Teeth cleaning
In Newbury Park

There are three main types of dental cleanings: prophylaxis cleaning, scaling and root planing, and gross debridement.

While they all accomplish essentially the same thing — cleaner teeth — they are performed differently and for different reasons. In order to fully understand why and when each type of cleaning is performed, the following is everything you need to know.

A prophylaxis cleaning, otherwise known as a routine cleaning, is performed on healthy patients who just need routine maintenance in order to ensure oral health.

In many instances, a prophylaxis cleaning is performed by a dental hygienist, and it entails removing all the plaque from teeth, removing deeper, hardened plaque (calculus) and any stains that exist on the surface of the teeth. While prophylaxis may not be administered on severely damaged teeth, it is a great dental cleaning procedure to maintain already-healthy teeth, along with daily oral hygiene practices.

Most dentists recommend a prophylaxis cleaning once every six months to ensure plaque has not begun to build up on the surface of the teeth and to clean off hardened plaque if it already has developed.

A gross debridement is a dental cleaning procedure that is often administered by a dentist in order to determine if there are any teeth issues that were not initially noticed before the dental cleaning.

A gross debridement is most often performed on patients who have not visited the dentist in more than a year or who have developed a build up of hardened plaque on the surface of the teeth.

Essentially, a gross debridement is performed by thoroughly working to remove any and all plaque buildup on the teeth and gums. While a simple gross debridement does not take long, debridements that are performed on damaged teeth with a large amount of plaque buildup may take a while to complete.