For people with dental anxiety, all dental interventions are a hard pill to swallow. However, a thorough teeth cleaning won’t put your body through the same pain and discomfort as undergoing a tooth extraction or dental implant surgery. Cleanings are necessary to keep your smile safe and bright. Let’s look at the nature and benefits of this pain-free dentistry in Las Vegas, so you don’t face your next appointment with your heart in your mouth.
What Happens During a Dental Cleaning?
During a dental cleaning, your dentist examines your mouth and looks for any signs of dental problems, such as tooth decay or periodontal disease. If they’re successful in their search and find plaque and tartar, dental professionals use special tools to remove bacteria from your teeth and gums.
Then, they brush your smile with a gritty paste and an electric toothbrush to take care of any staining or leftover harmful substances. Finally, they coat your teeth with a protective fluoride gel which keeps diseases from getting your teeth ill.
How Often Should You Get Cleanings?
As a rule of thumb, you should schedule dental cleanings once every six months to ensure your teeth remain polished and disease-free. Yet, each patient has their own needs and genetic predispositions that force them to undergo this dental procedure more often. For instance, people whose gums are more vulnerable to periodontal disease can’t leave their smile be for too long and need to go in for cleanings at least once every three months. Other factors that might increase the number of yearly dental cleanings are:
- Smoking
- Diabetes
- Pregnancy
Do Dental Cleanings Hurt?
Since dental cleanings deal with accumulated bacteria on the surface of your teeth and gums, you should only feel slight discomfort and sensitivity during the procedure. However, just because cleanings aren’t usually painful doesn’t mean you shouldn’t tell your dentist if your mouth hurts.
Poor oral habits, from not flossing or brushing properly to binging on sugar, open the door for bacteria to lay waste to your smile and damage oral tissue. As a result, your teeth will be more sensitive to the scraping and plaque removal your dentist does during dental cleanings, and the process could become more difficult to bear than usual.
Make sure to tell your dentist as soon as something starts to ache, and discuss possible sedation options if you feel too anxious or scared.
Benefits of Regular Dental Cleanings
Prevent Gum Disease
Gum disease is one of the leading dental problems in the US, affecting nearly half of the adult population. The first step toward avoiding this issue is getting regular cleanings. When you pay no mind to your oral health and let bacteria make a home in your mouth, plaque and tartar stick around your gums, resulting in gum recession, bleeding, and inflammation.
Pair this problem with a lack of regular dental cleanings, and you might suffer from tooth loss, cavities, and bad breath. If you undergo this procedure often, you won’t have to worry about blood and pain every time you brush your teeth.
Remove Cavities
Aside from steering clear from gum disease, cleanings are game changers to keep cavities at bay. Even perfectly aligned teeth trap food remains on the surface and corners of your smile, allowing bacteria to drill your tooth enamel and eventually hurt the tooth pulp.
In extreme cases, untreated cavities are irreversible, forcing your dentist to perform an extraction. Dental cleanings catch cavities early on, removing any traces of damaging substances and preventing them from hurting your teeth further.
Freshens Your Breath
Preventing and tackling oral problems is the main reason behind getting dental cleanings, but your breath will become fresher after the procedure, too. As enjoyable as spicy and flavorful foods are, their particles stick to your teeth and tongue, taking your breath from minty to fetid. When dentists scrape hard-to-reach remains, culprits behind your foul breath go away, giving you the confidence to speak to others without thinking about how you smell.
Brightens Your Smile
Finally, cleanings also have the power to make your teeth several shades whiter and enhance the appearance of your smile. Avid coffee drinkers, smokers, or wine lovers are an easy target for staining, as teeth absorb substances in these drinks that make your smile yellowish and worn-out. With regular cleanings, dentists remove superficial spots and stains, giving you a picture-perfect grin. Other practices you can adopt to keep your teeth white for longer are:
- Using a straw
- Drinking water
- Getting a professional teeth whitening
Are You Looking for Pain-Free Dentistry in Las Vegas?
Luckily, dental cleanings are nothing to fear, and the benefits they provide to your oral health are innumerable. At Dee for Dentist, we prioritize oral health and comfort. If you want to give this or other pain-free dentistry procedures a go to improve your smile, contact our team today!
