Dental hygiene appointments 7 days a week!

We understand that the demands on your time mean that you require a dentist in Glasgow providing a 7-day-week service. Let’s have a look at one of our underrated team members, the dental hygienist and see how they can help you.

Efficiency with our dentist in Glasgow comes from dividing up a patient’s needs between our excellent personnel of dental professionals.

This system allows each member of the team to focus on their speciality while contributing to all of the needs of the patient. Our general dental professional provides a triage-like role, which then involves passing patients on to specialists if necessary for procedures like a complicated root canal or endodontics, or perhaps for our implant specialist to immobilise a severely rubbing denture.

What does a dental hygienist do?

Dental hygienists are heavily associated with the ‘scale and polish’ and this is the most common procedure that they will carry out, but they do do quite a lot more. Their basic function is one of performing assessments, only carrying out a scale and polish when they deem it necessary. For the majority of the time, they will actually find the build-up of tartar to be minimal and simply chart that the level of tartar is within acceptable limits. They also act as a second pair of eyes looking out for anything suspicious or a trouble spot forming. In such instances, they pass these concerns on to the dentist; sometimes when performing a scale and polish things will be revealed that were not initially obvious and so, it is also these occurrences which are passed back to our general team.

With our younger patients at our dentist in Glasgow, the hygienist fills the role of a teacher, showing them the correct brushing techniques and usually being the first person who introduces them to flossing. It is with their focus on education and the preventive effect of a scale and polish that our dental hygienist is responsible for avoiding more cavities than our dental staff have ever filled or corrected. We can’t even begin to calculate how many procedures they have  helped to avoid and therefore how much money they have saved our patients in the long run.

What’s a scale and polish like?

A scale and polish is a relatively short procedure taking a maximum of 40 minutes. In the most severe cases during a scale and polish, the hygienist will use abrasion to remove tartar. Tartar is a very stubborn, attached calcified form of plaque. It is made up of a great degree of bacteria over a long period of time. In some ways you can compare it to the core of a coral reef for mouth bacteria.

Tartar feels very rough on the surface of your teeth, making it easy for cavity-causing bacteria to take hold. It is also very prone to picking up stains from your regular diet, particularly black coffee and red wine. There is no practical method of removing tartar at home, as it is far too afixed to your teeth to simply brush off and any attempt to chisel or grind it off risks damaging the underlying enamel.

During the scale and polish, our hygienist will use a mixture of abrasive gels and tools to gently remove the tartar. For more stubborn patches in between your teeth, they may make use of the dental drill leaving your teeth feeling fresher and cleaner.