Why Do I Need Teeth Cleanings? (Video)

Hi, this is Dr. Nammy. And I am delighted to share with you a little bit of information about cleanings.

Everyone’s question is, “Why do I need a cleaning? Why do I need to come so often? How often really should I go? Really, is it necessary for me to go?” These are some common questions that patients have, so I wanted to share with you the reasons why and my thought process on it.

Your Mouth Is a Microbiome

So here is the way I look at the mouth, okay? So the mouth is really important because it has a lot of bacteria in it, so it’s your microbiome. So I like to think of it like a pond. And so if I want to make sure the pond stays nice and fresh and clean, I’ve got to make sure that I don’t let the algae grow, right?

And so that’s kind of like the analogy that I like to use with the mouth. And I don’t want the pond to go into a swamp because that can happen pretty quickly. If something, like there’s one bacteria that overgrows or some algae that overgrows, a beautiful pond turns into a swamp pretty quickly. So that’s the same thing with the mouth.

What’s happening is that in the environment when there is a pond, there’s different microorganisms that can get in there and algae and things like that. And in the mouth, it’s eating. We’re not going to stop eating, we’re always going to be eating. It’s necessary for life. We love to eat, I love to eat. I encourage you to enjoy the food. It is our love language, it is a way we communicate with our families. Food is a way that we connect with one another, so we want to enjoy the food. And so as you enjoy the food, the bacteria in the mouth do overgrow.

Cleanings Help Remove Bacteria

My honest opinion is that I highly recommend cleanings every three months. And the reason for recommending that is that there are five species of bacteria, and they’re very pathogenic, and they are known to cause heart attacks, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, ectopic pregnancy, and even arthritis.

So I want to make sure that you live a long, healthy life, and I want to eradicate these guys out of your mouth ASAP and never let them grow. And the best way for me to do that is to get them very quickly. So if you’re coming in every three months, that’s probably good enough time where we won’t ever let them tip to the other side. And so we’ll make sure that that pond is protected, it is clean, it is being attended to, and everything stays really healthy.

Cleanings Help You Avoid Gum Disease and Health Issues

And also, every time you’re swallowing, you’re swallowing these bacteria into your body. So we don’t want that, we never want you to swallow any of these bacteria into your body. You’re swallowing five gallons of saliva every day. Think about if you had to take five gallons of bad bugs into your body every single day.

And that’s why we find a lot of patients who have gum disease end up having gut issues. And people with sleep problems end up having a lot of gum disease. So again, our body is connected, and it’s super important that we get rid of these bugs on a regular basis. So I recommend coming in every three months, because you do live longer and you do get rid of the bacteria. So that way your body doesn’t have to work so hard at fighting these bad guys, and that you can expend your energy onto restoring health, your body can use the energy on restoring health. And that’s the reason I would recommend that you come in for cleanings every three months.

All right, hope to see you soon. This is Dr. Nammy.