How Often Should You See a Hygienist?

To maintain excellent oral health, it is highly recommended to visit a dental hygienist. How often you should visit varies depending on your individual circumstances, but the typical recommendation is to visit every 6 months.

Keeping up with your dental hygienist appointments doesn’t have to be difficult. Our online appointment booking system is simple to use and our experienced dental hygienist team will help you to understand how often you should visit. 
Contact our friendly team today for more information.

When to Visit the Hygienist

Regular visits to a dental hygienist are crucial to maintain and improve your oral health. Your hygienist will be able to perform professional teeth cleaning treatments more frequently to remove plaque build-up and will have a better chance of identifying problems such as oral cancer or periodontal disease.

For patients with a good history of dental health and no genetic predisposition to dental diseases, hygienist cleanings every 6 months are usually sufficient. Although your dental hygienist will provide you with their recommendation, there are some common cases which would justify more frequent hygienist visits, including:

Gum Disease

To ensure the appropriate dental care, it is often necessary for patients with gum disease to visit the hygienist every 3 months. This allows for close monitoring of the disease’s progression, as well as more opportunities to perform the appropriate scale and polish treatment to lessen the impact of periodontitis. Similarly, if patients are genetically predisposed to gum disease, they are often recommended to visit the hygienist every 3 months.

Pregnancy

The hormonal changes and fluctuations which occur during pregnancy can lead to a condition called pregnancy gingivitis. This means that gums can become swollen, red and tender and may bleed during brushing or flossing. For this reason, it is highly recommended to visit your dentist and hygienist more frequently during pregnancy, usually at 3-month intervals.

Fillings, Crowns and Dentures

Whilst patients with a history of good dental hygiene can usually expect to visit the hygienist every 6 months, patients who have had dental treatments such as fillings, crowns, implants, bridges or dentures should plan to have more regular hygienist appointments. In most cases, the recommendation is to see a hygienist every 2 to 4 months, depending on your individual circumstances.

What Services Do Hygienists Provide?

The main role of a dental hygienist is to provide professional teeth cleaning and personalised advice to help you improve the health of your teeth and gums. Available treatments typically include:

• Scale and polish: To supplement your usual at-home dental care, a hygienist will professionally clean your teeth by removing any plaque or tartar build-up in tricky-to-reach areas. To remove superficial teeth stains, they will then clean and polish your teeth. This enhanced teeth cleaning will help to reduce the risk of gum disease.
• Cosmetic treatments: Some hygienists will be able to perform cosmetic treatments such as tooth whitening. Whilst scaling and polishing teeth can help to brighten them, in-office teeth whitening provides a physical whitening of your teeth using methods such as bleaching and ultraviolet light.

The Best Dental Hygienist Care at Hove Dental Clinic

It is essential to incorporate hygienist appointments into your dental healthcare routine so that your dental care team can help you to take the best care of your teeth, as well as spot potential problems such as periodontal disease or oral cancer as soon as possible.

Our practice offers a wide range of hygienist treatments, with a particular focus on helping nervous patients to feel at-ease. Longer appointment times allow our hygienist team to help you feel comfortable and pay close attention to detail, providing the best possible experience for you. 

To book an appointment at our state-of-the-art premises in central Hove, or speak with our helpful team, contact us today.