We believes maintaining good oral hygiene is one of the most important things you can do for your teeth and gums. Healthy teeth not only enable you to look and feel good, they make it possible to eat and speak properly. Good oral health is important to your overall well-being. Daily preventive care, including proper brushing and flossing, will help stop problems before they develop and is much less painful, expensive, and worrisome than treating conditions that have been allowed to progress.

Good oral hygiene results in a mouth that looks and smells healthy. This means:

• Your teeth are clean and free of debris
• Gums are pink and do not hurt or bleed when you brush or floss
• Bad breath is not a constant problem

If your gums do hurt or bleed while brushing or flossing, or you are experiencing persistent bad breath, see your dentist. Any of these conditions may indicate a problem. Your dentist or hygienist can help you learn good oral hygiene techniques and can help point out areas of your mouth that may require extra attention during brushing and flossing.

Hygiene Appointments

Our Dental Hygienists remove soft and hard deposits from teeth, teach our patients how to practice good oral hygiene, and provide other preventive dental care.

Hygienists examine each patients' teeth and gums, recording the presence of diseases or abnormalities. They remove calculus, stains, and plaque from teeth; perform root planing as a periodontal therapy; take and develop dental x rays; and apply cavity-preventive agents such as fluorides and pit and fissure sealants.

Although hygienists may not diagnose diseases, they can prepare clinical and laboratory diagnostic tests for your Dentist to interpret. Hygienists sometimes work chairside with the dentist during treatment.

Our Dental Hygienists also help all our patients develop and maintain good oral health. For example, they may explain the relationship between diet and oral health or inform patients how to select toothbrushes and show them how to brush and floss their teeth.

Dental hygienists use hand and rotary instruments and ultrasonics to clean and polish teeth, x-ray machines to take dental pictures, syringes with needles to administer local anesthetics, and models of teeth to explain oral hygiene.

Diabetes and Oral Health

Tooth and Gum problems can happen to anyone. A sticky film full of germs (called plaque) builds up on your teeth. High blood glucose (also called blood sugar) helps germs (bacteria) grow. Then you can get red, sore, and swollen gums that bleed when you brush your teeth. People with diabetes can have tooth and gum problems more often if their blood glucose stays high.

You can even lose your teeth. High blood glucose can also damage other parts of the body, such as the heart, blood vessels, eyes, and kidneys. Heart and blood vessel disease can lead to heart attacks and strokes.

If you have diabetes you should know that you are at increased risk for oral infections and gum disease. However, many people who have diabetes are unaware they have the disease.

A routine dental exam might uncover the presence of diabetes because the mouth can offer clear-cut signals that the disease is present. Early detection is important because, when left untreated, diabetes can also make you prone to other mouth problems, including fungal infections, poor healing and dry mouth.

You can do a lot to prevent or slow down diabetes problems. Good oral hygiene at home and preventive oral health care is important to slow the progression of periodontal disease and other oral health problems. Regular professional cleanings and dental checkups are a must. And let your dentist know if you have been diagnosed with diabetes.