Hygiene Therapy

Regular visits to your dentist and hygienist/hygiene therapist will ensure a healthy mouth with your natural teeth lasting as long as possible.

Gum disease is very common, affecting people of all ages. Unfortunately, gum disease causes damage to the bone supporting your teeth, eventually causing the teeth to become mobile and fall out. Gum disease (periodontal) is the most common cause of tooth loss in adults.

The good news is that gum disease can be treated by a dentist or hygienist, and if treated in the early stages, its effects can be reversed.

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Getting to the root of the dirt

The satisfaction of a deep clean

If you don’t take care of your teeth and gums, your poor oral hygiene can lead to other health problems, including:

  • Oral and facial pain – This pain is largely due to infection of the gums that support the teeth and can lead to tooth loss. Gingivitis, an early stage of gum disease, and Periodontitis, an advanced gum disease, affect more than 60% of adults.
  • Problems with the heart and other major 0rgans – Mouth infections can affect major organs. Bacteria formed on teeth that aren’t cleaned properly can find their way into the bloodstream and to the heart; heart valves can then become inflamed by bacterial endocarditis, a condition that affects people with heart disease.
  • Digestion problems – Digestion begins with physical and chemical processes in the mouth involving the breakdown of food, and problems here can lead to intestinal failure, irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive disorders.
  • Dementia and Alzheimers – In older patients, if gingivitis (gum disease) is left unattended for too long, bacteria can enter the brain through nerve channels or the bloodstream and can cause dementia. This can even put patients at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

FAQs

Who is a hygiene therapist?

A dental hygiene and therapist’s primary role is to provide preventative care to our patients; this is undoubtedly an incredibly important role in our dental practice. Prevention is about giving you control of your oral health. Making sure that you have a stable and periodontally healthy mouth before embarking on complex restorations will give you the tools to help these restorations last.

Clinically they help to prevent periodontal disease by assessment, treatment and monitoring disease levels. They can take dental radiographs, undertake monitoring and screening procedures and also apply topical fluorides and fissure sealants in order to reduce dental caries. All whitening treatments can also be completed by a hygiene therapist.

Further, they can treat dentition with simple restorations and place preformed crowns and pulp treatments on deciduous teeth. They can carry out routine amalgams and composite fillings. Providing an adult tooth does not require treatment to the nerve of the tooth, a dental therapist can fill or restore any part of the tooth that requires treatment. Those with therapy skills have a great deal of experience in treating children.

Do they work with dental implants?

Most restorative (prosthodontist) practices will ensure that the implant patient has acquired the knowledge, skills and oral health needed to aid the successful placement of implants. The maintenance of the dental implant is of the utmost importance for the rest of the implant’s life.

Because of this many of the hygienists working in this area have increased their education in this field and have quite a wide range of skills and knowledge in how to aid the patient in maintaining oral health. Our hygiene therapists have all undergone extra implant-specific training to ensure they give you the very best care.

Is it painful?

Scaling and polishing is usually pain free. However, if you do have any discomfort we can use anaesthetic creams, or give you some local anaesthetic. It is important that you let your hygiene therapist know at the time so they can help with your pain.

Why do I need to see a hygiene therapist/hygienist?

Regular professional cleaning to remove plaque and tartar, combined with looking after your teeth and gums properly at home, will help keep your mouth healthy which will improve your appearance, help you to keep your teeth and give you fresh breath.

They will carefully remove the hard deposits of calculus that build up on the teeth and teach you how to prevent them coming back. This will do a lot to slow the progress of gum disease. By talking to you about your diet, and recommending other preventive measures, they can help you keep to a routine that will slow down tooth decay. Regular visits and advice will help build your confidence in keeping your mouth healthy.

For more information regarding this treatment
Contact us or 01202 973 300
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