SCALING & GUM TREATMENT
Scaling and gum treatment are important for keeping your teeth healthy and preventing tooth loss.
WHAT IS SCALING OR TOOTH CLEANING?
Scaling is a process of removing plaque and tartar from your teeth.
Plaque is a sticky film of bacteria that forms on your teeth. Tartar is a hard deposit of plaque that has hardened on your teeth.
Scaling helps to remove plaque and tartar from your teeth so that they are clean and free of bacteria.
WHY DO YOU NEED TOOTH SCALING?
Scaling refers to the procedure dentists use to remove the hard deposits of germs that form on your teeth over time. This occurs when the calcium found in our saliva mixes with the germs found on the residual food debris in our mouth. Within 2 hours from our last meal, a soft mix called “plaque” would begin to form.
If not cleaned properly, the breath starts to smell less fresh. The plaque hardens and becomes more and more difficult to remove. Our gums will then begin to bleed and eventually our teeth become loose.
It is important to understand that the process of cleaning our teeth surfaces at or below the gums is essential for long-term gum health and tooth stability.
HOW LONG IS THE SCALING TREATMENT?
The entire visit usually takes around 20-30 minutes. Though it is in generally painless, you may experience some sensitivity. The surfaces of the teeth are then polished to smoothen them. An air jet is then used to spray off residual soft deposits below the gums. Your dentist may apply some fluoride on the root surface of the teeth at the gum margin after scaling to prevent sensitivity of the underlying “scrubbed” surface.
In some patients, plaque and tartar deposits are very adherent and thus harder to remove. In such instances teeth & roots have to be more aggressively scaled to get them clean and healthy. This procedure is professionally called “root planning”.
Root planing can be sensitive and uncomfortable more often than not owing to the “deep-clean” required. As such treatment is usually done under local anaesthesia (i.e numbing injection).
For those who are needle phobic or very anxious about dental treatment in general, our clinic also has the facility to provide you with intra-venous sedation or nitrous-oxide sedation.
WHAT IS GUM TREATMENT (ROOT PLANING)?
WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU LEAVE IT UNTREATED?
It is important to seek treatment early. Sadly most patients leave it too late or are genetically more prone to aggressive gum disease. Severe gum disease often leads to mobile (shaky) teeth, bad breath and eventual tooth loss. In such instances, more aggressive cleaning, termed “gum surgery” is required to clean the roots of the teeth.
If teeth need to be extracted, do not worry as modern scientific technology allows regeneration of lost bone due to gum disease and replacement of missing teeth with either bridges or titanium implants.
VisiT ALIGN DENTAL
Opening Hours
Monday–Friday | 9am–6pm Saturday | 9am-1pm