Brushing your teeth regularly and maintaining a proper diet is essential to the oral care routine. However, there are four different types of dental cleaning procedures, Prophylaxis cleaning, Scaling and root planing, Gross debridement and Periodontal maintenance.

Here we will discuss the different types of teeth cleaning procedures in detail for better clarity and knowledge.

The type of dental cleaning your dentist will choose depends on the condition of your teeth structure and oral health. However, dental cleanings ensure that your teeth are free of plaques and bacteria.

Following are the four major types of dental cleaning procedures:

Originating from the Greek word meaning ‘to prevent’ or ‘to guard’, prophylaxis cleaning is also known as the routine cleaning procedure. This procedure cleans your teeth deeply, thus removing the plaques and tartar from your enamel.

Your dentist might advise you for routine prophylaxis cleaning once every six months.

Procedure:

Here are the steps of dental prophylaxis:

Step 1: Your dentist will check your mouth for oral disease, gum problems, cavities, or other related issues.

Step 2: After this routine check, you will be asked to do an X-ray for any tooth damage or decay signs. It helps your dentist identify specific areas that might require attention.

Step 3: Your dentist will then begin by cleaning plaques and calculus from your teeth. There are two processes here- supragingival and subgingival cleaning.

Step 4: Supragingival cleans the areas above your gums to remove plaques and calculus completely. Subgingival cleans deeper and beneath your gum lines.

Step 5: Here, your dentist removes the remaining bacteria by scraping the leftover tartar and plaque.

Step 6: Flossing and polishing are the next steps where your dentist removes the plaque between your teeth and the stains on them.

Step 7: Lastly, your dentist follows the fluoride treatment to ensure strong enamel and restore your teeth to their natural structures.

Benefits:

• Prophylaxis strengthens your teeth and prevents your teeth from decaying further.
• It thoroughly cleans above and below your gums that you might not be able to clean with a brush effectively.
• Before the procedure, your dentist thoroughly checks your oral health to detect any underlying disease. This helps detect any severe dental issue that requires quick treatment.

Risks:

There are no such risks involved in going through this procedure. However, cleaning your teeth is general may affect you in the following ways:

• If your teeth are covered with calculus, tartar and plaque for long, removing them will lead to wide gaps between your teeth. This exposes them to food particles, so they become prone to cavity attacks.
• Subgingival cleanings may lead to sore gums for a week or two.
• Deep cleaning of your gums may often cause your gums to bleed. Additionally, scrapping the bacterial layer results in the swelling of gums as well.

This includes a deep cleaning process; your doctor may advise you on this procedure if he/she finds a high risk of gum disease. This means that when excess plaque or tartar builds up and remains untreated for a long time, it hardens and causes serious gum disease. This is when your doctor suggests a root planing procedure to ensure that the calculus or the hardened plaques are cleaned off completely.

Procedure:

Step 1: To avoid discomfort, your dentist will inject local anaesthesia into the affected area.

Step 2: Then, he/she will use specific tools to remove tartar and plaque from above and below your gum line scaling the teeth effectively.

Step 3: Then, he/she will flush and rinse your mouth with an anti-bacterial solution to cleanse your mouth.

Step 4: Your dentist will then prescribe some antibiotics that you might need to consume for a week.

Benefits:

• A thorough root planing and scaling ensures lower tooth damage and decay risks.
• This procedure completely eliminates bad breath that is caused due to plaque and tartar build-up over a long time period.
• It reduces the risks of any gum disease and ensures lesser gum pocket depths as your teeth are thoroughly scaled and cleaned.
• Scaling and root planing are advised if you suffer from periodontitis or gingivitis. Therefore, this process involves smoothing the tooth surface and completely removing debris from your mouth.

Risks:

• After this procedure, you will feel pain and sensitivity in your tooth for some days.
• While brushing, you might notice minor gum bleeding due to excessive cleaning of your gums.
• Root planing might remove excess cementum of tooth roots during the procedure.
• Due to deeper cleaning, there might be wider gaps between your teeth that might lead to bacterial attacks.

If you have not visited a dentist for several years, then there are chances of a fair amount of tartar and plaque building up on your tooth and gums. This requires complete and deep cleaning and is done through a gross debridement process. Your dentist will first conduct a complete oral examination to rule out the chances of any oral disease. Then he/she will decide which process will best suit you depending upon the condition of your teeth.

Procedure:

Step 1: Firstly, your dentist will use local anaesthesia to numb the areas around your teeth.

Step 2: Then, he/she will detect the amount of tartar and plaque build-up in that area.

Step 3: Your dentist might use an ultrasonic device to remove and clean the plaque and tartar build-up. This device uses water and vibrations to blast your teeth and clean them deeply.

Step 4: He/she will then allow you to rinse your mouth and polish your teeth carefully.

Benefits:

• This procedure ensures complete reduction and removal of bacteria from inside your mouth.
• It makes your teeth look healthier and reduces infection or tissue damage caused due to bacterial attacks.
• A thorough examination before the procedure ensures there are no underlying oral diseases that might trouble you in the future.
• It removes tartar and plaques 2 mm below your gum line, ensuring a deep cleaning procedure.

Risks:

• Debridement includes deep cleaning of your teeth and gums that may increase the chances of painful gums, bleeding, and irritation while brushing.
• During the procedure, healthy tissues might be affected too.
• Gross debridement makes you prone to bacterial infection due to the deep cleaning.

Periodontal maintenance is when you require routine maintenance if you suffer from serious oral conditions. This, too, is effective if you have periodontitis or gingivitis. You have to frequently visit the dentist to clean your teeth professionally. Your doctor will conduct this procedure until the symptoms of the disease are under control.

Procedure:

Step 1: Your dentist will first undergo a complete oral check-up to ensure your mouth is free of any underlying oral disease.

Step 2: Just like a regular cleaning procedure, he/she will remove tartar and plaques through scaling and root planing.

Step 3: Then, your dentist will examine the gum pockets for any inflammation or infection.

Step 4: After this, he will flush the area with an antiseptic to reduce inflammation and infection from affecting your teeth and gums.

Step 5: He/she might ask you to come for several follow-up checks to ensure your mouth is free of debris.

Benefits:

• Your dentist examines the depth of your gum pockets to ensure that they are less than 3 mm. Accordingly, they also check if your gums are bleeding or sore and take measures to prevent these problems from returning in the future.
• Through this procedure, your dentist monitors any bone tissue loss that is caused due to periodontal disease.
• Your dentist undergoes a thorough and deep cleaning of tartar and calculus that keeps your teeth healthy and free of infection.

Risks:

Deep cleaning might lead to gum bleeding while you are brushing your teeth. So, avoid rigorous brushing.