The medical term for scaling is scaling, “scaling” refers to the removal of bacteria and tartar, pigment and other tartar from the tooth surface, “cure” scaling is to explain its role in the treatment of periodontal disease. Scaling can reduce the symptoms of gingivitis and periodontitis, but it cannot cure them. To be treated completely, it should also be followed by scaling. Scaling is not only for beauty, but prevention and treatment is more important.
First of all, let’s understand the harm caused by the tartar left in the oral cavity before scaling!
Brush your teeth twice a day, morning and evening, and rinse your mouth after meals, so your teeth must be clean? The answer is of course no.
Although you brush your teeth every day, many people still can’t clean their teeth thoroughly even after brushing because of the brushing method and other problems. Since teeth are not thoroughly cleaned, it is easy to cause dental calculus. People generally have more or less calculus, and the lingual side of the lower teeth is the easiest place to form calculus. Once calculus is formed, it is more difficult to clean. Not only does calculus cause damage to the gums and alveolar bone, but the bacterial bacterial proteins in plaque that enter the capillaries of inflamed gums and periodontal tissues may cause venous blood clots, which can even cause heart disease in people who are a little older.
It is best for regular people to have their teeth cleaned once every six months. In the West, dental cleaning is a common practice, an “alternative to brushing”. By cleaning your teeth regularly, you can thoroughly remove calculus, stains and areas that you cannot clean yourself, such as the deeper gaps in your mouth, and keep your periodontal tissues healthy, and it is also an effective treatment for bleeding gums. It is easy to detect small and unnoticeable dental diseases, such as relatively hidden caries, when scaling, so as to achieve the purpose of early detection and early treatment.
At present, there are two types of formal scaling
One is common ultrasonic scaling, which uses ultrasonic vibration to break down plaque, calculus and pigment on the surface of teeth, and at the same time rinses off the debris with atomized water flow, so general scaling will not cause damage to teeth.
The other type of scaling is for those who have more pigment on the surface of the teeth and those who often smoke, using high-pressure sandblasting to thoroughly clean the teeth. The interval between scaling should not be too short or too long, too frequent and damaging to the teeth. People who are prone to tartar or tobacco or tea stains generally have their teeth cleaned once every three to six months, while regular people should have their teeth cleaned once every six months.
Some people should beware of dental cleaning
It is good to clean your teeth thoroughly, however, not everyone can be scaled, some people, it is best to be careful with scaling, for example, people with mouth ulcers and gum inflammation, is not acceptable sandblasting scaling. In addition, people suffering from various bleeding disorders, such as thrombocytopenia patients and leukemia patients, must choose the time of scaling carefully and can take appropriate amount of pro-coagulant drugs in advance to control the coagulation rate so as not to bleed more than once when scaling.
Therefore, in addition to having the patient rinse with a weak antibacterial solution such as hydrogen peroxide before routine scaling, 1% tincture of iodine can be applied to the scaling area. Scaling machine handpiece and working head are strictly disinfected to avoid cross infection. 2% tincture of iodine is used to rub the scaling machine head twice, and after natural drying or 1 minute, 75% alcohol is used to de-iodize the scaling machine head, and 2% glutaraldehyde cotton ball can also be used to rub the scaling machine head for 2 minutes.
Patients whose oral local soft and hard tissue inflammation is in the acute stage should also wait until the acute stage has passed before scaling; pregnant women should preferably not scaling their teeth. (Especially in the pre-pregnancy period, it is worth emphasizing here that it is better to have a systematic dental cleaning before preparing for a baby, that is, one to two months before pregnancy).
After scaling, symptoms such as oral pain and tooth soreness may occur, which are mainly due to the exposure of tooth roots. Therefore, after scaling, you should avoid contact with too cold or too hot food for a short period of time, insist on brushing and flossing your teeth after every meal, and rinse your mouth with warm salt water every few hours to make your teeth have an adaptation process, and the symptoms will be relieved.
Why do my teeth become discolored?
Some people see a yellowish brown or dark brown stain on the surface of their teeth, which is unattractive. The reason for this is related to food, tobacco, chemicals and bacteria of color origin. Tea, coffee and some colored beverages in daily life can stain the surface of teeth. If you smoke for a long time, you can also deposit a lot of smoke spots on the tooth surface, making the teeth yellowish brown or dark brown. Although the pigmentation itself is not very irritating to the gums, it is often deposited on top of plaque and tartar. When the pigmentation is large and thick, it often provides a rough surface for the accumulation of plaque, which stimulates both inflammation of the gum tissue.
In addition, some bacteria can also produce some pigment deposits on the tooth surface due to incomplete brushing and failure to remove plaque. Therefore, it is important to maintain good oral hygiene habits in daily life, which can help prevent and reduce the staining of tooth surfaces.
It is important to emphasize here that scaling only restores the original color of teeth and does not serve the purpose of whitening teeth!
But what should be done to remove tea stains, tobacco stains and some other pigments that have already formed?
For good oral hygiene and only a small amount of thin pigment, you can directly use a rubber cup dipped in polishing agent to polish the tooth surface, then you can remove the pigment deposited on the tooth surface.
If there is not only pigmentation, but also tartar and plaque on the crown surface, supragingival scaling (scaling) should be performed and the surface should be routinely polished after scaling to smooth the surface and reduce the redeposition of plaque, pigment and tartar.
For extensive and thick tobacco stains, the ultrasonic scaling machine should be followed by the application of a sandblasting machine to completely remove the tooth surface pigment after the removal of tartar. Sandblasting is a clinically proven method of removing tooth surface pigmentation. It is performed by spraying polishing grit onto the tooth surface at high speed through a working handle mounted on a sandblasting machine to effectively remove tea stains, tobacco stains and other pigmentation from the tooth surface and to whiten the tooth surface.
