Carefully brushing and flossing your teeth at least twice a day is essential to keeping your smile clean and healthy. If your toothbrush and floss are all that you rely on, however, then your smile may not remain clean and healthy for long. Aside from diligent personal care, good oral hygiene also entails professional dental care and routine maintenance. At any given time, your mouth hosts over 600 different kinds of bacteria. While most of these germs are harmless even beneficial, others are directly responsible for dental health issues like tooth decay, gum disease, and chronic bad breath. When they accumulate, oral bacteria form dental plaque—the sticky film that sometimes coats your teeth, gums, and tongue. Once plaque calcifies (hardens) into tartar, your toothbrush and floss can no longer remove it. With various degrees of professional dental cleanings, your Encinitas periodontist, Dr. Kania, can help remove tough tartar and protect your smile from destructive dental diseases.
Routine Cleaning Boosts Effective Hygiene
A routine dental cleaning, or prophylaxis, is the most common form of professional dental care, and should be conducted at least once every six months on healthy patients. Patients who are especially at risk for dental disease, may require more frequent visits to improve the state of their oral health. If no disease is present, a prophylaxis can help maintain a smile’s good health by removing all traces of bacteria, plaque, and tartar from teeth’s surfaces.
What is Periodontal Maintenance?
Periodontal disease, commonly called gum disease, describes a bacterial infection that causes gum tissue to separate from teeth. Certain mouth germs fool the body’s immune system, causing excessive inflammation in the sensitive gum tissues. Left unchecked,this inflammation can progress into full-blown and highly-destructive periodontal disease. If early signs of gum disease are detected, Dr. Kania can often control the infection with advanced periodontal maintenance, and help patients maintain their healthy smiles with regular supportive periodontal therapy (SPT). Disease causing pathogens tend to re-populate the periodontal pocket within 90 days. This is one of these reasons that a 3 month visit is recommended for some patients. Aside from thoroughly cleaning bacteria from underneath the gum line, SPT may also involve site-specific therapy, therapeutic mouthrinse, and/or advanced gum treatment with lasers or antimicrobials.
Healthy Smiles with Your Expert Periodontist
As a board-certified periodontist, Dr. Ann Kania is specially qualified to diagnose and treat issues concerning periodontal tissue and the supportive structures of a patient’s smile. To seek Dr. Kania’s expertise, contact us at (760) 642-0711, or visit our Encinitas periodontist’s office.