Excellent oral hygiene is the cornerstone of a bright, healthy, and pain-free smile. Focused on maintaining healthy gums, teeth, and overall function, dental hygiene therapy involves professional assessment of your mouth, thorough removal of your oral biome, and personalized recommendations for each patient. Led by Dr. Clarence Tam, our AACD-accredited cosmetic dentist, our talented hygiene team aims to help patients in New Zealand and beyond, prevent gum disease, tooth decay, and other oral health issues before they become serious using gentle therapies.
During the screening process, we evaluate your needs to identify early signs of disease, and provide targeted treatments that keep your mouth in the best possible condition. A collaborative approach with your dentist not only supports a healthier smile, but also contributes to overall well-being.
Why Dental Hygiene Therapy Matters
Your mouth is more than just a smile — it’s a gateway to the rest of your body. The health of your teeth and gums is closely linked to your general wellness, and poor oral hygiene is increasingly associated with cases of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, respiratory problems, and other serious health conditions. This is because when gum disease is left untreated, harmful bacteria enters the bloodstream and travels to other parts of the body, triggering inflammation and affecting body systems far beyond the mouth. When your oral health is neglected, bacteria and inflammation in the mouth can contribute to, or worsen, a range of general health problems.
Even with excellent home care, plaque and tartar build up your mouth. When left untreated, this can lead to gum inflammation, periodontal disease, and eventual tooth loss. Regular dental hygiene appointments are critical to ensuring these bacterial deposits are removed and any signs of disease are detected early on.
Dental Hygiene Therapy
Dental hygiene therapy relies on regular professional dental debridement. These appointments, often recommended every 6–12 months (or more frequently for patients with higher risk), involve:
- Assessment of oral health: Measuring periodontal pocket depths, performing an oral cancer screening, and assessing tissue health.
- Biofilm and tartar removal: Using specialized instruments to clean above and below the gumline, preventing inflammation and decay.
- Oral health advice: Guidance on brushing, interdental cleaning, and nutrition tailored to your needs.
Routine dental hygiene care is vital for preventing more complex dental problems in the future and ensuring a comfortable, and satisfying experience.
AIRFLOW® Therapy
Tam Dental Group is proud offer AIRFLOW® therapy — an advanced cleaning technique that combines a gentle jet of warm water, air, and fine powder to remove plaque, surface stains, and soft deposits from teeth and gums. This provides patients with a number of significant benefits, such as:
- Minimally invasive treatment: Comfortable even for patients with sensitive teeth.
- Effective stain removal: Targets discoloration caused by coffee, tea, red wine, and smoking.
- Deep cleaning: Reaches around braces, orthodontic devices, dental implants, crown and bridge work, and beneath the gumline.
- Gentle on gums: Reduces discomfort and tissue irritation compared to conventional scaling.
AIRFLOW® is often a faster, more comfortable, and more efficient approach to teeth cleaning when compared to older techniques. By using warm water and a fine powder combined with pressure, your dental hygienist will water-blast the biofilm, removing harmful bacteria, stains, and calculus (tartar) from the surfaces of your teeth.
PERIOFLOW® therapy is used for deeper periodontal problems diagnosed by your dental team. This is designed to target the bacteria living in the periodontal pocket under your gums. This therapy is used in both active treatment and maintenance therapy. This will be treatment planned, discussed, and quoted for when required.
Maintaining Results at Home
After dental hygiene therapy, maintaining good at-home care is essential. Our team provides personalized advice, with easy tips to strengthen your oral hygiene regimen which can include:
- Brushing twice daily with a fluoride toothpaste
- Using interdental brushes or floss
- Dietary guidance to minimize harmful food/drinks, acid exposure, and promoting good habits.
- Wearing a night guard if you’re prone to clenching your jaw or bruxism (teeth grinding)
At Tam Dental Group, we’re committed to giving patients the knowledge and tools they need to take care of their oral health and maintain a beautiful, fully functioning smile for the long-term future. Contact our Auckland practice today to book your appointment or to speak with a friendly member of our team.
Perioscopy – Non-Surgical Gum Disease Therapy
At the forefront of our non-surgical periodontal therapy is Perioscopy — a non-surgical means of treating advanced gum disease (periodontitis) using a fibre-optic microscope to visualise the root surface of the tooth.
Unlike surgery, which requires an oral surgeon and/or Periodontist to potentially lift the gums in order to access the tooth roots for scaling, a perioscope uses a tiny fiber-optic camera at the end of a lighted telescope to visualize and magnify the bacterial pockets below the gumline. This allows your clinician to see magnified, real-time images of the tooth root surfaces and surrounding tissues on a monitor. With greater visibility, plaque, calculus, and the bacterial deposits hidden deep below the gumline can be located and removed more thoroughly than conventional subgingival scaling methods alone. The high-resolution imaging also allows detection of root fractures, micro-cracks, and other issues that may otherwise go unnoticed.
An initial hygiene therapy appointment at our clinic is required before confirming your candidacy for Perioscopy. Since Perioscopy avoids extensive cutting or suturing, patients also experience significantly less discomfort, swelling, and recovery time compared to traditional gum surgery. In many cases, it can help preserve natural teeth that might otherwise be at risk of extraction due to severe periodontal damage.
Perioscopy can be invaluable for patients who have deep periodontal pockets or persistent inflammation that has not fully responded to standard non-surgical treatments, such as scaling and root planing. By combining visual precision with targeted hygiene therapy, Perioscopy treatment can stop disease progression, promote gum reattachment, and support long-term oral health.