The main components of polishing sand are fine quartz and sodium bicarbonate. It is worth mentioning that the quartz sand will cause small scratches on the tooth surface while spraying to the tooth surface at high speed, so after the sandblasting treatment, the tooth surface should also be polished with a rubber cup to reduce the scratches. Smooth the tooth surface. In addition, care should be taken to protect the soft tissues of the gums to avoid damage during the sandblasting treatment.
Regular scaling is even more important during orthodontic treatment!
The interval between scaling for periodontally healthy people is six months to a year. This is because even if you brush your teeth carefully every day, there is still some plaque, soft tartar or food residue left on the tooth surface, in the gap or in the gingival margin and gingival sulcus, which will form hard tartar after calcification over time and cause gum inflammation.
During orthodontic treatment, the wearing of fixed orthodontic appliances greatly increases the area of plaque attachment and also makes it more difficult to remove plaque. Plaque, soft tartar and tartar can easily accumulate on the tooth surface, making brushing relatively difficult and easily forming gum inflammation, which is manifested as redness, swelling, bleeding and hyperplasia of the gums, which in turn hinders the smooth progress of orthodontics. Therefore, regular scaling during orthodontic treatment is more important.
What kind of people should have their teeth scaled?
1.People with healthy periodontium should have ultrasonic scaling once every six months to one year to prevent periodontal diseases.
2.People with periodontal disease, such as bleeding from brushing and swelling of the tooth bed, should go for treatment at any time. The doctor will do scaling and some other treatments according to the different conditions of each patient. After treatment, patients with periodontal disease should return regularly for periodontal maintenance treatment, which includes scaling, in order to ensure the effectiveness of treatment and prevent recurrence of the disease.
3. Mothers-to-be who are preparing to have a small baby. Before pregnancy, you should go to a dental clinic or specialist hospital to check your oral condition and decide whether you need to do dental cleaning according to the examination to ensure oral and periodontal health during pregnancy.
4.Before and during orthodontic treatment. The periodontal situation should be checked to decide whether it is necessary to clean teeth.
5.Those who need dentures for missing teeth. Before the restoration work begins, it is necessary to check the periodontal situation and decide whether it is necessary to do scaling and other periodontal treatment to ensure the normal use of dentures, and also to maintain periodontal health as an essential measure.
6, diabetic patients often have bleeding gums, swollen gums, loose teeth and other symptoms due to the decrease in systemic resistance, so they should also go for an oral examination and do scaling and other periodontal treatment.
Some considerations during scaling.
The ultrasonic scaling work head used in scaling itself does not have any cutting function, it relies on the high-frequency vibration of ultrasonic waves to break the tartar, (the ultrasonic generator sends out a high-frequency electrical signal, which is converted into mechanical oscillation through the transducer and transmitted to the medium, so it can produce tens of thousands of small bubbles) and the doctor operates to constantly move the work head, and there is no pressure, if it gently touches the tartar, so it will not damage the teeth.
However, if the operation is improper, such as pressure or stay on the tooth surface for too long, it will leave tiny scratches on the tooth surface, generally visible under the microscope as a fine rough surface, and such scratches can be made up by polishing. Some people feel soreness in the teeth during scaling, which is mainly due to root exposure, which is a typical manifestation of periodontal disease. Tooth roots are more sensitive to cold, hot, sour, sweet and other stimuli. Therefore, the more severe the periodontal inflammation, the more pronounced the root exposure may be and the more pronounced the soreness will be during the treatment.
Tooth sensitivity after scaling.
Some patients may also experience tooth sensitivity after scaling, mainly because the exposed roots are surrounded by tartar and isolated from hot and cold stimuli before scaling. To reduce the pain, avoid contact with too cold and too hot food for a short time after scaling, so that the teeth have an adaptation process and the symptoms will be relieved.
Bleeding during scaling.
Due to the stimulation produced by plaque and tartar, many people have bleeding during scaling. This is because inflammation occurs in the gums stimulated by plaque and tartar, etc. The more serious the inflammation is, the more obvious the gum bleeding is. If you bleed when you brush your teeth normally, it means that the gum inflammation is not light anymore. Only completely healthy gums will not bleed during scaling. Therefore, if you insist on brushing your teeth carefully after scaling to remove plaque and other irritants, you can reduce gum bleeding.
Gaps in teeth become larger after scaling.
This also makes many people distressed, in fact, this is the teeth to your poor oral hygiene habits over the years “revenge”. The normal gap between teeth is filled by the gum papillae, but due to the long-term accumulation of tartar, resulting in gum recession, the root of the tooth is exposed, and the gap is gradually covered by tartar, which will appear to be a large gap after removal. Once a tooth has a gap, cleaning is more difficult, but also more important, otherwise plaque and tartar will easily attach and stimulate the gap to become further larger.
Precautions during the clinical operation of scaling.
1.Let the patient rinse with 3% hydrogen peroxide solution for 30 seconds to 1 minute (depending on the person), then rinse the mouth with water, and the operator steps on the switch to check whether the handpiece is spraying water and whether the working head is vibrating while making the spraying water foggy.
2. Gently touch the working head of the handpiece to the tartar, with the front side edge of the working head against the tooth surface, at an angle of about 15° to the tooth surface, and use the ultrasonic vibration of the tip of the working head to remove the tartar, without applying too much pressure. Move the working head continuously and do not stop at a certain point. The working head should not be placed vertically on the tooth surface.
3.Patients are instructed to use mouthwash first to reduce inflammation and rinse away the residual tartar.
4.Remove the tartar from the whole mouth in a certain order to avoid missing.
5.After the instruments are used, the working end and handpiece should be disinfected with high temperature.
6.Residual tartar is removed by manual scaling appliance.