One of the best things you can do for your health and appearance is to maintain strong, healthy teeth. Having clean and healthy teeth can help you feel more confident about your appearance and can have a profound impact on your social and emotional health.
Optimal oral health can be easily attained by following simple oral hygiene practices like brushing twice daily, rinsing your mouth after meals, flossing regularly, and using mouthwash.
Over time, poor dental hygiene leads to conditions like plaque, tartar, inflammation of gums, sensitive teeth, and other dental ailments.
When the condition has escalated to such an extent, it is impossible to treat it by following oral hygiene alone. Deep teeth cleaning is a procedure that can provide relief in such conditions, helping you get healthier teeth that can be easily maintained, provided good oral hygiene is adopted.
What are deep teeth cleaning?
Deep teeth cleaning, also referred to as gum scaling, root planing, and gum therapy, is a dental procedure intended to clean the teeth and gums deep down to the roots.
During routine dental cleaning, a dentist will clean the front, behind, and sides of each tooth above the gum line. In deep teeth cleaning, this procedure is repeated by the dentist to clean below the gum line to the base of each tooth to eradicate tartar buildup in the pocket between the root and gums.
If you are suffering from gum disease, the region between your teeth and gums widens and opens up, trapping plaque and tartar. A 3-millimeter or smaller space exists between healthy teeth and gums, but the pocket widens if you suffer from gum diseases like gingivitis.
Deep teeth cleaning may be advised by your dentist when the distance between the gums and teeth has widened to 5 millimeters or more. This might require two or more dental appointments to perform.
Gum or period scaling is performed during the first session, and root planing is performed during the second. Either treatment typically includes numbing the mouth with local anesthesia.
A follow-up might be necessary a few weeks after the procedure to check the results and ensure it is healing as expected.
Process of deep teeth cleaning
Deep teeth cleaning is performed over two major procedures, generally divided into two separate visits. These are usually performed over two visits to ensure optimal tooth cleaning. These are:
- Teeth scaling: Teeth scaling is a process of deep cleaning. It is usually done along with root planing. All of the plaque and tartar from below the gum line are removed during the scaling phase of the procedure.
- Root planing: The next step is root planing, which entails using a tool to clean and polish the tooth's root. This procedure also aids in the gums' ability to reattach to the tooth, reducing the pocket size or space that can harbor harmful buildup.
Deep teeth cleaning is intended to cure gum conditions like gingivitis and prevent them from worsening without necessitating surgery or other treatment procedures.
Benefits of Deep Teeth Cleaning
Tooth cleaning can have multiple long-term benefits for your dental health, such as:
Can prevent gum diseases from worsening:
Deep teeth cleaning involves the removal of bacteria and tartar from the roots of the teeth, which in turn helps reduce inflammation in the gums. This helps stop gum conditions like gingivitis from worsening.
Can help reduce plaque build-up in the future:
Plaque is a natural product of bacteria's interaction with food, which can be avoided by brushing and flossing regularly. Once a plaque buildup is established in your mouth, it becomes susceptible to further buildup despite your best efforts.
Deep teeth cleaning can completely eliminate any buildup, helping you avoid future plaque by adopting simple dental hygiene practices like brushing twice a day.
Can remove tartar:
When plaque isn’t removed by brushing, it becomes thick to form tough tartar, which is nearly impossible to remove with regular dental practices. Deep teeth cleaning helps remove such tartar that can potentially cause serious dental issues.
Improves oral hygiene:
Deep teeth cleaning removes any build-up and keeps your mouth healthier. In deep teeth cleaning, bacterial deposits are cleared from underneath the gums, and the process involves disinfection and rinsing of the entire mouth and improves overall dental hygiene.
This helps you eliminate several poor dental health indicators like bad breath, sensitive teeth, stained teeth, etc. This can help you feel more confident about your oral health and appearance and can have a positive influence on your social life.
What is root planing?
The second step in the deep teeth cleaning procedure, root planing, is cleaning and smoothing the tooth roots.
This enables your gums to reconnect to your teeth, reducing the pocket size and restoring your mouth's natural health.
Depending on the degree of the damage, root planing can require more than one visit to be completed.
A local anesthetic will probably be applied during gum scaling and root planing, and your dentist might also suggest a moderate sedative.
Is it gum or periodontal scaling?
