Dental Hygienist Appointments – Beneficial For All Ages

From young to old, everyone’s oral health can be improved with regular visits to our Burton dental hygienist.

It is now more widely accepted that seeing the hygienist is an essential part of good overall oral health care. In addition to six monthly appointments with the dentist, you should also see the hygienist at a similar interval. In some cases, you may need to see them more often if you are particularly vulnerable to gum disease as may be the case if you smoke or if you are a diabetic.

In today’s blog we will take a brief look at what happens when you see the hygienist and how it can benefit you throughout the different stages of your life.

Your hygienist appointment

When you see our Burton dental hygienist, there are two key things that will happen. First of all, they will discuss your general oral health habits such as how you brush, do you use floss etc as well as checking any lifestyle habits, such as smoking, that might affect your gum health. From this discussion, they may recommend some changes that will help you have a healthier mouth and may, in some instances, recommend a certain type of toothpaste or mouthwash to help you achieve this.

The second part of your appointment will consist of a non-invasive procedure known as a ‘scale and polish’. The first part of this involves the manual removal of excess tartar (a hardened crust made of bacteria and minerals). The second part uses a sonic tool which shatters the remaining tartar and is then easily removed. Finally, your teeth will be professionally brushed, leaving your teeth and mouth feeling fresher and cleaner.

So how does seeing a dental hygienist benefit you at different ages of your life?

The teen years

These are very often the rebellious years when some children tend to ignore a lot of their parent’s advice. Many of us will probably have shouted to our kids to clean their teeth before they go to bed; advice we suspect is often ignored once they reach a certain age. Seeing the hygienist can really help with this. Although teenagers may rebel against ‘authority’, they are less likely to do so with someone more neutral who has no direct control over them. Our oral hygiene team at SG Dental and Implant Centre offer a friendly and relaxed service and can often help them to understand why it benefits them to spend a little more time cleaning their teeth and looking after their gum health more generally. As some teenagers may start smoking during this stage of their life, this can be a real help in dissuading them from doing so.

Early adult life

We may stop being teenagers when we hit twenty, but many people continue a very similar lifestyle, albeit one with less, if any, parental control. Seeing the hygienist can be a good way to monitor their oral health at this stage and can help to keep any oral health negligence in check. As patients become more open as they get older, they are likely to start to improve how they look after their teeth and gums, guided perhaps by the experience of our team.

Middle age

As we enter our middle years, certain aspects of our oral health can start to suffer a little if we don’t take sufficient care. Gum disease especially is more likely than when we were younger. There are a number of possible reasons for this that include long term harm caused by smoking etc, a drier mouth with less saliva production and even some of the medication that we might be taking can cause a dry mouth. As readers of our previous blogs will be aware, this is something that causes bacteria to thrive and makes gum diseases such as gingivitis and periodontitis more likely. By seeing the dental hygienist at our Burton practice on a regular basis though, any gum health problems can be managed more effectively.

Older patients

Older patients especially tend to suffer from a dry mouth and are also more likely to have a longer list of medications that can affect their oral health. This can cause not only problems with eating, but may also lead to halitosis. While we should accept that in our old age, we may have to slow down a little, it doesn’t mean that we should give up on looking after ourselves and this includes looking after our teeth and gums. Even older patients that have a full set of dentures will benefit from seeing the hygienist as healthier gums will make denture wearing more comfortable than unhealthy and inflamed ones.

Whatever age you are at, you will almost certainly benefit from seeing the hygienist. If you haven’t been before, we think you will be surprised how much better your mouth feels afterwards. If you haven’t seen the hygienist before, what better time is there than now? You can make an appointment to see them by calling SG Dental and Implant Centre today on 01283 845345.