Hi, my name Melissa and I’m one of the registered dental hygienists here at Lakefront Family Dentistry with Dr. Hauser and Dr. Kanter, and today, we’re going to be answering some frequently asked questions about your dental cleaning.
How often should I get my teeth cleaned at a dentist office?
So it is recommended that you get your teeth cleaned about every 6 months; however, there are some patients that do build up a little bit more tartar quickly or tend to have a little bit more progressive periodontal disease going on, and we do see them as frequently as every 3 to 4 months. But a good rule of thumb is every 6 months.
Can I just come in and get my teeth cleaned without having x-rays or seeing the dentist?
It is recommended that you come in for a complete, full exam. Here at Lakefront Family Dentistry, we like to take the best care of our patients and give you the best treatment available. And by doing that, we would need to do a full evaluation that’s taking a full mouth set of x-rays, having the doctor do a full exam, as well as taking some measurements of your gums to thoroughly evaluate your gum health and properly diagnose what type of cleaning you would need.
Do you recommend getting my teeth whitened before or after I get my teeth cleaned?
So the best time to do any whitening would be after your teeth are cleaned, that with all that plaque and hardened tartar build-up is removed from them and you can get the best whitening that you can achieve.
Isn’t brushing with my Sonicare or regular toothbrush and flossing every day good enough?
As much as we would like to think brushing and flossing two times a day, for the two whole minutes of brushing that is required, we’re unable to completely remove all the plaque that accumulates daily, therefore some of that plaque does remain on our teeth and under our gums and it mineralizes there and hardens into tartar. The only way to get rid of that is to come in for your dental check-up and cleaning. And so that’s why we do recommend every 6 months coming to see us because as hard as you work brushing and flossing those teeth, unfortunately, you’re unable to completely remove 100% of the plaque.
How often should I floss and what kind of dental floss or device should I use?
Every patient is different in the method of flossing or removing plaque from in between the teeth varies. There are so many options to help remove plaque from in between the teeth. There’s floss, there’s floss picks, there’s little tiny brushes that go in between the teeth that help remove the plaque. There’s something called a Waterpik as well, which is an oral irrigator that’s great. It helps remove the plaque almost 5 mm underneath the gum line. So a lot of times, patients that do have some deeper pockets or have more aggressive periodontal disease going on, we do recommend the Waterpik. So just like no one person is the same, no flossing technique is the same so there’s so many options out there that we can recommend to you. When you do come in for your appointment here at Lake Frontfamily Dentistry, we do a personalized oral healthcare instruction and guide for you, and we can go over all those options then.
What about toothpaste for children, what do you recommend?
So toothpaste for children, there are certain different kinds. There’s training toothpaste, which we recommend for anybody under the age of 3 that can’t spit. The training toothpastes do not have fluoride in them. That way, little babies aren’t able to spit or know that they’re supposed to spit so they’re not ingesting any of that fluoride. But after the age of about 3, a small pea-sized drop on the toothbrush is good for any kids to use with a fluoridated toothpaste as long as they know to spit out the excess and don’t swallow it.
If someone would like to see one of our great dentists or hygienist at Lakefront Family Dentistry, they can call during our business hours, (951) 244-9495 or fill out the make an appointment form on our website anytime, lakefrontfamilydentistry.com and we’ll call them back to schedule a time that works best for their schedule. Thanks for listening and hopefully we helped.
