What is a professional clean?

A professional clean is a secondary hygiene package that can be offered by your dentist or dental hygienist. It is offered as a treatment for patients showing signs of poor oral hygiene, mild gingivitis, or more serious gum disease problems. The package will offer more than our SynClean package and will focus more on eliminating stains while eliminating the necessary areas of plaque and hard calculus.

Gum disease – also referred to as gingivitis or periodontitis– is caused by excessive build-up of plaque in and around the teeth and gum pocket. Areas of hard calculus cannot just be brushed away at home and will require professional instruments to eliminate. Although a twice-daily brush is a necessary part of correct teeth maintenance, a professional clean will be recommended to you if the plaque around your mouth has reach difficult areas and has begun to mineralise into tartar.

How is it done?

Included in the package, a scale and polish will eliminate plaque build-up in trickier places of the mouth and prevent plaque build-up from becoming mineralised into hard calculus. These are difficult and near impossible issues to deal with using a standard toothbrush at home.

During the initial scaling stage, specialist instruments, such as an ultrasound scrapper, will be used to eliminate tartar build-up in those tough to reach spots. This will remove the bulk of the tartar, while a second scrape will eliminate any additional stubborn remains. The second polishing stage is not a cosmetic procedure and it is an important part of the scale and polish process as a whole. The polish will smooth away any minor imperfections found on the teeth. Plaque will begin to mineralise in these areas and cause further issues.

Although a scale and a polish session will remove light stains, many stubborn tooth stains, like tobacco or wine stains, could require further treatment if they need removing. The additional treatment of stain removal will provide further depth to the standard scale and polish, leaving your teeth free from excess plaque and prevent the risk of developing gum disease. As a final step, you will use chlorhexidine, an antiseptic mouthrinse, to rinse the mouth thoroughly as a further precaution to fight against plaque build-up.

Who will benefit?

The ideal patient for a professional clean would be individuals who are showing signs of bad oral health or gum disease. This can present itself in a variety of different ways such as bleeding after brushing, soreness, or even gum inflammation. These signs would point towards an issue of progressing gum disease that should be addressed as soon as possible.