Dental Hygiene

The proper dental hygiene involves brushing and flossing your teeth twice a day. Even if you are diligent about this, there may still be some areas where deposits are left behind. This is when professional help is needed. We can help you keep your teeth clean at Riverside Dental Care.

If you don't maintain good dental hygiene, you can develop cavities and your teeth can start breaking and cracking. Plaque and tartar buildup can cause inflammation leading to gingivitis and eventually gum disease, causing bone loss and loose teeth. This is why oral hygiene is vital.

The main duties of a dental hygienist are cleaning the teeth, removing plaque and tartar buildup, polishing teeth, applying fluoride treatment and educating patients about the importance of oral hygiene at home.

During a preventative dental cleaning, we use ultrasonic scalers to remove bacterial deposits from the teeth. Then, a hygienist scales the teeth with hand instruments to remove deposits and polishes the teeth.

Dental hygienists use ultrasonic scalers, hand curettes and scalers, polishing hand pieces, proxy pastes, polishing pastes, and sometimes laser treatment.

The tooth cleaning shouldn't hurt if your gums are healthy. But if there is inflammation prior to the dental appointment, the process can be slightly uncomfortable and there may be some bleeding. However, this tenderness usually goes away once good oral hygiene is resumed.

We usually schedule about an hour per patient for a hygiene appointment. If the patient has been taking good care of their teeth at home and there is minimal plaque buildup, the appointment can take as little as 15 minutes. However, if there is more work for the hygienist, the appointment can take about an hour.

Doctors may recommend deep cleaning when there is a progression of gum disease, indicating bone loss around teeth and pocket formation, which are early signs of gum disease. In this situation, we recommend scaling and root planing, commonly known as deep cleaning. The gums are anesthetized and the hygienist uses special tools to get deep into the pockets under the gums to remove plaque and tartar buildup.

After a dental cleaning, we recommend good oral hygiene at home, which means brushing and flossing twice a day. Depending on your needs, we may recommend mouthwashes, fluoride-containing mouth rinses if there is a risk for decay, and essential oil mouth rinses if there is a risk of gum disease.

Scheduling a hygiene appointment is easy. Just give us a call and our receptionist will help you set up an appointment. You can reach us at (646) 414-6238.