Dental Hygiene

At Summit Dental, our Registered Dental Hygienists want to exceed your expectations by providing on-time, comfortable dental hygiene appointments. It is also their goal to take the extra time to educate you about your dental & oral health.

At Summit Dental, we use digital x-rays, periodontal probing, and intra-oral photography to determine your current dental health and provide you with a comprehensive treatment plan that is prioritized to best treat any existing conditions based on our findings.

During your hygiene appointment, we encourage you to ask many questions so we can inform you of your oral health. Our hygiene team prides themselves on following up on your questions or any product information requests about how to best care for your family’s dental health.

Why are Regular Dental Hygiene Appointments Important?

Working with your dental hygienist, your individual hygiene treatment plan is coordinated to best treat and monitor the health of your teeth and gums. Proper oral hygiene not only guards against gum disease and cavities it can also reduce the risks associated with periodontal disease on certain chronic health problems such as diabetes and heart disease.  With regular visits, we can reduce potential problems and help in preventing risks.

What Happens at a Dental Hygiene Appointment?

When you visit Summit Dental, there is a lot to accomplish in a regular dental hygiene appointment. Our dental hygiene program follows a strict standard of care to record, assess, and evaluate your oral health condition at every visit.

The major activity performed by the dental hygienist is to clean your teeth both above the gum line. We use both traditional hand scalers and ultrasonic scaling tools (that use super-fast vibrations) to remove deposits depending on your needs.

As well as cleaning your teeth above and below the gum-line, your Summit Dental Hygienist will perform a number of important oral health checks at your hygiene appointment, including:

• a complete medical history
• a complete periodontal assessment, including periodontal probing
• checking for any gum recession
• checking for the presence of gingivitis
• polishing your teeth to remove any surface stain
• fluoride treatment (if chosen)

What About an Examination and X-Rays?

You will also receive an examination completed by your dentist at regular intervals and have a chance to ask any questions you might have. During your examination your dentist will check for:

• damaged, missing or decayed teeth
• early signs of cavities
•  the condition of your gums, such as periodontal pockets, inflammation or other signs of gum disease (which can lead to tooth and bone loss)
• to see how previous dental work such as root canals, fillings and crowns are holding up
• an examination of your neck area,
• early signs of mouth or throat cancer, such as white lesions or blocked salivary glands

other suspicious growths or cysts

• the position of your teeth (e.g., spacing, bite)
• signs that you clench or grind your teeth (a treatable problem that can cause a headache or sore jaw and can, if serious, lead to hearing loss and tooth loss)
• signs of bleeding or inflammation on your tongue and on the roof or floor of your mouth

the overall health and function of your temporomandibular joint (which joins the jaw to the skull),  checking for signs of disorders that can cause pain or tenderness

• the general condition of the bones in your face, jaw and around your mouth

Digital x-rays and photographs will be taken by one of our Registered Dental assistants when needed so the dentist can fully assess your oral health. The dental exam can catch problems early—before you see or feel them—when they are much easier and less expensive to treat. T

 How Often Should I Have a Dental Hygiene Visit?

How often you need to visit Summit Dental for a hygiene visit depends on several factors. Are your teeth susceptible to excess accumulation of plaque and deposit? Do you have crowded teeth, fillings or missing teeth? Do you have periodontal disease or deep gum pockets?

Our dental team knows that each patient will require a different dental hygiene schedule. While most people come in for dental hygiene appointments every 6 months, some people may benefit by coming in every 3-4 months, while others might only require a hygiene appointment every 9 or even every 12 months.

Our doctors and dental hygienists at Summit Dental will be happy to advise you how often you should have a dental cleaning based on your specific individual needs.

Getting Started

We’re here to help you achieve your family’s oral health goals, all in the most comfortable way possible. So no matter where your dental health is at now, it is always a good time to start on the path to establishing good dental health habits and booking a dental hygiene appointment at Summit Dental is the first step on that path.

Please contact us today to book a dental hygiene appointment. Our team is looking forward to answering your dental hygiene questions and to helping you and your family with all of your dental health needs.

Our practice always welcomes new patients no referral is required!

Call us at (403) 201-0588 to book your Dental Hygiene Consultation with us today!