10 Ways Teeth Cleanings Help Prevent a Cavity

Dentist Checkups and Teeth Cleanings

Your dental health goes a long way in enhancing your general well being. Two important factors play a role as far as your oral health is concerned: 1) daily brushing and flossing of teeth, and 2) visiting your family dentist regularly for a dental checkup and professional teeth cleaning. While it’s tempting to skip seeing your dentist, certain hard-to-reach areas of your mouth are likely to be missed, resulting in an undetected cavity in a tooth. It’s important to discuss cavities at your next dental checkup and familiarize yourself with prevention.

What is a Cavity?

Also known as dental carriers, a tooth cavity can cause a lot of discomfort if not treated early. Cavities are holes in your teeth, which typically result from tooth decay. When tiny food particles are left in your mouth, bacteria digests them. Thereafter, the debris is converted into acid, which mixes with saliva to form plaque. This is a sticky substance, which adheres to the surface of your teeth. With time, the plaque corrodes the protective part of our teeth (the enamel), thus resulting in cavities. The following are ten ways by which routine teeth cleaning helps to prevent cavities:

1. Removes Tartar Deposits
   1. Professional teeth cleaning entails a procedure known as scaling, which is performed by dental hygienists to remove debris from your teeth by scraping teeth surface gently. Larger tartar deposits are usually removed using an ultrasonic scaler. This is an electronic tool that vibrates gently and with the help of a stream of water, breaks down large pieces of tartar deposits before washing them away. This cleaning procedure goes a long way in preventing dental carriers and a host of other oral health disorders.
2. Smoothens Tooth Surface
   1. When you visit a dental facility for teeth cleaning, the practitioner may recommend a quick polishing depending on the condition of your teeth. This is a process that entails the use of a handheld tool, which has a revolving rubber head that polishes the surfaces of your teeth using a special paste. Polishing removes minor stains from the enamel, thus enabling your teeth to have a smooth surface. Smooth tooth surfaces are less likely to attract oral bacteria or plaque, hence lowering the possibility of suffering from a cavity.
3. Strengthens the Enamel
   1. Apart from buffing teeth surfaces, cleaning strengthens the enamel, which is the hard protective part of your teeth. After each cleaning, fluoride treatment is offered by oral hygienists. This cleaning agent is typically applied in form of a gel, foam, varnish, or rinse. Regular application helps to strengthen the enamel. This ultimately enables the enamel to be resistant to acid attack, a common cause of dental cavities.
4. Restores with a Filling
   1. If tooth decay is plaguing your smile, dental fillings are a good way to prevent a cavity from progressing. This treatment can only be administered after the affected teeth have been thoroughly cleaned. Filling involves the removal of decayed debris in the cavity, and a filler (such as gold, silver, resin, or porcelain) will be used to seal the hole. It is only through cleaning that a dental practitioner can ascertain the extent to which you have been affected by teeth cavities. Most cavities are good candidates to be treated with dental fillings, also known as dental restoration, to prevent the loss of a tooth.
5. Helps You Monitor Cavity Formation
   1. It goes without saying that prevention is better than treatment. Professional teeth cleanings not only help maintain your oral hygiene, but also enable you and your dentist to monitor cavity formation. This way, it is easy to establish whether cavities are forming. Keep in mind that early discovery of cavities makes it easier for your dental practitioners to correct them. Teeth cleaning is particularly recommended to individuals who have a history of recurrent cavities.
6. Helps You Adapt A Healthier Lifestyle
   1. You may not know the extent to which your dental health has deteriorated until your “dentist near me” search leads you to a Castle Dental location. After our expert and gentle cleaning, your dentist will reveal the condition of your dental health, and possible lifestyle adjustments that may improve it. This way, you are likely to be more mindful of eating food that helps prevent cavities, and even how often you brush and floss your teeth. This will ultimately boost your dental health and keep cavities in your teeth at bay.
7. Prevents Periodontal Disease
   1. Periodontal disease is prevented through regular teeth cleaning, and can affect dental patients through three stages of gum disease. Just like dental carriers (a cavity), periodontal disease is caused by the accumulation of plaque in your mouth, especially within 48 hours after forming. Cavities similarly tend to form along the gumline and between crooked or crowded teeth. Therefore, teeth cleaning eliminates plaque before it calcifies into tartar, preventing cavities along the gumline.
8. Prevents Cavities in Hard-to-Reach Areas
   1. Common dental hygiene procedures such as everyday brushing and flossing may not be effective in preventing cavities in unreachable parts of your mouth. It is only through professional teeth cleaning at your local Castle dentist that such areas can be properly and thoroughly cleared of plaque. Even the most diligent patients can miss things that your dentist will catch during your six-month dental checkup, before a cavity has the chance to develop.
9. Helps to Eliminate Tartar
   1. Tartar is a hard, sticky substance that forms on the surface of your teeth with time. This substance cannot be effectively removed through brushing or flossing. Professional teeth cleanings eliminate tartar from all the surfaces if your teeth, and along gumlines.
10. Helps Discover Defects in the Dental Cavity
    1. Professional dental cleanings give your dental practitioner an opportunity to pinpoint specific areas within the dental cavity, which need special attention. During your dentist check-up, our Castle Dental staff will examine any previous cavities to be sure they don’t require additional treatment. We’ll also assess any prior dental fillings to be sure they are holding up.

Request A Dentist Appointment

A professional teeth cleaning at Castle Dental is the surest way to maintain your oral health and avoid a painful cavity. We make it easy to book an appointment online, or by calling us at 1-800-700-7645. Our friendly staff members are standing by to help you! We also recommending browsing local dentists with our Zip Search tool to find your closest “dentist near me”.

The type of cleaning procedure that your dental hygienist will recommend depends on the extent to which you are affected by a cavity, and whether you are suffering from other dental conditions such as gingivitis or periodontal disease.

According to the American Dental Association, 91% of Americans over 20 have had dental cavities at some point in their lives. Therefore, dental cleanings should be used as a benchmark that enables you to adopt healthy oral health routines after your dentist appointment. We look forward to see you smiling soon!