Cleanings
Getting professional oral maintenance is extremely important to a person's health and smile.  Even the most expensive toothbrushes and meticulous of flossers cannot do what a professional can for your oral health.  Without regular visits to your dentist for cleanings, problems will inevitably develop including but not limited to:

• gum disease
• bad breath
• yellowing of the tooth enamel
• cavities
• tooth sensitivity
• bone loss 

A regular cleaning is the standard treatment when the gums and bone structure are healthy. A regular cleaning includes the removal of plaque, calculus and stain from the crown and root surfaces of your teeth. Superficial stains on the teeth can in most cases be effectively removed through regular cleaning and polishing. Not all people are equally prone to building up layers of calculus on their teeth. Your daily dental hygiene routines are a very important factor in this regard, but your diet and the chemical make-up of your saliva also plays a part. Calculus mostly builds up on the inside of your lower front teeth and on the outside of your upper molars, where your major saliva glands are situated. A regular cleaning will therefore often primarily be focused on these places.

Deep Cleaning

A deep cleaning, or Scaling and Root Planning, is offered when periodontal disease has resulted in loss of the bone that supports the teeth. The reason that teeth need a deep cleaning is that the periodontal pocket which results from periodontitis is too deep to be kept clean through daily toothbrushing. It is therefore necessary to clean the pocket through professional cleaning in order to prevent the periodontal disease from worsening.  If a mouth that is in need of Scaling and Root Planning is left untreated, the person will consequently face: bleeding gums, sensitive teeth, bad breath and tooth loss.  A regular cleaning is NOT an option for a person diagnosed with periodontal disease.  The only way to control the symptoms and avoid the consequences listed above is to clean the pockets with Scaling and Root Planning and to follow-up with periodontal maintenance.

Periodontal Maintenance

Once a person has been diagnosed with bone loss from periodontal disease, they are no longer a candidate for a regular cleaning.  To maintain a healthy mouth, the patient should visit their dentist more frequently for periodontal therapy.