Why Get A Dental Cleaning? Mississauga Dentist

Dental Cleanings not only help to keep your gums healthy, but also help your arteries and internal organs stay healthy. You may not know it, but you make about 5 milliliters (ml) of saliva (spit) every 30 seconds. Once this 5ml collects under your tongue and behind your front teeth, you swallow this saliva. This saliva flow happens all day long and you swallow about 2800 times per day! A side effect of this constant saliva washing onto your teeth is the precipitation of minerals, already present in your saliva, onto your teeth. This mineral on your teeth is called calculus (tartar). The mineral content in your saliva is genetically determined and is not influenced by where you live, whether you are vegetarian or not, whether you consume alcohol or not, or smoke.

Once this mineral collects around your teeth and under your gums, it is like a wood splinter under your skin. When you get a wood splinter under your skin the skin gets red and tender, eventually getting a white pus head on it. Until this splinter is removed, the skin stays red, swollen, and tender, and believe it or not, but the contents of this swollen skin drains into your blood stream. So it has to be removed. Likewise, the tartar around your teeth causes the gums to get red and swollen, which bleeds when brushed correctly. Most often, people say that when they brush their teeth , their gums start to bleed, so they avoid touching/brushing their gums , which doesn’t help the gums at all. The red, bleeding, tender gum condition is a serious and silent health problem that people need to become aware of.

Most people eat 3-4 times a day and with poor gingival (gum) health, the food debris and bacteria that collect at the gumline eventually makes it’s way into the bloodstream. Remember, that bleeding gums is a two-way street : not only is the blood leaking out into your mouth, but the debris and bacteria from your mouth are leaking INTO your bloodstream too. There is a strong correlation between poor gingival health and arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), which can also affect your eyes, kidneys, heart, brain, joints, etc.

So, poor gingival health due to tartar accumulation is a serious problem. It is very important to get the tartar, mineral accumulated on your teeth from your saliva, cleaned at least two times a year by your Dental Hygienist. This way you can live a long, healthy life with your natural teeth.

by Dr. J. K. Mistry, D.M.D.