There’s no simpler, more effective way to stay on top of your dental health than through regular dental cleanings. While preventing conditions like tooth decay and gum disease are our top priorities, these cleanings have the added benefit of whitening and brightening your teeth. And this occurs in some obvious and not-so-obvious ways.
To explain how we can whiten your teeth during your preventive care visit, the team here at Peninsula Dental Excellence, led by Drs. Jeff Yoshihara and Colin Au, focuses on the whitening benefits of your dental cleaning in this month’s blog post.
Stain removal is one of the more obvious ways to whiten your teeth during dental cleaning. Over time, your teeth can develop tough stains that regular brushing alone can’t tackle. For example, coffee, tea, and wine are notorious for leaving behind tough stains.
During your cleaning, we use pressurized air, water, and scraping tools to clear away these stains, allowing the white enamel below to shine again.
While stains certainly discolor teeth, many people don’t realize that tartar and plaque buildup can also rob your teeth of their bright color.
Your mouth contains bacteria that help to break down food. When the bacteria mix with food and stick to your teeth and gums, they form a film called plaque. If this plaque escapes your cleaning efforts, it can harden into tartar, or calculus.
These tartar deposits allow harmful bacteria to eat away at your teeth and gums, leading to tooth decay and gum disease. The fact that 90% of Americans between the ages of 20 and 64 have some tooth decay gives you an idea about the scope of this problem. With dental cleanings, we can stop these problems in their tracks.
Another point to consider is that these deposits also discolor teeth, as tartar has a yellowish/brown coloring.
So, by removing plaque and tartar from your teeth, we can preserve and whiten your teeth.
While removing stains and tartar from your teeth go a long way toward restoring your pearly whites, we also provide you with a final polish at the end of your cleaning. We use a mild abrasive and a rubber tip to thoroughly polish your teeth so that they shine with great health.
As you can see, a dental cleaning with us every six months keeps tooth decay and gum disease at bay and keeps your teeth white and bright.
If your teeth are discolored for other reasons, such as natural aging, you may need to go a step further and try our professional whitening services.
To see first hand how well we can whiten and brighten your teeth during a dental cleaning, please contact our office in Mountain View, California, to schedule your visit today.
