Why dental scaling is so important?

The annual visit to the dentist should be an unchanging habit since childhood. When you are an adult, it is still essential to have acheck-up appointment to assess the condition of your teeth and, if an infection is detected, to intervene before it sets in. The other reason you should never miss your appointment is for scaling. Its importance is crucial and Nutrident.fr explains why.

How often should I descale?

How often you need to descale depends on several factors. Your dentist will be able to advise you on this point, but the average frequency is once a year, at the time of the control visit.

Social security reimburses you for two scaling procedures per year. Out of the 30 euros it costs, it reimburses you 20. Generally, the mutual insurance company completes and you do not have to take anything out of your pocket.

Tartar comes from two sources.

1 – The personal factor

The primary source of tartar is in your saliva and there is nothing you can do about it. Your metabolism produces secretions that are more or less loaded with tartar, and two people living under the same conditions can develop very different amounts of tartar.

2- External factors

The amount of tartar depends on what you eat and certain behaviors. If you live in a home with very hard water and do not have a water softener, the scale in your tap water gets on your teeth as you drink the water, use it for cooking, and even brush your teeth.

If your water is very hard, you may want to consider a water softener. It pays for itself fairly quickly: you save on plumbing costs, as excess scale prematurely wears out pipes, faucets and the water heater. With softer water, you also take better care of your teeth.

Tea and coffee are aggravating factors for tartar deposition, as is smoking.

How to prevent tartar build-up

Tartar comes from the calcification of dental plaque, which is made up of saliva, food debris and bacteria that live in your mouth. This transparent pasty film is deposited on the teeth and can be eradicated by scrupulous brushing after each meal, reinforced by the dental jet which allows to remove the dental plaque in the most inaccessible places, between the teeth and in the bottom of the mouth.

If plaque is not cleaned promptly, it calcifies and settles on the teeth. Even so, you can never remove everything with a toothbrush, and after a year, only the dentist can get rid of the tartar that has built up.

If you don't do this, you enter a vicious circle. Tartar is a porous and rough surface that facilitates the attachment of plaque: the more tartar you have, the more tartar formation accelerates.

Tartar provides a comfortable home for bacteria to thrive. Accumulation on the teeth can lead to cavities. When tartar accumulates at the base of the tooth, it is the gums that are affected. You risk inflammation that can lead to gingivitis, abscesses and, in the worst case, periodontal disease.

In terms of aesthetics, tartar turns teeth yellow and can even become much darker, especially if you drink coffee and smoke.

After scaling, you will have a bright smile and smooth teeth.

Scaling methods at the dentist

There are several methods of descaling. All of them are painless and do not require anesthesia.

Scaling by mechanical cleaning

The dentist will scrape your teeth, using special tools that do not damage theenamel. With more modern methods, mechanical scaling is used only for finishing touches, to remove the last stubborn pieces of scale that would have fallen through the cracks of the two following methods.

Ultrasonic scaling

Ultrasonic scaling is the most commonly used method. Totally painless, it consists in using a tip that vibrates at high frequency. The pieces of tartar are broken off and become detached from the tooth.

The dentist then sprays water under pressure.

Descaling with sandblasting

The other method consists of spraying fine particles of calcium carbonate through a nozzle, as if you were using a mini karcher to clean your teeth. It is also very effective.