Maintaining good oral hygiene practices are not just important for the health of your teeth and gums, it is also important for your overall health. There is a strong link between your oral health and your general health. Poor oral health can lead to serious conditions such as:
- Tooth decay
- Tooth loss
- Gum disease
- Bone loss
- Heart disease
- Stroke
In order to avoid the development of these issues, it is crucial that you maintain a good oral hygiene regimen consisting of regular brushing and flossing as well as professional teeth cleanings at our Hoboken general dentistry office. Please call 201-792-9400 today to schedule an appointment.
Your Daily Oral Hygiene Regimen
Healthy teeth and gums start with a good at-home daily oral hygiene regimen. This should include brushing at least twice a day and flossing once a day. If possible, it is best to brush after every meal to remove any loose food particles lodged in your teeth.
For best results, use a soft bristle toothbrush and brush in small circles, angling your toothbrush 45 degrees into your gum line. Make sure you reach the front, back, and biting surface of your teeth, and brush your tongue to remove any bacteria that may cause bad breath.
It is also important to floss once a day to remove any food particles and plaque between your teeth that cannot be reached with a toothbrush. Wrap the dental floss around your middle fingers and grasp it with your thumbs and index fingers. Gently guide the floss between your teeth and use an up-and-down motion to remove any plaque between your teeth. Make sure you floss all the way to your gum line, and don’t overlook the hard-to-reach teeth in the back of your mouth.
Dental Checkups and Teeth Cleanings
Unfortunately, regular brushing and flossing is not enough to maintain healthy teeth and gums. You will also need to visit Hoboken dentist Dr. Frank DePaola twice a year for your regular dental checkups and teeth cleanings. If you have serious oral health issues such as gum disease, Dr. Frank may recommend more frequent cleanings.
Your dental checkups and teeth cleanings will serve two purposes. Our Hoboken dentists will clean your teeth, removing any plaque and tartar that has built up. This is an important step in the prevention tooth decay and gum disease. During your checkup, Dr. Frank will also check for other oral health issues such as TMJ, oral cancer, and an obstructed airway which may lead to sleep apnea. By catching these issues as they first develop, Dr. Frank can eliminate the need for painful and expensive procedures that are necessary once these conditions are at a more advanced stage.
I Brush and Floss Daily. Why is it Important to Have My Teeth Cleaned?
Even with good daily oral care, there is a chance that you may accumulate some plaque. This may be just around a few teeth or it may be more widespread. Plaque that gets missed for as little as 48 hours can begin to harden into tartar, also referred to as calculus. Since it's not possible to see plaque, it's relatively easy to miss some. Tartar can't be removed with your toothbrush. Your dentist or hygienist has to remove it for you. Where there is plaque and tartar, there is inflammation. There is also a risk for the infection that we all know as gum disease.
When tartar is present for a prolonged period of time, the gums can become inflamed enough to weaken and pull away from your teeth. Again, this often happens only around a few teeth at a time if you're brushing and flossing daily. Our routine dental cleanings can remove the offending debris before inflammation becomes too severe. By doing this, your gums have the opportunity to reattach to your teeth naturally, without significant intervention. If your gum tissue does become affected to the point of receding away from teeth, you may need a deep cleaning to remedy the problem.
What is a Deep Cleaning and Why Would I Need That?
Deep dental cleaning is a service that is known as scaling and root planing. It is necessary when gum recession has occurred because gum recession indicates that pockets of plaque, tartar, and bacteria have developed. To restore optimal gum health and prevent further damage that can require more comprehensive care, deep cleaning removes the accumulated materials as well as the bacteria that are harbored in the periodontal pockets.
The initial stage of deep cleaning, the scaling process, involves the use of a special instrument to eliminate the stuck-on biofilm. The instrument may manually remove the debris or may use water or ultrasound waves. Once the plaque and tartar are removed, we then move on to root planing. This is a technique that smoothes rough spots that have formed due to the presence of bacteria around the roots of the affected teeth. Smoothing the root surfaces makes it harder for plaque to stick and also invites the gums to reattach more easily. An antibiotic medication may also be applied to the treated roots and gums.
Deep cleanings are more invasive because we must get below the gum line to remove the plaque that could weaken the stability of your teeth. To ensure your comfort, we perform deep cleanings using the same anesthetic you would receive if you were getting a filling. Because we use local numbing medication, we treat only one quadrant of the mouth per visit. If you have gum recession and inflammation in different parts of your mouth, you may require a few visits to complete your deep cleaning process.
After a deep cleaning, you may have special instructions to follow at home. You may also be advised to return in a few months for a follow-up cleaning and examination rather than waiting the usual six months.
Please contact The Practice at Maxwell Place using the form at the right side of the page or call 201-792-9400 today to schedule your dental checkup and teeth cleaning. Dr. Frank DePaola serves patients in Hoboken, Jersey City, and throughout Hudson County, New Jersey.
