Oral Hygiene: Why It Matters
The consequences of leaving plaque where it is, how your gums influence the rest of your body, the everyday routine that keeps trouble away, and the difference a hygienist makes.
What Makes Good Oral Hygiene So Important?
Because decay and gum disease, the two conditions responsible for most adult tooth loss, both begin with plaque that was left in place. Clearing it off every day keeps your teeth and gums healthy, keeps dental bills low, and has implications for your general health, given the links between gum disease, diabetes and heart disease. At our Broughty Ferry practice, an appointment with our hygienist costs £70 and is part of both our dental plans.
It All Starts with Plaque
Some hours after you last brushed, feel your teeth with your tongue: there's a faint furriness to them. That is plaque, a living film of bacteria that clings to the teeth and renews itself daily. The bacteria feed on sugar and, as they do, give off acids and irritants.
If nobody disturbs it, within a day or two plaque starts to calcify into tartar (calculus, to give it its other name), a chalky, cream-to-brown crust that fuses to the tooth. No toothbrush will shift tartar, and its rough texture attracts yet more plaque, so the cycle accelerates. Brushing and cleaning between the teeth each day amounts to a single task done properly: getting rid of plaque before it can attack the enamel or inflame the gums.
Where Untreated Plaque Leads
| Problem | How it starts |
|---|---|
| Decay | Plaque acid dissolves enamel, first as a chalky white spot. Ignored, it becomes a cavity, then toothache, then a tooth that must be root-filled or removed |
| Gum disease | Plaque sitting at the gum line makes the gums bleed and swell. Left unchecked, the inflammation destroys the bone that holds the teeth |
| Bad breath | Sulphur compounds released by bacteria on the tongue, between teeth and inside gum pockets |
| Tooth loss | Among adults, the leading causes of tooth loss are advanced gum disease and untreated decay |
| Staining | Plaque and tartar absorb pigment from tobacco, tea, coffee and red wine |
| Cost | Fillings, crowns, root canals and implants cost many times more than prevention |
Time for a Clean?
Book an appointment with our hygienist.
Gum Health Beyond the Mouth
Chronic gum disease keeps the body in a state of low-grade inflammation, and researchers have connected it with a number of wider conditions. The strongest evidence concerns diabetes, where the relationship works both ways: raised blood sugar aggravates gum disease, while treating the gums can make blood sugar easier to control. There's also an association between gum disease and heart and circulatory disease.
During pregnancy, hormone changes make the gums puffier and more prone to bleeding, so thorough cleaning becomes even more important. Tell us if you're diabetic, pregnant, or on medication that affects your mouth, and our hygienist will advise how frequently you should be seen.
Seven Daily Habits
- Clean between the teeth every day. Interdental brushes fit most gaps; where a gap is too tight for one, use floss. Nothing protects the gums more than this.
- Brush twice a day, two minutes a time, using a fluoride toothpaste with the bristles angled towards the gum line. The bedtime brush is the one that counts most.
- Spit, but skip the rinse, so the fluoride stays put.
- Keep sugar to mealtimes. Each sugary snack or drink triggers an acid attack lasting up to an hour.
- Stick to water between meals, rather than nursing a juice, squash or fizzy drink for hours.
- Get a new toothbrush, or brush head, every three months.
- If you smoke, stop. Nothing does your gums more good.
The technique for each of these steps is shown in more detail in our gum care guide.
Why Home Care Alone Isn't Enough
However well you clean, tartar accumulates in spots a brush can't properly reach, and once it has formed only professional instruments will remove it. At a hygiene appointment, our hygienist examines and measures your gums for early signs of disease, clears tartar from above and below the gum line, uses Airflow to polish away plaque and staining, then points out where to concentrate and which size of interdental brush suits each gap.
A routine appointment lasts 30 minutes; a deep clean takes 60. If you're travelling from Dundee, Arbroath or Monifieth, booking it immediately after your dental examination saves a second journey. Because early gum disease is usually painless, regular visits pay off even when nothing feels wrong. They're the simplest way to spot a problem while it's still small and cheap to fix.
Looking After Work You've Had Done
Any treatment that improves the look of your teeth only lasts as long as the mouth around it stays healthy. The gum seal around an implant is weaker than around a natural tooth, so infection reaches the bone more readily, which is also why our implant guarantee has conditions, a 5-year guarantee for non-smokers who attend hygiene visits every 3 months. Wear Invisalign aligners over teeth that haven't been brushed and you seal a film of plaque against them for hours. On composite bonding and veneers, the join at the gum is where discolouration appears first, and regular polishing by the hygienist keeps that margin looking clean. Our hygienist will tailor your routine to whatever dental work you have.
The Price of Prevention
Paying privately, a 30-minute hygiene appointment is £70, or £100 including Airflow, while a routine examination costs £70. 1 To spread the cost, our dental plans bundle the routine visits into a single monthly payment.
| Feature | Plan A | Plan B |
|---|---|---|
| Per month | £24.10 | £40.16 |
| Examinations each year | 2 | 2 |
| Airflow hygiene visits each year | 2 | 4 |
| Small X-rays each year | 2 | 2 |
| Suits | Healthy mouths | Gum disease, implants, rapid tartar build-up |
Both plans also give you emergency appointments at no charge and a 10% discount on most private treatment. Prevention is a great deal cheaper than a single crown or root canal. In Scotland, NHS examinations are free for everyone; how that applies at this practice is explained in our NHS or private guide.
Questions
This guide is general information, not a diagnosis. A dentist needs to examine you to say what is right for your teeth.