How Often Should You See a Hygienist? A Guide to Maintaining Oral Health

A healthy smile doesn’t just happen overnight; it’s built through consistent care and professional guidance. To maintain a high level of oral health, you need to practise a high level of oral hygiene. Proven habits such as daily brushing and flossing will help you ensure healthy teeth and gums over time.

Achieving and maintaining excellent oral health isn’t just about what you do at home, though. Indeed, you should be seeing a dental professional regularly for dental exams and cleanings. As part of this, a hygienist can play a powerful role in preventing issues like gum disease, bad breath, and tooth decay.

This brings us to an important question: how often should you see a hygienist? Below, we explain the key things you should know.

What Does a Dental Hygienist Do?

A dental hygienist is a highly trained professional with expertise in preventative oral care. Their role is a multifaceted one, touching on a variety of responsibilities that, together, help ensure the continued health of their patients’ teeth and gums.

So, what does a hygienist do, exactly? The typical tasks of a dental hygienist encompass the cleaning of plaque and tartar, the polishing of teeth, and the provision of oral hygiene advice, the latter including the likes of brushing techniques and diet tips.

Regular visits to a dental hygienist, then, can complement your routine dental appointments, enabling you to better prevent serious dental issues.

How Often Should You See a Hygienist?

It is recommended to arrange regular visits to a dental hygienist to help maintain a high standard of oral health. However, to answer the question of how frequent such visits should be, this will depend on your individual circumstances:

• The typical recommendation, applicable to most people, is to visit a dental hygienist every six months.
• Those with excellent oral health may schedule an annual hygienist visit.
• Individuals with gum disease, braces, or a high risk of cavities might require visits at a more frequent interval than six months.

So, as you can see, there is no single catch-all answer to the question, “how often should you see a hygienist?”

For this reason, we encourage you to seek personalised advice from your dentist, so that you attend hygienist appointments often enough to adequately support your oral health.

Factors That Influence the Frequency of Visits

Various factors may impact on how often you need to see a dental hygienist, including:

• Lifestyle factors such as smoking, sugar intake, and poor brushing habits
• Health conditions such as diabetes, pregnancy, or compromised immunity
• Age-related needs – for example, the need for children to learn the habits that will help maintain their oral hygiene for years to come. Older adults may also need more frequent hygienist visits to guard against the risk of gum disease.
  

Benefits Of Regular Hygienist Visits

Attendance of regular appointments with a dental hygienist can bring you a range of long-term advantages. These are likely to include:

• The prevention of gum disease and tooth decay
• The reduction of bad breath
• The detection of early signs of oral issues
• The improvement of your overall confidence, with a brighter smile.

Risks Of Neglecting Hygienist Visits

It is important to be mindful of the risks you could be taking if you don’t keep up with regular dental hygienist appointments – not just for your oral health, but also your all-round health.

Failing to see a hygienist on a frequent basis could heighten your likelihood of periodontal disease, tooth loss, and other systemic health problems linked to poor oral hygiene, such as heart disease and diabetes.

Tips For Maintaining Oral Health Between Hygienist Visits

Of course, you can’t always have a dental hygienist in the room with you (well, presuming a friend, relative, or flatmate doesn’t do this line of work).

Regardless, you will need to be proactive in practising high standards of daily oral care. That will mean taking practical steps such as:

• Brushing your teeth twice daily with fluoride toothpaste and a soft-bristled toothbrush
• Flossing every day to remove food particles and plaque from between the teeth
• Eating a balanced diet that is low in sugary and acidic foods, to guard against tooth decay
• Considering the use of tools like electronic toothbrushes and interdental brushes (the latter being small brushes with bristles that are designed to clean along the gumline and between the teeth).  

How To Choose the Right Hygienist

You might understandably be unsure of how you can select the right dental hygienist for your needs. If so, it is worth considering the following aspects when you compare your options:

• The qualifications of the dental hygienist
• Their general reputation – you should be able to research this online
• The reviews of the hygienist’s clinic – look at independent third-party sources such as online review platforms, not just the testimonials on the given dental practice’s site
• How accessible and convenient their services are, including the availability of appointments at dates and times that suit you.

If you are in any doubt about the hygienist you should choose, it is also well worth asking your current dentist for their recommendations.

Prioritise Your Oral Health

Book your hygienist appointment today, and you will be taking a major step towards doing the right thing for your current, as well as longer-term, oral health.

As we have touched on in this article, the question “How often should you see a hygienist?” will have a different answer for every person. Establishing a habit of regular visits according to a schedule personalised to your circumstances and needs, alongside a proactive oral care routine between appointments, will represent a great investment in your overall well-being.

Your smile deserves care – start by scheduling your next hygienist visit today! Here at Beech Lane Dental Care, we have built a reputation as a trusted provider of dental hygiene services in Earley, Reading in Berkshire. Simply call 0118 987 2755 to arrange an appointment.