Oral Health Education¶
Good oral health means taking good care of your teeth and gums.
To assist you in your quest to continuing good oral health, I have taken the time to develop a curated list of products that I have researched for my own use, or learned about through my continuing education. In the following sections, let us review some oral health basics and understand the tools that us dental hygienists use in the office and what can be used at home.
Dental Hygiene¶
What kinds of dental cleanings are there?
For a person with healthy gums (gingiva) we call this a dental prophylaxis aka “prophy.” This type of cleaning is best suited for people whose periodontal pockets measure between 1–3 mm, have healthy pink gum tissue and no clinical attachment loss (recession).
A full mouth debridement is a cleaning that is done when people have plaque or tartar (calculus) induced diseased gums (periodontitis). For this type of cleaning we essentially blast off all the plaque and tartar that we can in the hour long appointment and then have the patient come back for a deeper more thorough cleaning, which leads us to scaling and root planing (SRP).
An SRP or “deep cleaning” is for patients who have periodontal pockets that range from 4–5 mm all the way to 9+ mm. At this point the bacteria has worked its way so far down the pockets that we need to numb the patient and get our instruments down onto the roots of the teeth and essentially pop off the barnacles of tartar (calculus). Once a deep cleaning is done the periodontal pockets will, in an ideal world, reduce back down to 1-3mm, and then the person can maintain healthy gums with better oral health care at home, as well as more frequent dental cleanings (every 3 months instead of every 6). Which brings us finally to another type of cleaning, called periodontal maintenance, or “PMT.” This type of cleaning is for people who have undergone a “deep cleaning,” and we need to maintain the gum tissue that we have treated more frequently. A PMT is essentially like a Prophy, but the patient has a history of gum disease. I personally measure the periodontal pockets of PMT patients at every visit.
Gingivitis vs Periodontitis¶
Gingivitis is a term used to describe gums that have become swollen and inflamed due to bacteria and debris (plaque) sitting in the sulcus for too long (more than 24 hours). When plaque accumulates for too long the body responds like it would to any other infection, by sending white blood cells to the area, thus causing the gums to swell and bleed. The good news about gingivitis is that it is reversible. Once the bacteria is removed via a teeth cleaning, then you have a clean slate at home to floss, or waterpik and brush twice daily, keeping your oral cavity clean and disease free.
Periodontitis is when the plaque has become calcified and turned into calculus (tartar). When this happens the bacteria eats away at the gum tissue which also causes bone loss because the bone around your teeth always wants to maintain a 2 mm distance from your gums. So if the bacteria eats away at your bone tissue, your gums will recede too. There are different classes of periodontitis, as in, chronic, aggressive, localized, moderate severe, but we won't dive too deep into that.
I have expanded on some of the ways to combat gingivitis and periodontitis in the following blog posts: