Why You Should Schedule a Teeth Cleaning Appointment

When you visit our Chicago dental office for professional teeth cleaning procedure, you are taking an important step in ensuring that your oral health remains intact. Many people mistakenly believe that if they brush and floss their teeth, they will remain in good oral health because they will be removing all of the harmful bacteria and plaque. Unfortunately, this is simply not the case.

Even those that are fastidious about brushing will often leave plaque on their teeth in hard to reach places. By performing a dental cleaning, we can reach the places that you cannot so that your teeth are completely clean.

Why is it important to remove bacteria and plaque from your teeth?

When one leaves plaque on the teeth, he or she runs the risk of developing cavities. Excessive plaque can lead to uncomfortable toothaches and an infection. An infection can create the need for having a root canal. A root canal is effective but can be uncomfortable in the aftermath. Gum disease is also a significant problem and one that develops due to the buildup of plaque on teeth underneath the gums. Dental cleanings allow us to remove this plaque before it becomes trapped so that we can help the gums to remain in good health. Cleaning a patient's teeth early means that the patient can avoid developing gum disease in the first place.

Otherwise, we will need to treat the patient's teeth after the fact and the procedure may be more invasive. If the gums begin to recede as a result of the condition, we may need to perform a gum graft or other procedure to secure them back around the tooth structure. This requires additional time and can be uncomfortable. Fortunately, we can help to prevent this condition if the patient comes in soon enough for teeth cleaning.

Oral Cancer Screening

Another thing that we can do during teeth cleaning appointments is to look for signs of oral cancer. While this cancer is one that most people do not think about, it claims one life every hour. This is a serious condition that can develop for a variety of reasons including smoking, chewing tobacco, drinking too much alcohol, overexposure to the sun, etc. While there are certain things one can do to decrease the risk, like stop smoking, cancer can impact everyone.

Some of the common signs are cheeks that are rough, hard lumps and bumps inside of the mouth, red and white bumps and more. If a patient notices any of these things, it is important to come and visit our dental office for a teeth cleaning and dental exam. If we identify anything that is out of the ordinary, we might biopsy the area to test it in a dental lab. If there are cancerous cells, we will refer the patient to an oncologist for further treatment.

During your teeth cleaning, we are focused on your overall oral health. To learn more, call us at (312) 509-9492 and schedule an appointment.