When Do You Become Prone To Periodontal Cleanings?

When dentists suggest you visit them for dental exams twice a year, the suggestion is often ignored by most who think nothing can go wrong with their mouths in six months. For unknown reasons, people don’t understand their oral health is, in reality, the window of their overall health. People must take excellent care of their teeth, failing which their overall health suffers.

When dentists suggest you visit them for dentist’s exams, they don’t specify a regular cleaning is also included in the exams. Prophylactic cleanings are part of preventive dental care, and the ADA recommends that you have two cleanings every year. Dental scaling help prevents severe issues from arising.

During dental exams, your dentist checks your mouth to identify signs of cavities, abscesses, or oral cancer. After they confirm everything is alright with your mouth, they hand you over to the dental hygienist.

Dental hygienists thoroughly clean your teeth by removing plaque, tartar, and bacteria from the surfaces and between your teeth using unique instruments designed for the purpose. If you have any stains on your teeth, the hygienist will remove them as well. The regular cleaning continues with the hygienist polishing your teeth and giving you a fluoride treatment to strengthen your enamel in your battle against cavities.

When you return after six months, the hygienist removes all plaque buildup from your teeth between visits. However, when you ignore regular cleanings, you invite severe conditions like periodontal disease in your mouth, making you prone to periodontal cleaning.

What Is Periodontal Cleaning?

Periodontal cleaning is similar to regular cleanings with some differences. In this case, you must schedule appointments every three months instead of six.

Periodontal cleaning is not preventive care and is required to manage existing problems with your oral health. When you visit the dentist in Culver city for periodontal cleaning, the hygienist removes plaque and hardened tartar just like regular cleanings. However, they will get deep between your teeth until they reach your gum line. The procedure is called dental Scaling and root planning.

Additionally, they will examine the pockets created by periodontal disease. If they notice any inflammation in the pockets, the dental hygienist cleans the area with antiseptic to disinfect and control the infection or inflammation.

Now that you know the differences between a periodontal cleaning and regular cleaning, we hope you won’t ignore suggestions for dentist’s exams every six months.

What Precisely Is Periodontal Disease?

Periodontal disease is an infection of the gums, also called periodontitis. When you don’t act against periodontal disease early, the infection spreads to destroy the soft tissue in your mouth and lead to tooth loss. The symptoms indicating you have periodontal disease are:

• Swollen gums.
• Bright red or purple gums.
• Bleeding gums.
• Pain when chewing and bad breath.
• Gaps developing between your teeth and receding gums.

If you have periodontal disease, it is an indication that your overall health is at risk. Research reveals that maintaining your oral health excellently is the key to keeping your overall health in great condition. Periodontal disease can lead to problems with your overall health making you susceptible to diabetes, osteoporosis, heart disease, respiratory diseases, and cancer. Researchers aren’t sure how these conditions are interlinked with your mouth but have confirmed they are undoubtedly linked.

If you want to keep your overall well-being in prime condition, you must make every effort to ensure you never come into contact with periodontal disease. Preventing periodontal disease is not challenging if you maintain excellent dental hygiene.

The early stages of periodontal disease gingivitis also have similar symptoms as described above. Gingivitis develops without providing any warning signs and is undetectable unless you are mindful of the symptoms. It is why dentists recommend dental exams every six months to detect mysterious issues in your mouth.

You may think some blood on your toothbrush or dental floss results from aggressive brushing and flossing. However, you may fail to realize the problem is entirely different and is better identified by a qualified dental professional. Gingivitis develops because you allow plaque to harden into tartar by maintaining improper dental hygiene. Gingivitis is entirely preventable and even reversible with proper dental care and regular cleanings from the dentist. Unfortunately, hardened tartar is challenging to remove and is practically impossible by brushing and flossing. Regular cleanings are the only method available to remove hardened tartar.

When you ignore dentist’s exams every six months, you allow the hardened plaque and tartar to advance to periodontal disease. It is when you require periodontal cleanings frequently to control the infection because the problem isn’t curable. Therefore if you are recommended dental exams and cleanings by your dentist every six months, you must make up your mind to visit your dentist and prevent the need for periodontal cleanings.