General Check-Up and Clean
A great smile always starts with a clean and healthy mouth. So at Advanced Dental Care, we recommend that patients undergo a general check-up and clean every 6 months. Regular dental check-ups and cleaning can help to reduce the need for major dental work, as it’s the perfect way of highlighting any problems early on. This enables Dr. Priya Shanmugalingam and her team to treat any minor problems before they become major ones.
During your general check-up and clean, patients can expect a thorough but gentle examination with the aid of digital x-ray equipment and other tools. After that, a full scaling and clean will be carried out to ensure that your mouth remains plaque and tartar free. The end result for patients is an individualised treatment plan of any work that needs doing, a super clean mouth, and advice on how to bring out the best in your smile.
Here’s how a general check-up and clean works…
As with all dental check-ups, a routine check-up and clean is usually split into two parts; a medical examination and a cleaning process.
The medical examination
During the examination process, our dentist will check the current state of your teeth for any problems including cavities (through x-rays if necessary), tartar build-up, abnormal signs of wear and tear, etc. Our dentist will also ensure any fixed or permanent restorations remain in good condition and aren’t loose. Finally, we will check your mouth, particularly your gums, for any signs of gum disease.
The final part of the examination is to check the jaw, head, and tongue to ensure that no signs of cancer are present.
Dental Cleaning
Once the examination is complete, our dentist will move on to the next part of the process which is dental cleaning. This is carried out to remove any unwanted plaque and/or tartar which cannot be removed through normal brushing. This may be done manually using special scrapers or by using ultrasonic scalers which can provide a deep clean below the gumline.
Once all remnants of plaque and/or tartar are removed, your teeth are then polished. Finally, all that is left to do is to have a quick rinse out to clear any debris from your mouth. The whole process is relatively non-evasive and takes around 20-25 minutes. If, however, you do have sensitive teeth, then our dentist can administer an anaesthetic before your general check-up and clean takes place.