If you don’t take adequate care of your dental hygiene, you may find yourself visiting Mayfield Dental Care for a scaling and root planing, which seeks to remove plaque and bacteria from the surfaces of your teeth and from the roots below the gumline.
Without this type of oral health treatment, you might end up dealing with issues like tooth decay and gum disease.
If you want to take full advantage of the results of your scaling and root planing procedure, you’ll need to keep up with your dental hygiene. Here’s a little bit more on what you should know about scaling and root planing.
Scaling & Root Planing (Deep Cleaning) Versus Regular Cleaning
Scaling and root planing, also called “dental deep cleaning”, is a step beyond regular cleaning. A regular cleaning (scale and plane) focuses on the surfaces of the teeth and between teeth available above the gums. During a regular cleaning, the teeth are also polished above the gum.
A dental deep cleaning, or scaling and root planing, is called for if bacteria, calculus (also called tartar), and debris have collected under the gum line, begun to cause gaps between the teeth and gums, and are harming dental health.
Calculus under the gumline creates a safe place for bacteria to build up, and cannot be removed by brushing, flossing, or with a regular dental cleaning. This bacteria leads to an immune response from the body that results in inflammation – This is the bodies way of fighting bacterial infection, but it can lead to bad results. =If left untreated, the infection and inflammation continues to progress under the gum line, eventually causing loose teeth, bone loss, and the loss of teeth.
Your Mayfield Dental Care dentist or hygienist uses specially designed tools to scrape off the plaque and tartar stuck to the enamel, including under the gums. They’ll work up along the roots of your teeth to smooth the surface to make it more difficult for plaque to form in uneven spaces. The entire treatment takes about 45 minutes per quarter of the mouth—upper left, upper right, lower left, or lower right.
If this sounds a little uncomfortable, it can be. Patients normally receive local anaesthetic to numb the sensation of dental tools poking under their gums.
After Deep Cleaning
Care of the mouth after deep cleaning is key to complete recovery. Symptoms that come after treatment should not be a cause for alarm, rather they should be minimized by following post-cleaning instructions.
What to expect: Following deep cleaning, expect the treated area to be sore and tender to touch for up to one week.
Bleeding & swelling: The treated area may bleed or be tender when you clean your teeth. This is normal, and should disappear within a week or two.
Sensitivity: After gum treatment, the tissue often shrinks and the root surface becomes exposed. This may cause sensitivity to heat, cold, and sweets. If this is bothersome, talk to us about treating your sensitivity.
Pain: If you feel pain and sensitivity can take OTC medicines including Advil (ibuprofen) or aspirin tablets.
Oral hygiene: The treated area should be kept plaque-free by brushing, flossing, and other recommended plaque-control devices or rinses. This reduces healing time and chance of infection.
Home care rinses: Gargle with salt water rinses (1/2 tsp salt to 8 oz. lukewarm water) 4-6 times daily. In some cases we will prescribe a stronger medicine to gargle with.
Diet: For 3 days after cleaning avoid foods that are hot and spicy, or foods containing nuts, seeds, or popcorn. Stick to a soft diet for a few days and do most of your chewing on the side opposite to the area that was treated.
Smoking: Don’t smoke for at least six hours after treatment, preferably more, since smoking is an irritant to the treated tissues.
Follow up treatments & how often they are needed: It is important that dental deep cleaning is done in a timely manner, i.e. a procedure each 1-2 weeks. If too much time passes between treatments, the effectiveness of the procedure is diminished and the healing may not occur. It is also critical that regular dental maintenance procedures are performed (usually every 3 months after the deep cleaning procedures are completed) to control periodontal disease and prevent relapse.
Making a Better Dental Future at Mayfield Dental Care
Mayfield Dental Care provides excellence in dentistry with the slogan, “Customer satisfaction must be our top most priority”. Our guiding principles are innovation, culture and care. Our equipment is cutting-edge and our outlook is forward-looking to provide you the best dental experience you have ever had.
Mayfield Dental Care has world-class dental and orthodontic specialists, cutting-edge technology, caring support staff who are extremely experienced in the field, and a comfortable and welcoming environment.
New Patients Promotion
- Pay No Gap: No Gap for dental checkup, clean, fluoride & 2 x-rays (with any health insurance)
- No Health Insurance : Only $145 ($95 for kids) for Checkup, Clean & Fluoride
*New Patients Only
Call us on (02) 4023 3885 or book your appointment online today!