What do we mean by our dental hygienist clinic?
A dental hygiene clinic is an area of dentistry that focuses primarily on preventing oral disease and secondarily on the intervention of recurrent periodontal disease. Although good oral care habits established from childhood are the foundation of lifelong healthy teeth and gums, visiting dental hygienists regularly is required to maintain sound periodontal health, the soft tissues and your teeth.
Our highly trained in this area to provide you with the following services:
- Adult Oral Health Education
- Treatment of Gum Disease
- Prevention of Tooth Decay
- Bad Breath Treatments
- Individual Oral Hygiene Care
- Scale and Polish
How periodontal health treatment is initially planned?
After consultation with a periodontist, a systematic periodontal treatment schedule will be provided by a hygienist to undertake your 1st phase of the Initial therapy. Usually, 3 months after the hygienist treatment, the periodontist will re-evaluate the outcome of the Initial phase of the therapy.
What is root-planning?
Root surface debridement (RSD) is undertaken using specialised hand instruments and Ultrasonic-driven devices to de-scale or remove the mineralised bacterial deposits and smooth the root surfaces along the gum pockets where gum disease has been progressing.
How is periodontal health initially re-assessed regarding the ongoing definitive treatment plan?
When moderate periodontal health is achieved, the periodontist will plan and execute the definitive or corrective phase of the periodontal therapy. If there is potential for further periodontal improvement, the periodontist may determine the indication for a second course of non-surgical periodontal treatment by the hygienist. If there is potential for further periodontal improvement by surgical explorative or regenerative periodontal treatment, your periodontist will discuss your options with you.
How is periodontal health finally assessed regarding the restorative phase of the treatment plan?
Once a satisfactory treatment outcome is achieved and maintained over a period of 3 to 6 months, according to the prognosis of the remaining viable teeth, your restorative treatment plan will be advised and executed. In the end, for you to maintain the periodontal health and restorative work undertaken, the periodontist will determine an individually tailored supportive periodontal treatment on a quarterly or bi-annual basis.
What would the supportive periodontal treatment (SPT) involve?
SPT is designed to prevent the recurrence of the disease and to treat the recurrent disease and is undertaken every 12 months by a periodontist and every six months by a hygienist.
The SPT would involve:
- Examination, Re-evaluation, Diagnosis (ERD)
- Motivation, Reinstruction, Instrumentation (MRI)
- Treatment of Re-infected Sites (TRS)
- Polishing, Fluoride, Determination of future SPT (PFD)
FAQ – What do patients usually ask about dental hygienist?
The hygienist would undertake the 1st phase of the Initial periodontal therapy including:
- Information about the aetiology and treatment strategies of gum disease.
- Information about the available treatment strategies for gum disease.
- Enhancing patient motivation and improvement of patient’s standard of self‐performed mechanical plaque control, which may be supplemented by provisional adjunctive use antimicrobial/anti‐inflammatory oral care products.
- Information about the importance of compliance with the maintenance phase of treatment.
- Advice on quitting cigarette smoking, tobacco consumption (Smoking Cessation therapy).
- Improvement of patient’s diet.
- Debridement of hard deposits or calculus on the teeth and roots and elimination of plaque retentive factors.
- Removal of calculus along the root under the gum (subgingival debridement) under local anaesthetic.
For making the RSD procedure pain-free and comfortable, RSD is undertaken under topical and local anaesthetics.
Following periodontal re-assessment/ evaluation of the Initial phase of the therapy by the periodontist in terms of
periodontal tissue response and patient’s compliance, the hygienist would re-instruct the necessary oral hygiene exercise and reinforce your motivation.
Periodontology Case Studies
See our dental hygienist before and after photos from our happy patients.
Before and After Treatment
A sample of our scaling and root planning.
Before and After Treatment
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