Gingival cleaning manual#

If your gums are diseased or your gingivitis has gotten to the point where they are pulling away from the teeth and creating pockets or spaces that expose the bone that are 5 millimeters deep or more, a deep teeth cleaning is often advised as the next step short of actual periodontal surgery.īe aware that if your gingivitis or other gum problems aren’t resolved, it may progress into periodontitis, which results in the pockets between your teeth and gums becoming so deep, that the bacteria begins to affect the bone and supporting structures of your teeth. Typically, your dentist will recommend a deep teeth cleaning after examining your teeth and gums and taking X-rays to help assess the overall health of your mouth. This helps smooth the root and lets it reconnect with the gums, reducing the size of the space between the teeth and gums.ĭeep teeth cleaning is designed to treat gum diseases like gingivitis and prevent them from worsening and require surgery or other more extensive procedures. Root planing, or the second part of the deep teeth cleaning procedure, requires that the dental hygienist use a scaling instrument to clean plaque, tartar, and other build-up from the roots of your teeth.

Next, there is the root planing, which involves using an instrument to clean and smooth the root of the tooth, and helps the gums reattach to the tooth, minimizing the size of the pocket or space that can trap unhealthy build-up. The scaling part of the process removes all the plaque and tartar from below the gumline.

Gingival cleaning manual#

Deep Teeth Cleaning ProcessĪ deep teeth cleaning or a dental deep cleaning procedure involves two parts – the first is gum or periodontal scaling and the second is root planing.īoth aspects of the deep teeth cleaning process can be performed using electric or ultrasonic instruments or manual dentist scaling tools, or a combination of the two.Ī deep teeth cleaning generally involves two separate visits – the first for the teeth scaling and the second for the root planing. Typically, a local anesthetic is used to numb the mouth during both of these procedures.Ī follow-up visit may be required several weeks after the deep clean to ensure that everything is healing properly and the results are satisfactory. The first appointment will be for gum or perio scaling, and the second will be for root planing. When you have gum disease, the pocket or space between the teeth and gums opens up, becomes wider and deeper, trapping tartar and plaque.Ī healthy set of teeth and gums has a pocket or space that measures 3 millimeters or under, but if you have gingivitis or other gum problems the pocket gets wider.ĭentists often recommend a deep teeth cleaning if your gums have separated 5 or more millimeters away from your teeth and their roots.ĭeep teeth cleanings usually require 2 or more visits to the dentist. This same process is performed during a deep teeth cleaning, but the dentist also continues down to the root of the tooth, below the gumline, removing tartar and other build-up from the “pocket” that have been formed between the root of the tooth and gums. What Is A Deep Teeth Cleaning?Ī deep teeth cleaning, also known as gum therapy and usually referred to by dental professionals as gum scaling and root planing, is a dental treatment designed to clean between the teeth and gums all the way down to the roots.ĭuring a standard dental cleaning, a dental hygienist or dentist cleans the front, back, and sides of the tooth above the gum line.

However, a deep teeth cleaning is actually a procedure that you have performed by a dentist or dental hygienist, not something you do yourself.ĭeep teeth cleanings are meant to treat periodontal or gum disease a deep teeth cleaning is often advised for people who haven’t had regular dental cleaning appointments for a while but it may be recommended for anyone who has gum disease or periodontal issues. You probably think of deep cleaning your teeth as something that you do at home after a particularly messy meal or before you use a home whitening kit, or maybe something that you do before you go to the dentist (particularly if you’ve skipped a few appointments).