Dental professionals: are cleanings every 6 months really all that necessary?



Answers:
Depends on your individual circumstances, and best to ask your dentist for their opinion. Personally, I check up patients roughly as follows:
6-9 monthly for high-risk patients with lots of existing fillings, recurrent decay, or poor hygiene.
12-18 monthly for medium risk patients with a few fillings and average hygiene.
24-36 monthly for undamaged teeth and excellent hygiene.
I then arrange cleaning as appropriate at the checkup, and there are some people I have never cleaned. It is possible to have your teeth cleaned too often with an ultrasonic scaler, and this becomes evident as patients get older in that the enamel on the inside of their lower teeth starts to fracture away. Don't have cleanings any more than you have to.

IF U TAKE CARE OF DENTAL EVERYDAY, THEN NO..ONCE A YEAR SOUNDS GOOD


IF NOT, EVERY 6 MONTHS
Yes be glad I have to go every 4 months.
not really. i go every 3 yrs
if you wanna have choppers when you are old then i would say it might be a good idea
I asked my dentist this same question, and he said no, once a year is fine. as long as you are taking proper care of your teeth
For most people, it's a good idea. Not only do you have stuff removed from your teeth that you can't reach with a toothbrush, but the dentist can screen for early signs of carries - the beginning of cavities.

Dental exams also catch unusual growths in the mouth that could be oral cancer.

There are a few people who could go 12 months, but they are not the majority. Americans eat a pretty unhealthy diet, full of refined sugars and acidic soft drinks. The American Dental Association recommends two cleanings per year and for most of us, that's a good idea.
Yes they are. Preventative care is usually cheaper and easier than actual treatment. The longer that a person goes between cleanings, the more calculus buildup there will be on their teeth. The dentist usually checks for any new cavities. If someone only goes yearly or even less frequent, think about how much larger a cavity could get. Also think about how much more buildup there could be on their teeth.
Depends allot on your mouth. If it develops plaque easily at least 2 X a year.
For most people, the six month interval works well. The dental pros answering above me give excellent answers, but you can see that there is some variation in thought. The key thing is that your dentist will recommend an interval that is best for YOU.

"See your dentist twice a year" was actually made up by Procter and Gamble as part of their ads for Crest toothpaste. This was the first widely-disseminated use of the 6 month recall interval. It just happens to work for most people. There are some who are just fine with a longer interval and I have a handful of patients in my practice who have "graduated" all the way out to a 12 month interval. Maybe 20-25% have to come more often than every 6 months, like 3 or 4 months. This is actually usually their choice, even though the suggestion first comes from me. "You know, Bob, we could do a better job helping you keep your teeth if you came in more often for cleanings." "I was just wondering about that... What do you think?" And so it goes. I have one lady who insists that she needs her teeth cleaned once a month and guess what. She does. I think she just rinses her mouth at home and leaves the rest to me.

Most insurance plans only pay for two visits per year. Some don't care if you get one cleaning in January and the next in February, but some say it can be no more often than every six months. This is by no means an indication of how often you need your teeth cleaned. It only tells you how often they feel like paying for it.

The final answer is that how often you see the dentist should be individually tailored to suit your needs.
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