Preventive dentistry

Do you want to clean your teeth and make sure that they are free of deposits, discoloration and tartar? Remember to regularly undergo professional dental hygienization.

Home and dental caries prevention

When taking care of a healthy, beautiful smile, prevention, both at home and at the dentist, is very important. To prevent caries and other dental diseases, you must take proper care of them. Untreated, advanced caries leads to serious oral health problems. Then the treatment is not only time-consuming, but also expensive. Fortunately, you can easily prevent caries with proper care and hygiene of your teeth at the dentist's office. Moreover, regular visits to the dentist will ensure that tooth decay is detected and treated quickly.

Dental hygiene - home prevention

You should start taking care of your teeth at home. Even regular visits to the dentist's office will not be helpful if we ignore proper oral hygiene. Brushing your teeth every day, at least twice a day for 2-3 minutes, and flossing them is a basic care procedure. Additionally, it is worth using mouthwashes with fluoride. Unfortunately, many people brush their teeth imperfectly, using a damaged or old toothbrush. They should be brushed with gentle, circular movements, and the brush should be set at an angle of 45 degrees and adhere to the entire surface of the teeth being cleaned. When brushing your teeth, do not skip the tongue and palate - these areas are also worth brushing because bacteria may accumulate there. It is recommended to use dental floss or a dental irrigator to clean the interdental spaces, because even the best toothbrush will not thoroughly clean the places where the teeth come into contact with each other.

Is brushing your teeth properly difficult? No, but modern technologies make it much easier. Electric, sonic or magnetic toothbrushes do most of the work for the user. Just place the brush head on each tooth for about 2 seconds to effectively clean your smile of any remaining bacterial plaque. Additionally, having, for example, a smart toothbrush with magnetic technology may motivate you to engage in more engaged hygiene. This type of devices have built-in, among others: brushing time measurement functions, pressure control, various operating modes, and even real-time monitoring of the washing process in the application.

Regardless of the type of method you use, your toothbrush or toothbrush head should be replaced every three months, or sooner if the bristles are worn and bending outwards. Damaged bristles do not remove plaque well and brushing teeth is ineffective. You should also use a new toothbrush after each oral infection. When replacing the toothbrush, remember to rinse it with warm, boiled water before using it for the first time.

In order to prevent caries, which is a common cause of other dental diseases, in addition to oral hygiene, we should take care of an appropriate diet. A healthy, varied diet has a huge impact on our health, including the oral cavity. Sweets, carbonated drinks, sugar, salty snacks with a lot of carbohydrates (e.g. chips) are cariogenic products and should be avoided. You don't have to give them up completely, but it is worth limiting them significantly, which will have a beneficial effect not only on the condition of the oral cavity, but also on our entire body. However, it is worth increasing the amount of fruit, vegetables, dairy products, lean meat, dark bread and fish, among others. These products have a positive effect on the condition of your teeth.

Prevention in the dentist's office

Home care for our teeth is complemented by visits to the dentist's office and dental hygiene treatment. Regular check-ups allow you to detect even small carious lesions and treat them before the caries affects a large part of the tooth tissue. Remember that large fillings weaken the tooth structure and even a healed tooth is more susceptible to damage compared to a tooth that has not been affected by caries at all. Therefore, it is not worth delaying the treatment of carious lesions.

What is dental hygienization?

Dental hygienization is a necessary complement to home dental care, because tooth brushing is not completely effective in preventing the build-up of tartar. During dental hygiene, the teeth are cleaned of tartar, bacterial plaque and unsightly surface deposits. It is recommended to perform hygiene every 12 months. People who are very susceptible to tartar formation should remove it twice a year. Full tooth hygiene includes: scaling, sandblasting, polishing and fluoridation.

Why should tartar be removed?

Tartar is a hard, dark deposit formed as a result of the mineralization of dental plaque. It should be removed because it is an ideal base for the development of caries, and when accumulated it contributes to the formation of cavities. Its presence over time may result in serious inflammation of the gums. Moreover, tartar deposits contribute to the occurrence of periodontitis and bleeding gums. Another negative effect of its excess is unpleasant breath odor.

The course of full dental hygiene - what does the hygienization procedure look like?

First, scaling is performed, which involves removing tartar located near the gums and in the interdental spaces. Ultrasound is most often used to remove scale, but you can also use a specialized laser. The method depends mainly on the offer of the dental office and the patient's health contraindications.

After scaling, the teeth are sandblasted. This procedure requires a sandblaster that quickly and painlessly removes plaque and discoloration resulting from drinking coffee, tea and smoking cigarettes. All thanks to the stream of water, air and dental sand released under pressure. The treatment is safe and does not damage tooth enamel.

In addition to removing plaque and tartar, combining scaling with sandblasting can also have another positive effect. People whose teeth have a yellowish tint due to tartar and discoloration may have their teeth lightened without whitening them, which will have a beneficial effect on the aesthetics of their smile.

The next necessary step is tooth polishing. During this part of the hygienization process, the tooth surface is smoothed, which significantly reduces the build-up of any type of plaque. Special polishing pastes are used for this purpose. In addition to the pleasant feeling of smooth teeth, polishing minimizes the risk of caries.

The last step in dental hygienization is fluoridation, but not every dentist includes it in the hygiene procedure.

Fluoridation is a short treatment during which a preparation with a high fluoride content is applied to the teeth in the form of a gel, varnish or foam. Fluoride strengthens tooth enamel by being incorporated into it. It makes teeth more resistant to acids and bacteria, which reduces the risk of tooth decay. Fluoridation also prevents tooth neck hypersensitivity. However, it should be borne in mind that this treatment is not recommended for everyone, as it may lead to excessive fluoridation of the teeth. Therefore, the dentist should decide whether fluoridation should be carried out or not.

Contraindications to dental hygienization

Like almost every dental procedure, hygiene cannot be performed on every patient. Contraindications to the procedure are:

• osteoporosis;
• cold sores on the lips;
• pregnancy (hygienization can only be carried out in the second trimester of pregnancy);
• pain in the mucous membrane;
• deep gum pockets;
• pacemaker (in people with this device, scaling cannot be performed using ultrasound as it may disturb its operation. Using another method solves the problem);
• detachment of the retina - here, as in the case of a pacemaker, the use of ultrasound during scaling is prohibited.

Contraindications to sandblasting include: ulcers and wounds in the oral cavity, pulmonary dysfunction (e.g. pneumoconiosis and asthma), allergy to any of the ingredients used during the procedure, and wearing contact lenses.

In cases where even temporary bacteremia poses a threat to the patient's health, the hygienization procedure must be carried out under antibiotic protection. This applies, among others, to people with diabetes or after organ transplants.

Effects of dental hygienization

Hygienization has a positive effect on the condition of the teeth. During the treatment, harmful tartar, accumulated bacterial plaque and unsightly discoloration are removed. As a result, the aesthetics of the patient's smile improves, the teeth become whiter and pleasantly smooth. Hygienization significantly minimizes the risk of caries and periodontal disease. The structure of the enamel is also strengthened, and after the treatment it will be more resistant to bacteria and acids, which will also reduce the chances of developing caries.