Dental Hygiene

in Boulder, Colorado

Hygiene – The best way to ensure that your smile is in the best health possible is to schedule regular teeth cleanings at a professional general dentistry office such as Dr. Birnbach's in Boulder, Colorado. During your teeth cleaning appointment, the plaque, bacteria, and tartar that develop over time are removed from your teeth.

Bacteria, tartar, and plaque are the cause for nearly all decay that occurs on your teeth. The crevices of your teeth, combined with your own saliva, are a haven for bacteria to thrive, eating away at the tissue of your teeth, even spreading into or around the gum tissue.

While brushing and flossing are the best ways to remove plaque, tartar, and bacteria daily, regular teeth cleaning is essential to eliminating buildups that flossing and brushing fail to remove.

Professional teeth cleaning is more thorough and precise than anything you can do alone at home. Generally, there are two steps to professional teeth cleaning:

• Scaling – Scaling is the process of removing the plaque and tartar that has developed on the surfaces of your teeth. This is performed by an experienced dental hygienist using a variety of different instruments, including hand tools, electric scaling devices, and ultrasonic scaling. Virtually all plaque can be removed from your teeth with a combination of these techniques.
  
  
• Polishing – Once the plaque has been removed from the teeth, the teeth are polished. Polishing the teeth makes it more difficult for bacteria, tartar, and plaque to collect because the teeth are smooth. This allows your daily brushing and flossing to clean your teeth better. Polishing can be performed with a low-speed rubber tipped device that gently rubs a paste onto the teeth, smoothing every surface.

In general, professional teeth cleaning should be performed every six months. In addition to removing plaque from your teeth and making it more difficult for plaque to build in the future, teeth cleaning can also help your dentist detect more serious problems like gum disease, cancer, bone loss, and tooth loss.

Teeth cleaning is a very simple, painless procedure. Professional teeth cleaning is one of the easiest things you can do to maintain your oral health.