Teeth Polishing – How to Achieve a Whiter, Healthier Smile

If you’re looking for a quick and effective way to get rid of marks from your teeth, teeth polishing will be your best bet. 

As a person’s smile is often the first impression one has on others, it makes sense that most people are obsessed with having glistening white teeth. Keeping your teeth healthy and white is not always easy, though. Some food items, cigarettes, and even mouthwash can leave their mark on your teeth.

While brushing and flossing are essential to maintain a healthy set of teeth, they are often not enough. Many tooth cleaning methods come at a reasonable price to remove stains that brushing alone can not. Among them, teeth polishing is the most popular. 

Tooth polishing helps dentists remove plaque, debris, and stains from teeth. It gives you a smile that looks great and feels good too. 

What Is Teeth Polishing?

Dental polishing is a quick and easy way to restore the natural bright colour of your teeth. Through abrasive pastes and innovative devices, it scratches the stains and plaques from hard-to-reach areas of your teeth. 

Getting your teeth polished can get rid of both light and heavy stains. The stains left by coffee, wine, tea, and tobacco generally require tooth polishing.

Some stains, however, develop deep within your tooth surface. Polishing these stains is often not enough to get rid of them. Teeth discoloured due to antibiotics, trauma (injury), or dental restorative procedures rely on more in-depth dental methods for cleaning.

Polishing can treat dental plaques and remove germs from the teeth too. Consuming excessive sugar and infrequent brushing can cause bacterial growth. The bacteria produces acid to break down carbohydrates leading to a visible area of tooth damage called plaques. 

Over time plaques or soft deposits can harden and calcify to form calculus and slide beneath your gums to cause inflammation. Either of these conditions leads to sensitivity, bad breath, and tooth loss.

To prevent this from happening, dentists employ tooth polishing as a routine part of dental visits.

Benefits Of Teeth Polishing 

Spending on teeth polishing procedures can have both cosmetic and medical reasons.

Polishing removes surface stains and restores the natural bright colour of your teeth. It’s also used after many dental procedures to smooth out irregularities on the surface of the 

Teeth polishing is not merely about having a bright, white smile, though. On the side of improving the aesthetics of your face, it helps you limit bacterial growth and avoid potential dental conditions that can come down the line. By making your teeth glossy and smooth, it prevents the growth of bacteria around their surface. 

Polishing is also a prophylactic dental care method for preventing gum diseases beforehand. Besides boosting your confidence, polishing can help freshen your breath and give you a pain-free eating and drinking experience.

How does teeth polishing work? 

In many dental clinics, professional teeth cleaning generally combines polishing with scaling.

Teeth Scaling Procedure

Scaling is often the first step in restoring the natural white appearance of your teeth. It incorporates manual and ultrasonic methods to eliminate both soft and hard deposits from your teeth. 

Here at DP Dental, we use ultrasonic scalers that vibrate at a precise sequence to knock plaques and tartar. These high-frequency vibrations are more efficient than manual methods. 

Simultaneously, it sprays a cooling mist of water that washes away debris and keeps the area at a proper temperature. This process removes plaques and calculi between your teeth and under the gums. The high-frequency vibrations are gentle but effective, making it an excellent option for people with sensitive teeth.

Teeth Polishing Procedure

Teeth polishing can be performed using various methods. The traditional method of teeth polishing uses a coarse paste and a prophy cup to remove stains. This small rubber cup is attached to a handpiece that rotates, allowing it to remove surface stains and plaque from your teeth. This fine paste scrubs away any remaining debris and stains.

This procedure is effective in removing stains, however, it comes with discomfort and the potential risk of tooth damage. The abrasive paste can damage the enamel (outer layer) of your teeth leaving them more prone to accumulating stains in the future. 

At DP Dental, we aim to provide you with a smooth and distinctive experience in dentistry. Instead of a laborious and time-consuming method of traditional polishing, we adopt a quick and stress-free approach to remove both light and heavy stains.

Our Prophy jet EMS airflow device sprays out a jet of air and water combined with an abrasive powder on your teeth. It removes soft debris, stains, and plaques and simultaneously polishes your teeth. It’s an innovative technique that causes minimal to no damage to your tooth structures. 

Compared to the rubber cup method, this method is less harsh on your teeth, quick, and just as effective.

In addition to whitening your natural teeth, the airflow system can also clean dental appliances like retainers, dentures, and mouth guards. By spraying out a jet of air, it can remove bacteria and debris from your artificial teeth as well.

Is It Painful To Get Your Teeth Polished?

Teeth polishing is a painless procedure in most cases. Although the rubber cups and abrasive pastes might be uncomfortable sometimes, it generally doesn’t hurt. We use an air polishing system at DP Dental. It blasts air on your teeth to remove stains without getting in contact with your teeth, giving you a relaxing and enjoyable teeth-polishing experience. 

Our Prophy Jet system uses sodium bicarbonate and glycine to remove stains. These therapeutic solutions are less abrasive but generally achieve better results. We might use a local anaesthetic to numb the area around your teeth before proceeding in case of tooth sensitivity or gum diseases. Be sure to let your doctor know if you have any oral health condition that needs addressing. Discussing your concerns beforehand is vital to any successful dental procedure.

Taking care of your teeth

Of course, having a healthy, white smile and maintaining them requires more than just teeth-whitening procedures. To take care of your teeth at home and reducing the chances of redeveloping stains, here’s what you can do, 

1. Brushing Your Teeth

Brushing with whitening toothpaste is adequate to remove light stains and maintain a healthy smile in between your dental visits. If you have not been brushing regularly, make sure to start doing it. Whitening toothpaste contain mild abrasives that help remove tough stains from the tooth surface. 

2. Avoiding Tobacco Use 

Smoking puts you at risk of developing a multitude of dental problems. The stains caused by smoking lodge deeper into the teeth, making them exceptionally hard to remove. Besides discolouring your teeth, tobacco products can cause decay at the root, gum diseases, and oral cancer. To maintain optimum oral health, abstinence is an essential initial step.

3. Eating a healthy diet

Eating a healthy diet is equally as important for your teeth as it is for the rest of your body. Fruits like Strawberries and bananas contain elements that can scrape the plaques away, reducing the chances of tooth decay. 

4. Limiting sugary and acidic foods and drinks

Bacteria in your mouth use carbohydrates as fuel to grow. To break down the sugar stuck in your teeth, it releases acids, causing plaques and all sorts of dental problems that come with it. Therefore, it is important to eat sugary food and drinks in moderation.

5. Frequent Dental Visits

Regular dental visits can detect cavities, broken fillings, and gum diseases earlier in their course. However, if these problems are left unattended, root canals, gum surgery, and teeth removal could become the only options available. We recommend visiting your dentist at least every six months to maintain a healthy set of teeth.

Many products and tooth-polishing kits claim to remove marks from your teeth. While bleaching agents effectively clean the teeth, they might not suit everyone. Long-term use of these products can wear your enamel away. They can put you at risk of developing more stains later on, which is why we advise you to keep away from teeth-whitening products. 

Takeaway:

• Teeth polishing is a painless and effective way to remove extrinsic stains from your teeth.
• Besides improving the aesthetics of your face, polishing prevents bacterial growth, gum diseases, and tooth loss in the long run.
• Twice-a-year dental appointments, regular brushing, and eating healthy food are keys to maintaining healthy and whiter teeth.

Are you looking to get a distinctive and effective tooth-whitening experience? Book an appointment with DP Dental today.