Our dentist in Luton is a collaborative clinic, involving many medical professionals coming together to provide you with the best care. Let's have a look at how our dental hygienist could support your health and well-being,
Exceptional dental care is a great thing and our dentist in Luton knows it is all about teamwork. By having an organised and well-functioning team we can meet your needs quickly and efficiently, providing the care that you deserve. And although our service is far greater than the sum of its parts, let's have a closer look at the role of dental hygienists, and their invaluable contribution to the clinic.
How our dental hygienist can help you
Dental hygienists make up a narrow field of dentistry. The assessment of plaque on patients’ teeth and its removal is not a simple thing. It is a biofilm consisting of thousands of species of bacteria living in a community supporting each other as they live parasitically all over your teeth. If these colonies are allowed to continue undisturbed, they will establish themselves by laying down a hard deposit called tartar.
The most common procedure that our dental hygienist carries out on a daily basis is a ‘scale and polish’ which removes the tartar build-up using abrasion with high-speed rotary brushes, sometimes a dental drill will be used for the most stubborn tartar occurring between teeth.
Once the scale part of the scale and polish is finished, the polishing rotary is used to buff and smooth your enamel. This allows you to finish the treatment with a fine smooth surface across all your teeth. A smooth surface has practical reasons, like stopping bacteria adhering to the surface of your teeth. This helps you keep your teeth clean to keep any future treatments to a minimum.
What to expect from your appointment with our hygienist
All sessions start with an assessment; we only perform a scale and polish due to a medical reason. But we also have to check that you do not have any contraindicated oral issues too, such as instances of an active cavity, or fragile prosthetics that require repair before any abrasion can take place. This is also an opportunity for our hygienist to check in on your charting and see how your dental health has changed since your previous appointment.
Most sessions are completed in under 30 minutes and even a 30-minute session would be the result of an unusually severe case of build-up. It is normal for your teeth to look whiter and shinier after a scale and polish due to the dark and easily stained nature of tartar compared to the underlying natural enamel. Once your scale and polish is finished, our hygienist will provide you with a short guide on how to minimise the build-up of future plaque and make sure it is quite some time before you require further scale and polish.
We are currently open to accepting new patients, for both NHS and private care at our dentist in Luton, so please feel free to get in contact with our team. If you would like to be considered as a new patient or if you have any further questions about scaling and polishing or any of the other services we provide, ask our team today.