Professional Cleanings and Exams

Your hygienist provides a professional cleaning to remove stains, plaque, and calculus (tartar) from your teeth. Calculus is a hard, mineralized deposit that forms when plaque is left on your teeth. Our hygienists are happy to create a custom home care plan for you and discuss factors that might be affecting your oral health. A dental check-up is an exam of your teeth and gums as well as a full oral cancer screening to evaluate your current level of dental health and determine any necessary changes in care. Finding issues before they are symptomatic is an important part of the preventive care we provide.

Periodically we use digital imaging to help us detect issues that we can’t see by observing your mouth. We use various types of images to capture different parts of your teeth and facial bones. Radiographs enable us to detect cavities between your teeth, measure bone level, and analyze bone health. We can also examine the roots and nerves of your teeth, diagnose lesions such as cysts or tumors, and assess damage when trauma occurs. With digital imaging, exposure time is about 50% less when compared to traditional radiographs. We also use digital x-rays. These offer more precision, since we view the image on a computer monitor, instead of on film. Digital x-rays also result in 1/6th of the radiation exposure. Radiation from dental x-rays is very low, but please let us know if you have concerns.

A new piece of technology we offer here is CariVu, a light transilluminator and camera combination that allows us to see cavities and fractures without radiation.