You Might Regret Skipping The Hygienist – Here’s Why

15 / 10 / 2024

You Might Regret Skipping The Hygienist – Here’s Why

Hygienists are often unsung heroes in the eyes of the public, with the role of a dentist often taking the spotlight as the gatekeeper for your oral health.

In actual fact, hygienists are instrumental in helping you hold on to your natural teeth for life. As medical professionals, their main area of expertise is gum health, and it’s gum health that patients so often overlook.

Why you might regret skipping the hygienist

• Your hygienist is the person who looks after your gums.
• Without healthy gums, your teeth will fall foul to gum disease.
• Gum disease is the primary reason why Britons lose their teeth prematurely (so we’re not exaggerating when we say gum health is important)!
• Even one missed 6-monthly hygienist appointment can cause your oral hygiene status to change.

What do hygienists do?

Hygienists are caretakers for your gums, which require special care that a dentist doesn’t offer.

During your hygienist appointment, your hygienist removes harmful bacteria in the form of plaque and tartar from your gum line. These substances build up when you consume even a very small amount of sugary or carbohydrate-based food and drink, and they won’t budge with brushing and flossing.

Your hygienist appointments should be as routine as your dentist appointments, and as dentists, we still have a bit of a way to go in helping patients understand their value. A third of Britons still don’t attend the hygienist, so it’s no wonder that gum disease is the leading cause of tooth loss in the UK.

Is gum disease really bad for my health?

In short, 100% yes. The problem is that it can often only cause minor symptoms, and then seemingly overnight, you’re having to have loose teeth pulled out.

Gum disease is a discreet assassin, presenting what may seem like innocuous symptoms to start with (bleeding gums and some minor inflammation around the gums).

Once symptoms like bleeding gums and inflammation are allowed to persist for long enough (and this can be for as little as 6 months), you could find yourself suffering from advanced gum disease (clinical name, periodontitis). This is when things start to get really serious for your teeth.

Advanced gum disease deteriorates your oral health in the following ways:

It eats away at your gum and jaw

When gum disease sets in, one of the classic symptoms is you’ll notice your teeth might look ‘longer’. Your eyes aren’t deceiving you – this is your gum tissue pulling away from your teeth as a result of the bacteria waging an attack on your gums.

When this happens, small pockets can form around your gums, creating the perfect route for bacteria to go ahead and erode the soft tissues, ligaments and bone that secure your teeth firmly within the jaw.

When these foundations become compromised, teeth become loose and may need to be extracted.

It changes the appearance of the lower face

With gum and jawbone deterioration (which happen due to gum disease), comes unexpected changes to your facial structure.

Bone loss can add years onto your appearance, as it reduces volume across the face, and affects the elasticity of the skin in the affected areas. This can be emotionally damaging and hard to live with, and it’s always upsetting to see patients lose their confidence as a result of this.

It doesn’t just affect your mouth

Gum disease affects the supporting structures underneath your gums (as we’ve already established). Once plaque and tartar are underneath your gum line, they can find their way into the bloodstream, and begin to clog your arteries. This arterial plaque is the same plaque that builds up as a result of failing to exercise, consuming a fat and sugar-laden diet, and smoking.

Clinical studies continue to uncover compelling links between oral plaque and heart disease. Studies have also shown that oral plaque can cause dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.

What can I expect from hygienist appointments at Denpure?

Your hygienist appointment is fully personalised to address your risk factors for gum disease. It will involve:

• Removing the accumulation of plaque and tartar from your gum line. Our experienced hygienists used gentle cleaning techniques (we’ll never use aggressive techniques or rush the process).
• If you have a significant amount of bacteria along your gum line, we will use our sophisticated Airflow machine to remove the stubborn and hard-to-reach bacteria stuck in between your teeth. Airflow uses a gentle blast of compressed air, water and powder particles to scour away the bacteria plaguing your teeth and compromising their shade.
• Your hygienist will use the Prophy Mate Neo hand scaler. This type of scaler reduces treatment time for our patients and reduces any potential injury to soft tissues if your hygienist needs to perform cleaning underneath gum pockets that have formed as a result of gum disease.

Your hygienist is also a great source of information and guidance. They can show you:

• How to brush your teeth using an electric or ultrasonic brush (these perform far better than manual brushes, as long as you know how to use them correctly).
• How to floss your teeth and which flosser is most suitable for your tooth alignment.
• The food and drink to avoid if you want to lower your risk of plaque and tartar.

Contact Denpure for non-invasive plaque and tartar removal

Our compassionate hygienist team carry out cleaning with a light touch, making your appointments comfortable – many of our patients have even told us they feel that coming to the hygienist is therapeutic since joining us at Denpure!

If you’re looking for a hygienist in Uxbridge, please don’t hesitate to contact us.