How Airflow Polishing Enhances Oral Hygiene: Beyond Whitening

Airflow polishing was originally developed as a non-contact way to carry out a scale and polish treatment. This is the cornerstone of the dental hygienist offering, and it plays an important role in keeping gum disease at bay.

Let’s explore how Airflow polishing helps to protect your oral health and how this simple routine treatment could help you to brighten your smile while also protecting your teeth.

What is Airflow polishing?

Airflow is a type of scale and polish treatment that avoids the need for scraping tools to be used near the teeth. With a traditional scale and polish, the hygienist has to scrape the surface of the teeth and around the gum line with special tools. While this doesn’t hurt, it can be an unpleasant sensation. Airflow avoids this by using a non-contact method.

The system uses a high pressure jet of air, water and fine particles that help to buff the surface of the tooth. This is used alongside suction to remove the water and particles from your mouth.

This tool allows your dental hygienist to easily clean the surface of your teeth from all angles, including between the teeth and along the gum line.

How does Airflow polishing help?

Airflow polishing is designed to give your teeth a fresh start. It removes all traces of bacteria, plaque and tartar from the teeth. This can also help to budge any surface stains that might be sticking to the deposits between your teeth.

For those thinking about teeth whitening, it’s a perfect preparation treatment as it will help to thoroughly clean your teeth so that the whitening chemicals can easily penetrate the tooth surface.

For some people with mild surface staining, they often find that an Airflow polishing is sufficient for their needs, as it helps to buff away stains that might be making their teeth look dull.

Airflow polishing and gum disease

While this treatment does offer some stain removal benefits, the real purpose of the Airflow treatment is to address the signs of gum disease, or to prevent this from ever appearing.

Gum disease occurs when bacteria builds up on your teeth and around the gum line. It can do this when plaque is not properly brushed away, which is often the result of poor brushing technique.

Bacteria build up can lead to inflammation of the gums, which causes the gums to be sore and swollen. Over time, this can cause the gum tissue to recede, and this impacts the health of the tooth as the gums are essential for protecting the teeth and holding them in place.

If you spit blood when you brush your teeth or if your gums appear red or swollen, these are classic signs that you have active gum disease that needs to be addressed.

A single Airflow polishing might not be enough to remedy the problem. You’ll often need multiple cleaning appointments and then you’ll need to be vigilant with your teeth cleaning between appointments. Your hygienist might recommend switching to an electric toothbrush to help ensure you aren’t missing any parts of your mouth.

Other benefits of Airflow polishing

If you suffer from bad breath, you might find some relief following an Airflow polishing treatment. This is because bad breath is commonly linked to bacteria build up in the mouth, so banishing the bacteria can improve the smell. Through regular treatments, you’ll be able to keep this problem under control.

Airflow polishing can also prepare your teeth for treatments like Invisalign or dental implants. It’s vital that your teeth and gums are in optimum condition before you start these treatments, so this can be the ideal way to prime your teeth and gums for treatments.

And finally, Airflow polishing is also excellent for nervous patients who need a bit of help getting used to dental treatments again. It’s a low stress treatment that will get you used to the dental environment, without the pressure of a full checkup.

Book your Airflow polishing treatment with our team today.