Planning a teeth cleaning can add an extra hurdle to your day, especially if you’re unsure how long the teeth cleaning process will take. While dental cleanings can be a bit annoying to fit into your schedule, it’s extremely important to your health to prioritize regular teeth cleanings every six months.
For those with anxiety around any dental treatment or dentist visits, the six-month teeth cleanings can be a stressful thing to hear. To help ease any discomfort about regularly having this important treatment, we’ll discuss what the average teeth cleaning time is, why, and what is involved.
The Average Dental Cleaning Time
There are a few things to consider when figuring out how long a teeth cleaning will take, mostly around the state of your oral health and dental routine at home. If you have a solid brushing and flossing routine twice a day, the teeth cleaning time should be 30 to 40 minutes or an hour to 90 minutes, depending on the condition of your teeth during that visit and the hygienists’ cleaning speed.
Other factors that could increase your average teeth cleaning time are:
- The condition of your teeth: Having teeth cleanings involves clearing away plaque, stains, and tartar from your teeth. The amount of buildup depends on how often you brush and floss – the more you do it, the less there will be. Of course, you don’t want to overdo it as over-brushing and over-flossing can cause problems too.
- Gum disease: This can greatly impact the time your teeth cleaning can take as the deep periodontal pockets need to be thoroughly cleaned out to cure the gum disease. The process involves scaling and root planing, which is a deeper cleaning than your average dental cleaning appointment. If it’s more severe, your dentist may recommend seeing a periodontist to fix the problem.
- Fear of dentistry: Patients with anxiety around dental appointments tend to have longer teeth cleaning visits as your provider will work at a slower pace and prioritize your comfort. They’ll outline the process of what they’re doing, be patient while keeping you calm, or offer sedation to better help you through the treatment.
As you can see, there is some wiggle room in how long a teeth cleaning will take. The good news is that you have an idea of what to budget for time-wise in your schedule.
If you’re in need of a preventative dentistry appointment, like a teeth cleaning, we encourage you to explore here: Preventative Dentistry With Ellerslie 66 Dental
What Does a Professional Teeth Cleaning Involve?
While many of us have had numerous teeth cleaning appointments, it’s always good to have a little refresher, especially if you have some anxiety around dental appointments. Here is what you can expect during your teeth cleaning:
- Examining your teeth and gums with a concave mirror to check for signs of oral health problems.
- Using a small hooked tool called a peridontal scaler to remove plaque and tartar from the surface of a tooth, in between your teeth, and near the gum line.
- Polishing and flossing to remove any stains, usually used with a handheld electric tool with a rubber cup attached. The hygienist will also use a gritty toothpaste during this process before finishing with flossing.
- Fluoride is very often used during teeth cleaning appointments and usually near the end. You usually get to choose the flavor of gel you like and for a minute you sit and wear it in a mouthpiece.
And that’s the teeth cleaning appointment in a nutshell! As mentioned earlier, for patients with a lot of anxiety around the dentist, you can request sedation.
Edmonton Dental Cleaning
Having regular teeth cleaning is extremely important to the health of your teeth, not only to keep your teeth healthy but also to catch any problems before they become serious. If you’re in need of an appointment, we have numerous payment options available and if you have dental benefits, we will submit your claims on your behalf. We also welcome cash, Visa, MasterCard, and e-Transfer payment methods to help make the dentist visit as pain-free as possible.
If you have any questions or concerns about our dental services or would like to schedule an appointment, you can call us at 587-801-1939 or contact us here.