What does a hygienist do?

What does a hygienist do?

Here at Hello Dental Colchester we have 2 hygienists who work alongside our dentists to provide patients with oral hygiene advice and care to improve and maintain your oral health. One of the common questions we are asked is ‘what does a hygienist do?’ As every patient is different so is every appointment. Firstly, they will assess your mouth, find out what you are doing in terms of cleaning your teeth, and examine you for signs of dental disease, such as gingivitis. Once this examination is complete, they will work together with you to make a cleaning plan that is easy for you to continue at home. Gingivitis means inflammation of the gums. It occurs when plaque or bacteria accumulates at the gumline. It is completely reversible through a good level of oral hygiene and the hygienist will help you to achieve this. If the plaque on your teeth is left for a long period of time it will calcify and turn into calculus, once this has gone hard you cannot remove this with a toothbrush. This is where the hygienist comes in, to remove this for you. We use a water scaler that works using ultrasonic waves to break up the calculus into smaller pieces, we then use the suction to take away the calculus with the help of water. This will then make it easier for you to clean at home and make your mouth feel a lot healthier. Advice we may provide you with here in Colchester is what the best type of toothbrush is best to use, advice on any interdental cleaning aids such as floss or interdental brushes and give toothpaste advice. We can help advise if you are suffering from sensitivity or a dry mouth along with other oral conditions. A common misconception is that hygienist ‘just clean your teeth’ this is not the case, we are there to advise and encourage good oral hygiene at home. Yes, we do clean your teeth for you, but this is to aid improved cleaning at home for you to improve your overall oral health. Think about it this way – if any other part of your body was bleeding, you’d try to stop it, with a little tweak in your oral hygiene routine we can stop your gums bleeding too.