The never-ending battle against plaque

There are jobs in life that you only ever have to do once. Once you’ve learned to drive a car and passed your test, you’re set for life. Others you may have to repeat every now and then, like painting the outside of your house every decade. Others are a regular daily discipline, and if you don’t keep up the routine, you can end up in big trouble. That’s what the battle against plaque is like, you have to keep at it, day in, day out. It never ends. But you are not alone in your efforts to keep plaque from destroying your teeth with gum disease and tooth decay. By your side, twice a year, you can steal a march on plaque with back up from your hygienist in SW14.

What is plaque?

Plaque is the name we give to that sticky film that builds up on your teeth during the day. It is made up of millions of bacteria. They themselves are harmless. They won’t give you diseases or infections. They live harmlessly in your mouth, mopping up sugars in your saliva. If you have a particularly sugary snack or drink, they can go a bit crazy on the plentiful sugars, gorge themselves and proliferate. That’s why after a sugar-fest, your teeth can feel furry. The plaque bacteria are reproducing. And after they eat, they give off acids.

What about the acids?

Remember back at school and science lessons when you learned about how acids can corrode metals? That’s what plaque acids do to your teeth. They eat away at your tooth enamel, creating holes through which infection can sneak in and attack your teeth from the inside. The plaque that builds up along your gumline will irritate and inflame your gums. They will bleed more easily and pull away from your teeth.

Twice yearly visits to the hygienist in SW14 can stop all this by removing plaque that has been missed and hardened into tartar. You can’t remove this with brushing. You need the SW14 hygienist to scrape it away with special tools. Do that and brush well every day, and your natural teeth could last a lifetime.