Dental Hygiene therapy is vital to attaining and maintaining excellent dental health. When you practice consistent dental hygiene at home, such as brushing and flossing your teeth at least twice a day, in partnership with your dentists’ prescribed dental hygiene treatment plan, you can enjoy a lifetime of dental health benefits.
Gum Hygiene Treatment
Dental hygiene care can begin as early as with your child’s first tooth and gentle cleaning with a soft cloth and warm water. As your children grow, their dental hygiene habits should grow as well, including regular brushing and their beginning visits with your dentist and dental hygienist, combined with fluoride applications to strengthen teeth where suitable. Education about dental hygiene, available with your Oatlands Dental Lounge Hygienist and dentist in Weybridge, will help your children understand the importance – and even the fun – of maintaining their dental hygiene.
Adult dental health can come under risk when poor or neglected dental hygiene, along with medications that may affect dental health, food choices that may damage teeth, and smoking, open opportunities for bacteria to attack teeth and gum tissue.
At Oatlands Dental Lounge, your dentist’s prescribed dental hygiene treatment plan will be tailored to your ongoing dental health status. Your dentist will provide a clear prescription for our hygienists to work from. Your dental hygiene treatment plan puts pro-active, preventative care therapies in place that protect against anticipated dental health issues as well as identifying potential threats to your dental health, such as the start of decay and cracks, chips or other damage in teeth.
Gum disease
A healthy tooth. As plaque builds up, the gum and bone may begin to recede. Sometimes the gum recedes with the bone and sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, the tooth may become mobile.
Flossing
Debris accumulates between the teeth. If not removed, bacteria will develop and plaque will form. Use the floss in a vertical action and rub both sides of the adjacent teeth carefully avoiding the gum in between the teeth.
Manual brushing
Use small circular movements with the brush held at 45 degrees to the tooth. Move systematically around the mouth. Remember to clean the inside surfaces and the biting surfaces. Don’t forget behind the top and bottom teeth. A good technique will take 2 minutes.
Interdental brushing
The TePe interdental brush is used to clean in between teeth. Turning the brush on insertion will help access. Used daily, it removes plaque and food debris where your usual brush cannot reach. For spaces in the back of the mouth, bend the brush in a slight curve (but never at right angle) as this will help you access the more difficult-to-reach areas. Choice of 8 colour-coded sizes are available to help clean different sized spaces.
Power Brushing
Angle the bristles at 45º to the gum line. There’s no need to scrub – hold the brush in position and after a few seconds sweep the bristles away from the gum. Repeat around the outer and inner surfaces of all teeth, particularly effective inter-dentally. The whole procedure should take about 2 minutes.
Gum Disease Treatments
Plaque represents a threat to your dental health because it irritates your gum tissues, causing them to become inflamed and to easily bleed, and allowing the bacteria living in the plaque to enter your gum tissues. This condition, if left untreated by your dentist, leads to Gingivitis, a mild form of gum disease, and can advance to Periodontitis, a serious gum disease where the gums pull away from the teeth and infection ‘pockets’ form. Without appropriate dental care, and good oral hygiene habits, periodontitis can lead to the destruction of gum tissue and bone that supports your teeth. This may eventually cause loosening of teeth, often accompanied by pain and bad breath, or halitosis.
By following a strong self-care programme in prescribed partnership with your dentist and dental hygienist, you can avoid the potential of gum disease and enjoy the benefits of clean teeth.
Dental Hygiene Treatments
Dental hygiene treatment plans may include such procedures as teeth cleaning and scaling, as well as preventative measures such as the use of a fluoride rinse or gel. Your dentist or dental hygienist will use a local anaesthetic, if necessary, for your comfort during your dental hygiene treatment, if some teeth require deeper cleaning. Your treatment plan will adjust the frequency of your dental hygiene visits, depending upon the health of your gums.
Should the gum disease (periodontitis) be at a severe or advanced stage, we have in-house periodontists who can provide a consultation to assess and plan future treatment, manage the case personally, and review for progress. This in-house service allows prompt, efficient and comfortable treatment.
Measuring the depth of periodontal pockets is a common technique which will help establish the patient’s condition and measure the change in that condition. A special probe is used and measurements recorded in order.
