![]() If not, gingivitis can progress to periodontitis. Usually gingivitis will clear up once the dental hygienist scrapes off the plaque during your regular cleaning and you take it upon yourself to be more disciplined with brushing and flossing. "If you're not cleaning debris out on a regular basis, that collar gets stretched out further and further and the debris goes deeper and deeper." "It's like a tight sleeve on a shirt," Vera Tang, a professor of periodontology at New York University. Your gums become red and puffy and they bleed easily. Those toxins trigger an immune response that leads to inflammation. The early stages are called gingivitis, when bacteria living in the plaque along your gums release toxins. While it's far from the most fun way to spend an hour, root scaling and planing is a necessary treatment for advanced gum disease. Patients typically receive a local anesthetic to numb the sensation of dental tools probing under their gums. If that sounds a little uncomfortable and unpleasant, it is. It may even take multiple sessions to treat all four afflicted quadrants. The entire process takes about 45 minutes per quadrant of your mouth-upper left, upper right, lower left, or lower right. They'll also reach up along the roots of your teeth to smooth the softer cementum on the surface to prevent plaque from forming in uneven spaces. The dentist or hygienist will use their tools to scrape away plaque and tartar on the surface of the enamel up under the gums-not just along the gum line like in a regular cleaning. "This was old already when I was trained," says Paulo Camargo, chair of periodontics at the UCLA School of Dentistry, who graduated dental school in 1984. ![]() The technical term is a "root scaling and planing," and it's long been part of a dentist's standard procedures. Accessed June 29, 2023.First of all, the deep cleaning itself is very much an established dental treatment. ![]() Erosion: What you eat and drink can impact teeth.Overview of gingivitis and periodontitis in adults. Eat right for a healthy mouth and teeth.See a dentist regularly for cleanings and checkups.Don't smoke or use other tobacco products.Replace it sooner if the bristles become worn down, bent or broken. Get a new toothbrush every 3 to 4 months.Use mouthwash after brushing and flossing.Eat a healthy diet and limit sugary food and drinks.If there's fluoride in your community's tap water, drinking it may help lower the risk of cavities. Those toothbrushes may be easier to use.Īlong with brushing your teeth twice a day, follow these steps to help keep your mouth healthy: If you have arthritis, if you have a hard time holding a toothbrush or if you have braces, try an electric or battery-operated toothbrush. During that time, your saliva washes away the acid and the enamel hardens again. Brushing too soon after you eat or drink something acidic can take the enamel off your teeth. Examples include soft drinks, such as soda and sports drinks, sour candies, citrus juices and citrus fruits. To protect your teeth, don't brush them right after having food or drinks that contain a lot of acids. Tartar buildup on the gums also leads to inflammation that causes gum disease. When there's tartar on your teeth, it's harder to keep them clean. And plaque that stays on teeth hardens into tartar. Over time, the acid breaks down tooth enamel.
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