Professional oral cavity hygiene

   Good oral hygiene and appropriate care of your teeth is the path towards a healthy smile. Even the most simple oral hygiene procedures help to prevent caries, maintain healthy gums and enable you to enjoy your own natural teeth longer. The appropriate hygiene is a preventive rather than treatment method and that is why the responsible care and cleanness of the oral cavity must be maintained to help prevent any damage to the teeth or gums. Professional oral hygiene is often the first-stage of treatment before periodontal, surgical and therapy procedures, including tooth whitening or a prosthesis.

   Oral hygiene is individual (personal) and professional. The individual oral hygiene includes everything the person does at home: tooth brushing, use of dental floss and mouthwash, maintenance of a removable prosthesis, etc. Professional oral hygiene means the procedures performed in the odontology room.

Why is regular professional oral hygiene so important?

• Despite how hard we try to clean our teeth using a brush, it is almost impossible to do it really well. Some plaque or coating always remains on the molars, tongue surface or tooth sulci unreachable by a toothbrush. The soft white plaque comes from the remnants of food, saliva and oral cavity bacteria not dangerous by themselves. If the plaque remains on a tooth a long time, the bacteria activate chemical reactions (especially encouraged by sweet or starchy food) resulting in various acids. The acids damage the tooth surface: it begins erupting, caries develop and a cavity forms.

• The soft plaque remaining on a tooth surface for a long time and affected by saliva hardens and gradually turns into calculus or tartar. It is a kind of hard layer of lime at the gums and on the tooth surface; it can be of various sizes and colours from white to dark brown. The aggregates irritate gums; the gums may get red, start bleeding or become sensitive. Over a longer period, the gum tissue begins to decline, and then the bone surrounding the tooth declines as well and, finally, the tooth is lost. Calculus or tartar deposits cannot be removed by means of individual oral hygiene; oral hygienists perform the procedure.

• Insufficient oral hygiene often causes a bad smell from the oral cavity, which reduces self-confidence and affects communication with other people.
• Studies have shown that the constant accumulation of bacteria inside the oral cavity causes access of the bacteria to the digestive system, bloodstream and various organs. This may encourage the development of heart, lung, kidney and other diseases.
• Oral hygiene is also important to ensure the long life of tooth prostheses such as crowns, implants and removable dental plates. It also helps people wearing braces protect their tooth surfaces from caries.

How is this performed?

   A specialist evaluates the oral condition of the patient, asks about the methods used at home, explains how to brush teeth correctly and effectively, answers questions and offers advice.

Tooth plaque and tartar are removed using special instruments. The tartar is removed with an ultrasound scaler, the gently vibrating tip of which carefully removes plaque from the tooth surface without damaging it or causing pain. However, if the teeth are very sensitive or unpleasant sensations bother a patient during the procedure, a local anaesthesia may be applied. The tartar is removed from the difficult-to-reach areas, for example, the inter-teeth, with the use of manual instruments.

After mechanical removal of the plaque and tartar, the DentalPRO clinic uses the advanced and safe “Air Flow” method: it affects the tooth surfaces with a heavy flush of pearl powder mixed with water and air. Thus, even the smallest surface inequalities are reached to remove the plaque caused by coffee, tobacco or other colorants. The particles of the powder are round and not sharp, so they do not scratch the tooth surface. The teeth become noticeably whiter after the procedure.

Finally, the teeth are polished with brushes, rubber discs and polishing paste. The tooth surface becomes even, shiny and soft; and the plaque then accumulates on it at a much slower rate.

You will be pleasantly surprised with the significant changes after the short and painless professional procedure. The tooth surface will become even and as shiny as glass and the sensation of freshness and cleanness will make you really happy. If you follow the advice given by the specialist, gum redness and bleeding will shortly disappear.

Every person, whether they have any complaints or not, is advised to undergo a professional oral hygiene procedure every 6 months. Patients inclined to plaque accumulation or those who smoke are advised to visit an oral hygienist 3-4 times a year.

Several suggestions:

• Brush your teeth 2 times a day because you cannot remove all the impurities by a single brushing. Brushing should take at least 2–3 minutes.
• Use chewing gum a couple of minutes after each meal or rinse your mouth out with water. This removes the remnants of food faster.
• Brush your teeth in a vertical “up-and-down” motion rather than horizontally “forward-and-backward”.
• Try to brush the entire surface of your teeth.
• Eat milk products: they are good to your teeth because of the calcium content, which facilitates the recovery of tooth surfaces affected by acids.

The dental hygienists of the DentalPRO clinic will explain the possibilities, necessity, course and safety of any of the above procedures and answer all your questions during your consultation.