How Much Does Teeth Cleaning Cost?
Regular dental cleanings are an integral part of maintaining oral health and comprehensively supporting overall health. Routine professional cleanings are recommended every six months and should commence shortly after the appearance of the first tooth, when an infant is around a year old. When paired with dental checkups, teeth cleaning allows dental professionals to remove stubborn, calcified buildup and stains while checking for inflammation, decay, or other bigger-picture health concerns. The average cost for a professional teeth cleaning ranges from around $50 to as much as $350, with costs ranging from state to state. The type of cleaning needed and the experience level of the dentist can also affect cost. Because teeth cleaning is an important part of preventing oral and dental health issues, periodic teeth cleanings are often covered by dental insurance, and insurance may also cover dental exams and x-rays, so be sure to check with your insurance provider to understand your specific benefits.
Do I Need Professional Teeth Cleaning?
Establishing a routine that includes daily oral hygiene and periodic dental visits can help ensure a lifetime of strong, healthy teeth that support comfortable biting and chewing and confident speech and smiles. Teeth cleaning provides patients with multiple benefits, including:
- Bright, unstained, smooth teeth
- Fresh breath
- Preventing tooth decay
- Preventing gum disease
- Helping with early detection of dental or oral problems
- Preventing dental or oral problems from getting worse
In a professional cleaning, a dental hygienist will remove stains and bacterial plaque from the teeth, improving the appearance of the teeth and helping to freshen the breath. Removing bacterial plaque and calcified plaque, known as tartar, helps prevent gum disease, and early detection of tooth decay and gum disease allows for smooth, complication-free treatment. Identifying and treating issues with the teeth and gums early on helps keep these treatments straightforward and affordable; in all cases, it is more cost-efficient to prevent dental problems and keep them at bay than it is to treat advanced problems with the teeth or gums.
What Are the Different Kinds of Teeth Cleaning?
Routine, preventive dental cleaning is included in routine dental checkups, which may include evaluative x-rays and which screen for oral health issues along with a health screen of the jaw, tongue, and neck. These preventive cleanings take around 30 minutes to an hour and rely on professional tools to remove plaque and tartar from between the teeth and at the edge of the gum line. During a preventive cleaning, the dental hygienist also monitors the gums, checking for irritation or bleeding. When plaque and tartar are allowed to accumulate below the gum line, your dentist may recommend a dental deep clean, called a scaling and root planing treatment. The costs of this procedure vary widely, depending on the depth of cleaning that is needed. After scaling and root planing is completed, dentists perform periodontal maintenance cleaning, designed to continuously keep periodontal disease at bay; periodontal maintenance cleaning is often performed more frequently than preventive cleaning, to manage the aggressive nature of periodontal disease. When there is severe plaque and tartar buildup on the teeth, a more comprehensive deep cleaning, called gross debridement cleaning, can help remove the proliferation of bacteria and encourage the gums to return to health. These more extensive procedures often rely on local anesthetic to prevent pain during the procedure, and their cost factors in additional resources, like anesthesia, along with the extended time they take to complete. The cost of these in-depth procedures exceeds the cost of routine cleaning and is based primarily on the complexity and duration of the treatment.