can be cleaned with a normal toothbrush, tartar is hard and sticks to the teeth very firmly. If tartar is not removed it can cause decay and gum disease which lead to nasty infections and ultimately tooth loss. This can be very painful, very expensive and also very embarrassing.
When the teeth have been fully scaled and all the tartar removed, the dentist will then polish them using a mechanical polisher. This removes any further residual plaque and leaves the tooth enamel smooth and free of debris. This makes it hard for the plaque to stick to, protecting the teeth from any future decay. To be fully effective these processes need to be repeated on a regular basis. By visiting a West London dentist or dental hygienist every six months for scaling and polishing you can give your teeth the best chance of staying clean, healthy and free of decay.
January 4th, 2010
Nurses are to hospital patients what dental hygienists are to dental patients, they are our unsung heroes according to a West london dentist. Prevention is their speciality, and the skills needed to perform the vocation correctly need a lot of study time. You’ll never meet an unfriendly one, and their advice is always given so simply that we often kick ourselves for not thinking of it first. A hygienist will teach us how to do the most basic things to benefit our oral care, and often it is amazing to discover that we are doing the right things, but wrongly. As my mother used to always says “in the old we didn’t have them, and we did it all wrong as it was handed down from generation to generation”, today every dental surgery has a hygienist on duty to advise on the best preventative methods. The dentist provides this service because they don’t want to keep treating you for the same problems; it is often just bad habits, or the lack of any hygiene habits, that keeps us coming back for expensive and uncomfortable treatment. Brushing your teeth the correct way and using the right brush for you is something that a hygienist can advise on. How to floss properly and how often is another simple way of slowing down problems. These are just a few of the problems that a dental hygienist is trained to teach us, and they will explain why it is so vital as well, which in itself is a great way to get people to follow advice. Long gone are the days when a dental assistant would simply hand you a leaflet on the way out, their advice is there to make sure we make less visits to the dentist’s chair.
