Why your teeth need a good clean and polish

Why your teeth need a good clean and polish

06/05/2019

You may think that giving your teeth a good clean twice a day is enough, but every now and again they need a deep clean and polish.

Think of your mouth as a cooker. No doubt you wipe over the rings after every meal or if you see a spill. But would you go for more than a year and not give the entire appliance a good deep clean? Imagine what germs can build up in encrusted fats and oils if you don’t. If you have ever had to deal with a cooker that has not had a recent deep clean, you will know all about the yucky stuff that you can excavate from its nooks and crannies; stuff that can harbour germs and cause disease. Well, it’s the same for your mouth and teeth.

Diligent patients brush twice a day with a soft-bristled brush and a dab of fluoride toothpaste, taking 2 minutes to go carefully over and around each tooth. They use floss and brushes to pick out plaque and food trapped between the teeth. We all need to do this, but this is not enough to get rid of everything. There are always places we can’t quite get to where plaque will build up, such as along the gum line and where the teeth come together.

Plaque

Plaque is a sticky film of bacteria. It grows on tooth surfaces, gums and any restorations such as crowns, bridges and dental implants. The bacteria may not be harmful, but the acids they give off are. These increase when plaque bacteria feed on the sugars and starches in our mouths and the acids eat away at tooth enamel and soft gum tissue. Teeth then decay and gums get inflamed and start to bleed.

There is no way to stop plaque doing its thing, although eating less sugar and starches helps. Plaque will build up between tooth brushing and if you don’t get rid of it, it will harden into tartar, which needs special tools to scrape it away. This is why, twice a year, you need to get yourself a good scale and polish here at The Dental Surgery Burnham in Burnham.

Come on in. Let’s get the plaque taken off.