Keeping your teeth clean and healthy with brushing and flossing is imperative to avoiding dental health problems. It removes plaque and bacteria helping to prevent tooth decay and gum disease that causes painful and damaging dental problems. However, even the most diligent oral hygienist can sometimes fall foul of the persistent threat of plaque.

This is why it is so important to make sure you see a Central London dentist every six-months. Your dentist will be able to examine your teeth to make sure that you are not missing any crucial spots where plaque is getting the upper hand. After all, it is almost impossible to know if you if you are cleaning all parts of your teeth thoroughly. You dentist or the dental hygienist will then be able to carry out a deep clean using techniques called scaling and polishing, if it is required. This involves using a small scaling hook to remove any plaque or hardened tartar that poses a threat to your tooth enamel. Scaling can be a little uncomfortable but is rarely anything more than that.

Once the teeth have been thoroughly scaled they can then be polished using a mechanical rotating polisher. This removes any residual plaque from the surface of the teeth. This makes the teeth smooth and makes it more difficult for bacteria and plaque to stick to them. In this way scaling and polishing are used as preventive dentistry measures, returning your teeth to the cleanest state they can be and leaving it to you to see that they stay that way. Effective cleaning and polishing can leave your teeth feeling very clean and give them valuable protection against future dental problems.

Keeping your teeth clean and free from plaque by brushing and flossing can help to prevent tooth decay and gum disease and can keep your mouth looking clean and healthy, but cleaning alone is not enough to prevent all dental problems. As well as a strict and effective dental hygiene routine it is also essential that you keep up six-monthly appointments at the dentist.

The dentist will be able to spot any signs of decay or disease that may be happening even if you clean effectively. It is often the most hard to reach places that are the main areas of decay and dentists can monitor and clean these difficult spots to keep teeth as healthy as possible. Dentists are also able to spot the first signs of more serious problems such as oral cancer or infection.

As well as seeing a dentist, it may be a good idea to see a dental hygienist. They are becoming more and more common in the UK as they allow the dentist more time to focus on their caseload and allow patients a more direct and focused cleaning appointment. Hygienists can offer thorough dental cleaning as well as liaising with the dentist to develop a more effective cleaning plan.

Most City of London dentists will now offer a dental hygienist as part of a regular six monthly check up service. It is not advised that you go longer than six-months between appointments unless your dentist has advised it for some reason. Some patients may need to see the dentist more regularly.