Perio scaling, or gum scaling or scaling teeth, is the initial procedure where your dentist cleans the area between your teeth and gum entirely by removing all plaque and tartar buildup from above and below the gum line.
This is the first step in the two-step process of completely removing plaque and tartar.
Side effects of deep cleaning
Deep teeth cleaning is a process with low risk, particularly when carried out by a skilled dentist or dental hygienist.
However, because of the cleaning, gum scraping, and tartar removal procedures, there is a chance that any fillings you may have could become loose or pop out (though your dentist can probably fix that later).
Additionally, if a tiny bit of tartar gets wedged between the tooth and the gums, you run the danger of developing an abscess.
After the surgery, you can also experience increased sensitivity in your teeth and gums, but with regular care and oral hygiene, this usually goes away within two weeks.
Is there pain after deep cleaning?
Like with any dental procedure, you might feel discomfort, bruising, and soreness afterward. Additionally, the local anesthesia may have left you numbed for the day.
Following deep teeth cleaning, you may want to stick to a diet of soft foods for a few days because your gums will be sensitive.
Due to your increased sensitivity, you should also avoid eating or drinking anything hot or cold.
Your dentist might suggest antibiotic pills or a mouthwash to help stop infections and hasten the healing process of your gums.
Always adhere to the after-care instructions given by your dentist, and contact them if you encounter extreme pain or problem in your teeth during or after the procedure.
After the deep teeth cleaning, you will have a follow-up consultation to monitor your healing status. Your dentist would suggest that following your initial deep teeth cleaning, you undergo routine teeth cleanings every three months rather than the usual six months.
Why should you consider deep teeth cleaning?
Following a thorough examination of your teeth, gums, and mouth, your dentist will frequently advise deep teeth cleaning to assist in determining general oral health.
Complete teeth cleaning is commonly recommended as the next step instead of actual periodontal surgery if your gums are infected or your gingivitis has progressed to the level where they are peeling away and forming pockets or holes that expose the bone that are 5 millimeters deeper.
It is vital to note that if you don't treat your gingivitis or other gum issues, they could turn into periodontitis, which causes holes between your teeth and gums to spread so deep that the bacteria start to harm the supporting structure of the teeth bone.
Your teeth may become so loose that they must be extracted if the condition is not managed. Deep teeth cleaning can help shrink the hole and stop the progression of gingivitis.
Conclusion
Oral hygiene is essential to achieve overall good health. The simple way to keep your teeth clean and healthy is by brushing twice daily. If you don't brush regularly or if you don't keep your teeth clean, plaque is formed, which leads to bad breath yellowish hue on your teeth.
If plaque is not removed, it becomes complex and challenging to form tartar removal from brushing. To remove tartar, you need to consult your dentist.
To avoid such dental ailments, it is advisable to maintain good dental health practices like brushing twice a day and flossing your mouth. Doing so can keep dental conditions like plaque at bay.
FAQs
1. Is it necessary for everyone to get deep teeth cleaning?
Ans: No, it is not always necessary to get deep teeth cleaning done. It is required only when poor dental hygiene leads to the onset of oral ailments like gum disease and gingivitis. If you maintain healthy oral health, you might never need deep teeth cleaning.
2. How to prevent oral health ailments?
Ans: Most oral health conditions can be prevented by following hygienic dental practices. Taking care of your dental health by brushing twice daily, flossing regularly, using mouthwash, drinking plenty of water after meals, etc., can help you maintain optimal oral health and avoid ailments.
3. How long does it take for deep teeth cleaning?
Ans: The time taken for a deep teeth cleaning procedure depends on factors like plaque buildup, other dental ailments, the patient's age, the dentist's expertise, and the facilities available at the health center. It can take anywhere between 180 and 360 minutes if cleaning the entire mouth.
4. What are the steps involved in deep teeth cleaning?
Ans: Deep cleaning involves various steps to ensure your teeth are entirely rid of harmful buildup and diseases. The steps involved are pre-clean, leading clean, rinse, disinfection, final rinse, and drying.
5. How are deep teeth cleaning different from regular teeth cleaning?
Ans: Regular teeth cleaning removes plaque build-up on the teeth surface and enamel in a brief procedure. This is useful for people with a slight setback in oral health and can even be opted for everyone once every couple of years.
On the other hand, in deep teeth cleaning, bacterial deposits are cleared from underneath the gums, and the process involves disinfection and rinsing of the entire mouth. This is required when the build-up has escalated.
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