The Benefits of Using a Dental Therapist
Maintenance of your oral health – an important ongoing discipline.
Much modern dental care is about prevention, and rightly so. Despite some excellent modern cosmetic dental benefits such as implants, the fact is that nothing will be as good as a healthy natural tooth and, although accidents can of course occur, keeping our teeth in good condition should be an essential part of our daily routine.
On a basic level, this simply means brushing and flossing our teeth each day. Naturally, this should be done correctly and a minimum of two minutes brushing with an efficient toothbrush is essential to remove the plaque from the teeth along with other small pieces of food debris.
Dental therapist
If we drive a car, we keep it going by putting in petrol and changing the oil. This will keep the car running, but after a while, it tends not to run as well as it should and we seek out a professional mechanic to give it a tune up.
Dental care can be thought of in similar terms, with our daily brushing and flossing being the petrol and oil.
At Arthur House Dental Care, we have our own ‘professional mechanic’ in Gemma Hodson who is our dental hygienist and therapist. One of Gemma’s key roles is to help our patients maintain their oral health. This also includes care and maintenance following a procedure such as dental implant placement or the use of adult orthodontics when general maintenance can prove more tricky than normal.
By visiting Gemma at our Sutton Coldfield dentists near Birmingham, patients will be taught the optimum way of keeping their teeth and gums healthy and regular examinations of the oral cavity will take place to ensure that any work that needs doing is done so at an early stage.
Scale and polish
One of the more likely procedures that our dental therapist will do is to scale and polish the teeth. This is done to remove hardened plaque that has built up, often in difficult to reach areas of the mouth. By removing this plaque, we are able to ensure that the bacteria that causes gum diseases such as gingivitis and periodontitis are not able to cause damage to the teeth and eventually the bones in the jaw which hold the teeth in position.
Gemma has also undertaken extensive research into oral injuries caused by sports and is happy to advise patients who play sports on the use of mouthguards to prevent damage to the teeth and supporting structures.
Through seeing our dental therapist on a regular basis, there is no reason why your teeth should not remain strong and healthy for many years to come. Even following dental implants or after a period of having gum disease, with the help of professional teeth and gum maintenance at Arthur House Dental Care, your oral health can be maintained for the rest of your life.
To arrange an appointment with Gemma, our hygienist/therapist, please call us on 0121 323 4492.