Today Oral Hygiene is the key component of modern dental care.

 

The best dentistry in the world will fail if your oral hygiene is not carried out correctly and routinely. This is the reason why at Royston Dental Suite we put such a large emphasis on patients to visit our Hygienists, on a regular basis and practice the correct regular hygiene maintenance at home.

 

A visit to the Hygienist is not about a “scrape and polish”. A typical visit to the hygienist will involve:

• A detailed examination of your gums and a detailed recording of your gum condition

• Show you with the help of a mouth camera any problem areas in your mouth

• Detailed instructions and demonstrations to help you with areas you miss when you clean your teeth

• Sealants for teeth at risk of decay- Makes fillings much less likely

• Give you dietary advice to help keep your teeth cavity free

• Remove any tartar build-up that can lead to gum disease and cavities

 

As a bonus, the hygienist will gently remove any superficial stains to give you a sparkly smile! With all the recent research confirming a link between heart disease and gum disease, a good hygienist will do much more for you than merely keep your teeth and gums healthy.

 

A visit to the Hygienist is an investment in your dental health. A hygiene visit also maximise any investment (any filling, crown, veneer, sealant or implant) you have made in your teeth in the past.

 

Royston Dental Suite: Frequently asked questions  

Q: "So what do I gain by regularly attending the hygienist?"

 

Royston Dental Suite Reply:

You gain the feeling of truly, clean, healthy teeth, the confidence that your breath is fresh and the knowledge that over your lifetime the amount of active treatment you will require will be greatly reduced.

 

Q: "How often should I see a hygienist?"

Royston Dental Suite Reply: 
The answer to that question varies according to the patient, their level of oral hygiene, their genetic predisposition to decay or gum disease and any other habits they may have.

 

4 Months: As a general rule, the interval that is shown by the studies to be optimal is 4 monthly in the context of a mouth, which has fillings or crowns or a history of any dental disease.  

 

6-Months: For a patient with a perfect, un-restored, un-crowded dentition with no susceptibility to gum disease, 6 monthly is considered fine. 

 

2-3 Months: A patient who shows high susceptibility whether due to history, genetics, pregnancy, active orthodontics or where teeth have been lost and replaced with implants or there are crowns, bridges, dentures present, 2 -3 monthly is likely to be appropriate.

 

Children: Results show children have a greater susceptibility to both dental decay and inflamed gums and are forming habits which will remain with them for a lifetime, therefore we recomend you start them from a very early age, from the first tooth showing, and continue between 4-6 months.

 

Q: "So what happens if you don’t?"

Royston Dental Suite Reply: 
If your own cleaning of your mouth is perfect, you never go to bed without brushing your teeth, your technique is of text-book standard, you always floss daily without fail, you eat only white coloured foods and you never eat sugar in any form, then possibly you would not see any ill effects for some time.

What would happen in time? A build up of scale or tartar would still occur as the scale comes not from food but from the saliva and the crevicular fluid that bathes the gums. This will build both above and below the gums causing a roughness of the surface of the teeth and ultimately soreness and bleeding in the gums along with offensive breath due to a build up of bacteria on the layer of scale. Your teeth would appear stained because of the scale.

 

Q: "And if your own daily cleaning is not perfect?"

Royston Dental Suite Reply: 
…….then the ill-effects including cavities, bleeding gums, smelly breath, stained unsightly teeth, loss of gum and bone from around the teeth, soreness and a general feeling that all is not well would appear within a very short space of time.

 

Q: "Whatif I have heavily Stained Teeth from smoking?"

Royston Dental Suite Reply: 

If your teeth are heavily stained from smoking or using drinking strong coffee etc... we recommend a new system called an AirFlow treatment.  It works through the combined power of three things – air, sodium bicarbonate and a jet of water. Airflow produces great results without any risk of damaging your teeth.  To see more details or watch a video about AirFlow click this link

 

Q: "What makes teeth so special?"

Royston Dental Suite Reply: 

They are essential to eating and digestion, social interaction (smiling and speaking), they have a massive effect on confidence and most importantly of all, they have no ability to repair or regenerate once damaged (unlike hair, nails and skin). Once structure becomes decayed or damaged, it will not come back and there is a limit to how many times it can be repaired.