What is Teeth Scaling?
During a routine dental cleaning, your hygienist will do a little bit of scaling to remove tartar buildup from the surface of your teeth. Scaling during a deep cleaning is a bit more involved. Scaling and root planing is recommended for patients with periodontal disease and works to restore the teeth and gums to a healthy state.
Who needs dental scaling and root planing?
Once a year, your hygienist will measure the depth of your gum pockets to make sure that they are small, between 1 and 3 millimeters, and fit tightly around the tooth structure to help keep plaque and bacteria out. Patients who have measurements of 4 millimeters and higher may be advised to undergo scaling and root planing.
Everyone has some degree of plaque buildup from the foods and beverages we consume sticking to saliva and naturally occurring bacteria and proteins in the mouth. When plaque is not brushed and floss away regularly, it hardens into tartar which cannot be removed by simple brushing and flossing. Patients developing periodontal disease have a more severe accumulation of tartar buildup below the gumline which needs to be removed in order for the gum tissue and teeth to be healthy.
What is involved in a scaling and root planing a procedure?
A scaling and root planing is a form of deep cleaning that allows your hygienist to reach well below the gumline to remove plaque and tartar buildup. This helps clean the area so that the gum tissue can heal closer to the tooth surface and minimize pocket depth.
Since scaling and root planing reaches far below the gum line, your dentist will administer a local anesthetic in the area being worked on before treatment begins. This helps keep the patient comfortable and allows the hygienist to work to remove all tartar and bacteria buildup. Scaling and root planing is not usually done on the entire mouth, typically one side at a time is completed so that the patient’s entire mouth is not numb all at once.
Dental scaling is the part of the procedure where your hygienist removes build up above the gumline using a cavitron and hand scaler. The cavitron uses water and vibration to loosen tartar so it can be easily removed. Root planing reaches deeper into the gum pockets to remove build up on the root surface. This gives gum tissue the ability to heal and reattach closer to the tooth surface.
Maintenance After Scaling
Patients who receive scaling and root planing treatment are usually asked to return within six weeks for one more regular cleaning. Your hygienist will re-measure your gum pockets to make sure everything is healing nicely and administer antibiotics where necessary.
As for regular maintenance appointments, periodontal patients typically require more frequent cleanings than what is normally expected. Most patients are fine to maintain The typical twice a year cleaning appointments but patients who receive scaling and root planing are advised to receive periodontal maintenance cleanings 3 to 4 times a year.