Dental Hygienists are the key to keeping your gums healthy & your smile bright.
Our Dental Hygienist- Oral Health Therapist (OHT) is trained to gently remove dental plaque & hardened scale or tartar from around your teeth. She also uses Perio-Air Flow technology to remove staining & bacterial biofilm from tooth surfaces
Read our blogs
- How to get teeth cleaner than you ever though possible ( Watch how our PerioAir Flo can clean those impossible to get to areas between your teeth)
- Cost of having your teeth cleaned
- View some of our Tooth Whitening work
The longer this plaque biofilm is left, the more “glued” onto your tooth it becomes & the harder it is for you to remove it yourself. Without this Bacterial Biofilm everybody would have healthy gums. This is why keeping your teeth clean with correct tooth brushing - at least twice a day for 2 minutes, flossing daily & the use of interdental brushes is critical to maintaining a healthy mouth. Gingivitis and periodontitis are the two main stages of gum disease. The end result of untreated periodontitis is the early or premature loss of teeth. After about the afe of 18 years more people loose teeth because of gum infection than because of tooth decay. People usually don’t show signs of gum disease until they are in their 30s or 40s. Gum disease can usually be prevented by good and careful teeth cleaning and regular cleanings or scale and polishes with your dentist or hygienist. Gum disease is a threat to your oral health, & there is growing evidence that this bacterial infection is potentially a cause of or exacerbates cardiovascular disease & other systemic prblems distant to the mouth, caused by these infectious bacteria getting into the bolod stream & ”finishing up” causing bacterial infections elsewhere. Read Andreas Blog for more on this.
Signs of gum disease
Gums that bleed easily when you brush your teeth
Gums that are red inflamed or tender
Persistent bad breath
Constant bad taste in your mouth
Pus appears between gums and teeth
Receding gums that make your teeth look longer
Deep pockets surrounding gums and teeth
Loose teeth
A change in your bite or teeth does not fit together well
The good news is that, if the gum disease is detected on its early stage, it can be treated and reversed. We at Milford Dentists treat gum infection. For more complex gum/periodontal problems an option is to see one of our Dentists - has a particular interest in treating periodontal disease & writes
"With regards to periodontal disease & its treatment, I am happy to perform non-surgical and surgical periodontal therapy. Also I am happy to perform periodontal regeneration in infra bony defects with Emdogain, and also root surface coverage with coronally advanced flaps and emdogain +/- alloderm regenerative tissue matrix" ................. Translated into English this means he is a very safe pair of hands.
Milford Dentists your local dental hygienist
Regular dental hygiene visits are the most cost effective way of caring for your teeth and gums
Our OHT is also our go to person if you want your teeth Whitening. She is also a Oral Health Therapist providing general dental care to children up to their 18th birthday & preventative treatments for adults. Our OHT is a Dental benefits practitioner as well. This means your child, if at secondary school, can be seen for most dental procedures for free up until their 18th birthday. If you want your child to be treated on the dental benefits scheme please contact us for more information or read our Dental Benefits at Milford Dentists letter.
So what is gum disease?
Gum disease is a bacterial infection of the tooth supporting structures of your mouth ie your gums, the fibres that attach the tooth to your jaw bone (periodontal ligament) & the bone surrounding your teeth. Gum disease begins with plaque. Plaque is continually forming on your teeth, without you even knowing it. Plaque is a bacterial colony. This plaque formation creates a layer on your teeth called a”Biofilm”.
The following film clip shows in vitro plaque biofilm formation, using time lapse photography, starting with a clean tooth over an 8 hour period ie plaque forming on a tooth over an 8 hour period.