Much More Than “Just a Cleaning”

If you want a healthy body, you must have a healthy mouth. Regular oral hygiene visits are an important part of making that happen.

At your typical dental office, this often means cramming a cleaning, record-taking, patient education, and a basic exam into less than an hour. Green City Dental is not your typical dental office.

We take a more comprehensive approach to your mouth/body health, discuss your concerns, and work on your personalized route to optimal oral health. This may include:

  • Reviewing and updating your medical history, and discussing any current concerns.
  • Measuring blood pressure, blood oxygen, oral pH, and temperature.
  • Taking necessary x-rays, with a homeopathic to support radiation detox
  • Assessing airway health.
  • Oral cancer screening with Velscope.
  • Periodontal charting.
  • Checking for tooth decay with our Carimeter and/or iTero scan.
  • Viewing plaque samples with a phase contrast microscope to assess the health of your oral microbiome.
  • Taking saliva samples for lab testing.
  • Looking for any signs of decay, acid erosion, and tooth wear.
  • Evaluating and reviewing oral hygiene.
  • Guided Biofilm Therapy to gently, non-abrasively remove plaque above and below the gumline.
  • Ultrasonic scaling to remove hard deposits and deliver ozonated water under the gumline.
  • Hand-scaling with ozonated oil to remove any remaining deposits.
  • Full mouth irrigation and disinfection with ozone.
  • Laser therapy.
  • Tongue cleaning.
  • Flossing.
  • Reviewing home care instructions and your personalized plan for maintaining optimal mouth/body health.

Your mouth may be examined by one of our dentists who can answer any additional questions you may have about the results of your exams and evaluations, as well as your options for addressing any problems we’ve identified during your visit.

We can’t imagine short-changing our patients by doing dentistry any other way – even the humble hygiene visit.

After all, just like in the gut, a healthy microbiome in the mouth is essential to both oral and systemic health. The phase contrast microscope lets us test for this immediately as we evaluate the types of bacteria and pathogens in your mouth. It’s a simple yet profound way for us to get a real glimpse into the health of your gums and body. The good bacteria look totally different from the pathogens: bacteria, viruses, and fungi.

These “bad bugs” infect the mouth first, then spread to the sinus cavities. You swallow or inhale them, and simple acts like brushing, chewing, and swallowing introduce them to the bloodstream. They’re then carried throughout the body, infecting tissues such as your joints or heart or brain. This is one of the main ways that oral pathogens can impact systemic health, which is why gum disease raises your risk of developing other inflammatory conditions: diabetes, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer’s, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic kidney disease, cancer, and more.

Knowing if your 12-year-old child is teeming with spirochetes, or your 35-year-old mouth is full of parasites is key to preventing more severe problems later. Because everyone has a different microbiome, not everyone needs the same type of cleaning! A fungal infection requires a different treatment than a bacterial infection. “Cleanings” are not one size fits all. Unfortunately, that’s how they’re usually done, even though it can risk pushing those pathogens into the body. Such hygiene visits also fail to incorporate the in-depth coaching and guidance our hygienists provide so you can keep both your smile and body healthy.

At Green City Dental, we believe our patients deserve the extra care, time and attention. We want to treat causes, not symptoms, and treat everyone individually, because everyone has different needs. Our patients see and feel the fabulous results that come from investing in our kind of comprehensive, preventative approach to oral health.

This extra time and attention does mean that your hygiene visits will cost a bit more than at a typical dental office, where decisions are often driven more by what insurance covers than patient needs. Frankly, if you were to do only what insurance covers, you may never have a healthy mouth.

The investment you make now can pay dividends down the road in lower dental and medical costs and a higher, more healthful quality of life. (It can also mean you won’t need such extensive hygiene appointments later, saving you time and money, as well!)

You do get what you pay for – and your health is worth every single penny.