Tooth polishing
| Tooth polishing | |
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| File:Tooth polishing 9332.JPG
Polishing a tooth using a prophy cup.
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| Specialty | {{#statements:P1995}} |
| ICD-9-CM | 96.54 |
| MeSH | D003775 |
Tooth polishing is the act of smoothing the tooth surface.[1] The purpose of polishing is to make it difficult for plaque to accumulate on the tooth surface area. Common practice is to use a prophy cup—a small motorized rubber cup—along with an abrasive polishing compound.
Contents
Equipment
Rubber cup
Rubber cups, also called prophy cups, are used in the hand-piece. Polishing paste, prophylactic paste, usually containing fluoride, is used with the rubber cups for polishing. Rubber cups should not be used over the cementum area as it may remove a layer of cementum at the cervical area.[2][3] There are two popular types of prophy cups: 4 webs and 6 webs.
Bristle brush
Bristle brushes are used in the prophylaxis angle with a polishing paste.The use of the brush should be confined to the crown to avoid injury to the gingiva and cementum.
Prophy angle
Currently, the most commonly used tool for tooth polishing is prophy angle. It integrates a rubber cup into a high torque gear, which can be plugged into a low speed handpiece and drive rubber cup to polish teeth.
Dental tape
Dental tape is used for polishing the proximal surfaces of teeth that are inaccessible to other polishing instruments. It is also used with polishing paste. Particular care should be taken to avoid injury to the gingiva.The area should be cleaned with warm water to remove all remnants of the paste.
Air-powder polishing
Air-powder polishing is used with a specially designed handpiece. This device is called Prophy-jet. It delivers an air-powder slurry of warm water and sodium bicarbonate for polishing. It is very effective for the removal of extrinsic stains and soft deposits. It is contraindicated in patients with respiratory illness, hemodialysis and hypertension.[2]
See also
- Tooth scaling Scaling is a process by which plaque and calculus are removed from both supragingival and subgingival tooth surface.No deliberate attempt is made to remove tooth substance along with the calculus.
- Root planing is the process by which residual embedded calculus and portions of cementum are removed from the roots to produce a smooth, hard, clean surface.
- Debridement (dental)
References
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- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Carranza 2006, p. 774.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
Bibliography
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