What Is the Difference between a Routine Cleaning and Deep Cleaning by Dentists?

If you have been skipping visits to your dentist for regular checkups, you will likely receive a recommendation to clean your teeth thoroughly. According to the American Academy of periodontology, adults must visit their dentist twice yearly for an evaluation. An evaluation by a dentist near you helps determine whether you need a routine cleaning or deep cleaning, regardless of whether you visit your dentist frequently or skip dental appointments.

Routine Exams and Cleanings

During your six-monthly dental visits, you receive a dental cleaning and exam to maintain healthy teeth and gums. During regular cleanings, the cleaning helps remove bacterial buildup between your teeth and gums. In addition, the cleaning procedure from the dentist combined with brushing and flossing at home helps minimize bacteria in the mouth to keep your gums healthy.

Delayed Dental Cleanings

You become vulnerable to receiving deep dental cleaning in Phoenix if you allow bacteria and tartar buildup to accumulate on your teeth by neglecting six monthly dental appointments. This is because the plaque and tartar buildup encourage pockets to form between your teeth and gums, making you vulnerable to gum disease. In addition, if left unremoved, you become susceptible to multiple oral health conditions like periodontal disease and eventual tooth loss.

Deep cleaning, alternately called scaling and root planing, helps remove accumulated plaque and tartar on your teeth and below the gum line. Scaling helps remove the plaque and tartar from your tooth surfaces and gum pockets, while root planing removes the accumulation from the root surfaces. Deep cleanings are unlike routine cleanings needing 30 to 45 minutes, and require multiple appointments with dental cleaning Phoenix because of the intensity of the procedure. Occasionally you might also have to schedule numerous visits with the dentist to monitor your teeth and gums healthy, primarily if pockets have formed around them.

If having periodontal disease, you will need a deep cleaning to help reverse the progress of the disease. Many patients observe the cleaning results within 90 days of receiving this treatment.

What Kind of Cleaning Do You Need?

The American Dental Association suggests getting your teeth examined and cleaned at six monthly intervals to eliminate plaque and tartar buildup constantly accumulating on your teeth. If you overlook dental appointments, the bacterial buildup hardens on your teeth and below the gum line, making you susceptible to deep cleaning.

When you visit the dentist nearby for an exam and cleaning, they evaluate your teeth during the exam to determine which cleaning best suits your needs. During the exam, the dentist checks the depth of the pockets between your teeth and gums using a probe to check their spaces. If the spaces exceed 4 mm, they suggest a deep cleaning instead of routine cleanings. This is because the dentist observes you have already become a victim of gingivitis, the earliest stage of gum disease, to prevent it from progressing to aggressive versions. If you refuse the treatment, you become vulnerable to more frequent dental cleanings and intensive treatments with antibiotics and even surgical procedures to manage advanced gum disease.

If you allow periodontal disease to progress without timely treatment, the condition is irreversible because no cure is available to manage the problem. In addition, you must schedule more frequent appointments with your dentist than at six monthly intervals. Eventually, it results in tooth loss and jawbone resorption requiring bone grafting surgery before getting replacement teeth with dental implants or dentures. Therefore it helps if you don’t avoid six monthly routine cleanings to become a victim of deep cleanings that, besides requiring more time, also increase financial expenditure.

Gum disease is the primary reason for tooth loss among adults in America. Besides causing you unnecessary oral health complications, this condition can also affect your overall health because the bacteria in your mouth can enter your bloodstream, making you vulnerable to medical problems like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, and cancer, needing treatments from different medical professionals instead of merely your dentist.

You might think you brush and floss your teeth as suggested by your dentist. Unfortunately, it is practically impossible to remove all plaque on your teeth which hardens into tartar, within 48 hours. Hardened tartar is challenging to remove by brushing and flossing and the only treatment to eliminate it is to get a deep cleaning before it is too late.

Now that you know the differences between routine and deep cleanings, we recommend you schedule a consultation with ESP Dental to determine which type of cleaning you need after an evaluation. If they suggest you get a deep cleaning, immediately consider it a recommendation to eliminate a severe infection in your mouth that will cause unnecessary stress.