Our Blog

The Importance of Good Oral Hygiene

Good oral hygiene keeps teeth free from dental plaque build-up, prevents cavities and fights bad breath.

Your home oral hygiene routine should consist of regular brushing and flossing. A healthy diet that is low in sugary foods is also an essential part of good oral hygiene. Regular dental visits every six months allow your dentist to provide oral hygiene instructions.

Prophy-Jet Polishing

That fresh feeling you get when you leave the dental practice after professional dental cleanings is like no other. Ever wonder why you can’t achieve it on your own? Our hygienists have special tools that remove deposits from your teeth, leaving your mouth feeling cleaner than when you practice good oral hygiene at home.

During your hygienist visit, your teeth are polished using either a polishing brush or cup with paste on a conventional hand piece or Prophy-Jet. The Prophy-Jet is an air polishing system that combines water and baking soda to remove stains and debris from your teeth.

What’s the Difference?

The Prophy-Jet is a high-tech alternative to the instruments hygienists have been using for years. Whereas traditional polishing relies on a rotating rubber cup containing abrasive paste to clean your teeth, the Prophy-Jet sprays high pressured water to blast away soft deposits such as dental plaque. Baking soda acts as a pumice to scour off extrinsic tooth stains caused by foods, drinks or smoking.

At Parkfield Dental Practice, patients have mentioned that they prefer the Prophy-Jet to the rotating hand piece for several reasons:

• There are no unnerving sounds with the Prophy-Jet
• There are no vibrations
• Patients do not experience an aftertaste from the sticky paste associated with prophylaxis

Dentists may recommend Prophy-Jet polishing prior to bonding or attaching orthodontic braces. Removing dental plaque and debris from teeth, will lessen the chance of trapping irritants under the composite resin or brackets.

Before teeth whitening, a cosmetic dentist may use Prophy-Jet polishing to remove surface stains. This not only helps the dentist determine the natural colour of your teeth, but you will also receive better results from the tooth whitening procedure.

What’s the Process?

During Prophy-Jet polishing, only soft deposits and some extrinsic stains are removed from the teeth. Scaling and root planning will be needed to remove hard deposits such as calculus from the teeth and under the gum line.

The Prophy-jet also won’t remove discolouration that comes from inside the tooth. In these cases where discolouration is caused by genetics, dental fluorosis or trauma to the tooth, it will have a better chance of being removed through other cosmetic dentistry methods, such as tooth whitening or veneers.

Incorporating dental hygienist visits into your oral hygiene is essential to maintaining good dental health.

Please contact our practice in Didsbury today, to speak with any of our friendly and professional team, who will be more than happy to advise and discuss any queries you have on 0161 445 2397.

Parkfield Dental practice has a large patient list covering all South Manchester including; Hale, Bowden, Heaton Mersey, Heaton Moor, Cheadle Hulme and Gatley.

‍