How Frequent You need to Visit the Dental Hygienist

Posted by Dave Wesson on September 20th, 2019

The answer to “how often should I need to visit the dental hygienist”, is every 6 months. Plaques and debris in your teeth can cause a long term impact in your mouth. As we tend to eat every thrice a meal plus the mid time meal. We are open to many bacteria in our mouth. These bacteria slowly creates their home and expands the population just by residing in your mouth. Mouth is the only host for them to stay alive.

A regular visit to your dental hygienist will make sure that you are following a healthy oral hygiene. There are a lot of factors that states how often you should be visiting the dental hygienist, like for example- The care you take with your dental care, your genetic predisposition to gum disease, and your diet.

Why every 6 months?

We all know the fact that we need to seek our dentist every 6 months. But from where does this has come? If we trace back we will find a 50’s T.V show called “Amos and Andy”. The show was sponsored by Pepsodent Tooth Powder and thus they advertise their product by recommending brushing with Pepsodent.

The ads also plays an important to brushing twice a day, and the visit to the dentist twice a year. The insurance companies then picked up the lines into deciding the gains and losses for the insurance company by factoring in the twice yearly visits.

There is no such rule for 6 months visit. The visit depends upon one’s need and differ from person to person.

What is the work of a  dental hygienist?

A set of procedures is followed by the dental hygienist:

• A thorough examination of your mouth for swelling, inflammation, bleeding or other dental health problems.
• Careful checkup for any signs of periodontal disease. Precaution is better than cure.
• Thorough checkup for plaque build-up.
• Careful evaluation of your brushing and flossing technique.
• A deep clean to eradicate any plaque and tartar build-up.
• Assess your brushing and flossing technique and will coach you in areas where he or she feels you need help.

What are the factors that influence the frequency of your visits?

This is just a rough guideline:

• If you have an excellent dental health and you have unrestored, uncrowded teeth without history of gum disease you should visit the dental hygienist every 6 months.
• If you have fillings or crowns or a history of dental disease you should visit every four months.
• If you have a high risk of gum disease caused by pregnancy, genetic predisposition to gum disease, adolescence, ongoing orthodontic treatment such as braces, or where teeth have been lost and replaced with crowns, bridges or dentures, every two to three months visit is recommended .
• Children are much more susceptible to tooth decay and gum disease. Children need to follow a good oral hygiene in order to avoid any type of gum disease. Hence,  every 4 to 6 months is adequate unless they are wearing braces. In that case, every 3 months is recommended.

A good oral health means an overall healthy life. book a dental hygienist appointment today!