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Writer's pictureSheen Dental

What does the hygienist do that the dentist doesn’t?

When you’re asked by our dentist to make an appointment with our hygienist Richmond it can be jarring for a couple of reasons. Firstly because let’s be honest, hygienist is hardly a welcoming word, but secondly because you’ve got to pay for another appointment and when times are tough like they currently are, forking out for a second dental trip can feel like a luxury not a necessity. Can’t your dentist just clean your teeth? Why does it need a special hygienist Richmord to do it? Well we, at Sheen Dental, want all of our patients to have the answers so that they can understand the importance of our hygienist.

What is a hygienist?


A hygienist Richmond is a special type of dental professional whose job it is to purely focus on the health of teeth and gums. They have different ways of training from your dentist and focus specifically on learning how to care, clean and maintain gum health. For this reason only they can perform a fully comprehensive scale and polish, which is the procedure needed when tackling gum disease.


Why do we need them though?


We understand why you might be wondering why a dentist can’t just train for this. And you’d be right in wanting to know this. Hundreds of people have issues with gum disease across the country, in fact it’s the biggest dental issue faced by the population and so it’s not as simple as just going to the dentist, because the dentist has hundreds of other dental issues to cope with. We have hygienists as a way of saving time, regardless of whether you went to the dentist or not you’d still need a scale and polish and this would cost money.


What’s so special about a scale and polish?


When you have a quick clean from our dentist it’s not enough to get down below the gum line and remove the plaque and tartar build-up that’s causing your gums to become diseased and inflamed. Only our hygienist Richmond can do this with a scale and polish. A scale and polish uses a hygienist’s specialised tools and techniques to safely and accurately get between the teeth and gums to remove any nasty build-ups. Through doing this they’re able to return gums to a healthy standard and they will stay that way if taken care of correctly.


Support after cleaning


Hygienists are there to help identify exactly what’s going on with your oral hygiene routine so they can see any problems or holes that could have led to you needing to see them in the first place. They ask lots of questions in order to build a picture that they can then add tools to, in order to make sure you don’t need to come and see them again any time soon. This supports our core belief that if patients are given the information they need and invest a little in their smile, long term they’ll be saving money through taking good care of their oral health at home.

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