Your Kelowna Invisalign Provider
What is Preventive Dental Hygiene?
Preventive dental hygiene includes attending regular dental appointments and practicing good oral health care daily.
These practices can help decrease the likelihood of dental problems and help you avoid serious and costly treatments in the future.
Oral infection can access the bloodstream and spread harmful bacteria to every part of your body. Prevention is often the most reliable course of action.
Oral Cancer Screening
Oral cancer can affect any part of the mouth or surrounding tissues. During your exam, your dentist will check the face, neck, lips, tongue, throat, tissues, and gums for any signs of oral cancer which are difficult to detect with the naked eye.
Preventive Dental Care at Home
To help maintain your oral hygiene between appointments, brush your teeth at least twice a day and floss once a day, ideally before going to bed. Your dentist or hygienist can give you additional tips on how to take good care of your teeth at home.
Dental Hygiene Cleaning
Your dentist will start your appointment by examining your teeth and gums. Digital X-rays may also be taken in order to reveal information about your oral health that may not be visible to the eye.
These dental exams allow your dentist to spot issues such as gum disease, tooth decay, abscesses and signs of oral cancer, and make a plan to treat them.
Once your dentist has finished your exam, your dental hygienist will start their work. They will use a scaler to remove any tartar and plaque build-up between your teeth and along your gums.
Plaque is a sticky clear film of bacteria that covers your teeth. If it is not removed it hardens and turns into calculus which only a dental professional can remove.
Your hygienist will use an electric polisher and coarse toothpaste to remove any leftover stains and plaque that is not removed by scaling, followed by a thorough flossing of your teeth and gums.
Fluoride Treatment
If you or your child has a high risk of developing tooth decay, your dentist may also recommend a fluoride treatment. Fluoride is a natural mineral commonly used in dentistry. Found in soil, air, water and even some foods, fluoride can also help rebuild the minerals in the enamel of your teeth to prevent and sometimes even reverse tooth decay.
Fluoride treatments at your dentist's office have a high concentration of fluoride compared to over-the-counter toothpaste and products.
Your dentist may provide professional fluoride treatments in the form of a rinse, foam, gel or varnish.
These treatments generally only take a few minutes at your dentist's office. You may just be asked to avoid eating or drinking for 30 minutes afterwards until the fluoride has had time to fully absorb.
