A cleaning is the one dental visit that’s supposed to stay boring. We call it a hygiene visit, and it’s the same thing. Cleaning is the everyday word, and hygiene visit is the one on our schedule.
Either way, it stays boring because someone looks closely every time, not just when something already hurts. Most of the serious problems we treat started as something small enough to catch at one.
How often you should come in for a cleaning
There isn’t one answer for everybody, and an office that gives you one without looking in your mouth is guessing.
It depends on two things: how your gums are doing, and how well plaque is being controlled at home. More bleeding and more buildup means we want you back sooner. Healthy gums and good home care means we can space your hygiene visits out.
- If you’ve been treated for gum disease, every 3 months. That’s the interval that keeps bacteria from building back up to the level that caused the damage. Here’s why.
- Some people do better every 3 or 4 months without ever having had gum disease, simply because of how fast buildup comes back for them.
- Others are fine on a longer schedule, and we’ll say so rather than book you in out of habit.
Dr. Sandquist examines you twice a year, whatever your hygiene schedule looks like. That’s the part that catches what a polish never would.
What we’re looking for
A hygiene visit here is an hour, and it isn’t just a polish. Every one is a chance to compare your mouth against the last time we saw it, which is the only way to notice something that’s moving slowly.
- Decay, while it’s still small enough for a filling instead of a crown
- Bleeding, recession and early bone loss from gum disease
- Wear patterns that point to a bite problem or grinding
- Old fillings and crowns starting to fail at the edges
- Changes in the soft tissues: your tongue, cheeks, palate and the floor of your mouth
- Anything that’s changed since your last visit
The soft tissues get more than one set of eyes. Dr. Sandquist inspects them as part of his exam, and the hygiene team is trained to look as well, so they’re checked more than once over the course of a year.
Fluoride, if you actually need it
We offer fluoride when there’s a reason for it: a run of new cavities, exposed roots, or a dry mouth that’s raising your decay risk. We don’t apply it to everyone by default and we won’t push it on you. If we think it would help, we’ll tell you why we think so.
We don’t really do sealants
Sealants are mostly a children’s treatment. They go into the grooves of new adult molars not long after those teeth come in, and they work well for that. Since we mostly see teens and adults, and young children who need more than a hygiene visit are better served by an office built around them, sealants aren’t something we do much of.
There’s a clinical reason as well. By the time a groove in a grown tooth has broken down enough that someone is suggesting sealing it, it usually needs an actual filling. If there’s a hole to fill, we’d rather fill it properly than cover it over.
On the occasions a sealant is the right call, Dr. Sandquist places it himself rather than passing it to the hygiene department. Deciding whether a groove should be sealed or restored is a diagnostic call rather than a hygiene task, so the person making it is the person doing the work.
What we take, and how often
We’re specific about this, because “we’ll take some X-rays” usually isn’t.
- Digital X-rays: once a year. They show decay between teeth and bone loss under the gums, neither of which is visible by looking.
- A 3D iTero scan: once a year. It’s a measurable record of your teeth and bite, so we can compare this year against last year instead of relying on memory.
- Photographs: as needed, when something has changed or we’re planning treatment.
- CBCT: only when it’s indicated, which means implant planning, a jaw joint problem, or checking inside a tooth. Not at a hygiene visit.
Your first visit is where we take the full set, so everything afterward has a baseline to be measured against. More on the imaging we use.
Real cases
One patient had just had new crowns placed somewhere else. A comprehensive exam here turned up severely crowded lower teeth, a real problem for keeping them clean long term, that hadn’t been part of the original plan.
See how a routine look caught T.G.’s crowding →
Another patient came in about a single back tooth. Once that was handled, the exam turned up broken front teeth she hadn’t mentioned. Dealing with it while she was already here meant one visit instead of two separate problems later.
See how we solved K.G.’s case →
If it’s been a while
Plenty of people come in after years away, often because they expect to be told off about it. We don’t do that. We’d rather find out where things stand and start from there than spend your appointment on a lecture.
If dental visits make you anxious, say so when you book. Here’s what we do and don’t offer, including a short visit to meet us first without anything being diagnosed or started.
What it costs
We’re a fee-for-service office, so we’re not in network with any insurance plan. If your plan has out-of-network benefits, which most PPO plans do, you can still use it here. We file the claim and your insurer reimburses you.
If you don’t have insurance, our prepaid programs bundle a year of hygiene visits, exams and X-rays at a reduced fee, with 10% off most other treatment. There are versions built around coming in every 3 or 4 months and around periodontal maintenance, so the schedule your mouth needs isn’t a series of separate bills.
Getting started
Whether you’re due, overdue, or new to Las Vegas and looking for a dental home in Summerlin, Spring Valley or The Lakes, call 702-734-0776 or tell us where things stand.