Regular visits to a dentist will ensure that your teeth are professionally cleaned and scaled, which helps to avoid gum disease. Gum disease is an inflammation of the gingival and supporting tissues that can affect anyone. It can be caused by many things, including plaque bacteria, acids, foods, incorrect teeth cleaning, and gum care.

Visiting us every six months for professional cleaning and scaling is one of the best preventative measures you can take against gum disease. In this way, you will have your gums and supporting bones protected before the commencement of the disease. Our well-qualified dentists are capable of minimizing the risk of inflammation through two common methods – root planing and dental scaling.

Root planning is carried out by our gum disease dentists. It is a comprehensive scaling of the root surface to reduce tissue inflammation. The process begins with the assessment of the areas that your toothbrush can’t reach. After this, the dentist will scrape plaque from the teeth using a special tool to smooth out any rough plaque-retaining areas. Root planing allows one to get deeper into the surface of a tooth root.

Dental scaling can be done with either manual or ultrasonic instruments. Your gum doctor will use these tools to eliminate plaque bacteria with sonic vibrations and a lavage system. The scaling device will remove tartar (calcified deposit), biofilm, and plaque from the surface of your teeth and below the gum line.

If you have sensitive teeth, scaling and root planing may be uncomfortable. In this case, the dentist can administer a local anesthetic to numb the area while the procedure is performed. Depending on the level of required work, full dental scaling and root planing can take up to four visits.