A 2020 Cochrane review that assessed the two clinical trials concluded that "whether adults see their dentist for a check‐up every six months or at personalized intervals based on their dentist's assessment of their risk of dental disease does not affect tooth decay, gum disease, or quality of life. Longer intervals (up to 24 months) between check‐ups may not negatively affect these outcomes." The Cochrane reviewers reported that they were "confident" of little to no difference between six-month and risk-based check-ups and were "moderately confident" that going up to 24-month checkups would make little to no difference either.
Likewise, Nadanovsky and his colleagues highlight that there is no evidence supporting the benefit of common scaling and polishing treatments for adults without periodontitis. And for children, cavities in baby teeth are routinely filled, despite evidence from a randomized controlled trial that rates of pain and infections are similar—about 40 percent—whether the cavities are filled or not.
Exams are beneficial, they can catch issues early.
The unnecessary cleanings are the bad part, teeth aren't supposed to be bright white, to get them that way we're often stripping off a protective coating.
Like, if you're 60+ years old who cares. But doing it for decades adds up and may end up cancelling out benefits from exams.
What looks best just isn't always the best for long term health.
Dental cleanings don’t make your teeth bright white. Removing tarter doesn’t make your teeth white.
All a dental cleaning should ever be is tarter removal. If your dentist is whitening your teeth then you need to get a proper dentist.
You don’t have the first clue as to what you’re talking about and you’re giving people terrible advice.
Sorry bud.
I explained it once, if you're going to act like this, I'm not putting in more effort to help you just because you spammed replies to every comment in this thread with insults.
Why would you double down here? This is known to be false by everyone present. Learn a new fact and move on with your life.
I was legitimately going to ask what you thought needed a source till that second sentence...
I gave someone else some sources though, feel free to keep lurking, just don't expect any personal help
That's not what cleanings are for
I don't think you understand what cleanings are...
Like, if you knew what scaling or polishing meant (actually know, not just heard the words) we wouldn't be having this issue.
Or if you asked questions instead of stating sentence fragments, people would probably take more time explaining things to you.
It’s painfully obvious through all your comments that you don’t know the first thing about cleanings or dental health.
Comma splice x2.
'til ; as in, the abbreviation of 'until', and not a plough or a cash-drawer or a boat's rudder.
Comma splice x2.
'Sentence fragments'? You may want to step away from the glass house when you lob accusations like that.
I don't get whitening done at my cleaning. Is getting whitening done common?
No but when they scrape your teeth. It's damaging the enamel.
You don't use a metal spatula or an expensive coated cooking pan, do you?
Enamel doesn't grow back, every little piece that comes off adds up over decades of 2-3 cleanings a year.
Those are cleanings are still whitening, it's just not chemical bleaching.
Just because they are scraping your teeth with a metal utensil doesn’t mean they are removing enamel. Enamel is a lot harder than you think and lightly scraping it has no effect on it.
Since you’re not a dentist or have any medical training you shouldn’t make such sweeping assumptions.
I’ve been getting cleanings my entire life. My enamel is just fine.
Non-stick coatings are soft. Enamel isn’t.
Hey did you know enamel is harder than steel? Yup that’s why using a steel scraper on your teeth is fine. It’s why we’ve been doing it for decades without anyone having issues.
Educate yourself for fucks sake. You are incredibly ignorant on this subject. Sounds like you have an extreme phobia and you’re projecting your insecurity on everyone else.
Bruh you're literally in a community called "science" commenting about a study that showed we're doing way to much dental care for zero benefit...
You're drastically over estimating how good enamel is too. Like, sure, by some measures it's the "toughest" part of our bodies, but even brushing too hard can cause small chips.
Those small chips are where placque will form. And that will harden to tartar. And when that's is scaled, it opens up the risk that the small chip expands, making it more likely tartar develops.
Over decades this adds up.
I mean hell, how rare do you think it is for people to get small chips? The enamel isn't going to just magically grow back over it
I mean. I shouldn't have to explain why anecdotal experiences on social media aren't scientific...
And you don't need to be a dentist to know this stuff, an incredible basic knowledge of material hardness is all you need and what you seem to be missing.
Again, you're literally commenting on an article about a scientific study that found dentists are over prescribing medical treatments that have no benefit so they can make more money...
Yet your saying unless someone is a dentist you won't listen to them?
Why are you on a science community if you don't believe in the scientific method over salesmen?
Your cohort is showing.
They should only be scraping the tartar not the enamel. I'd put it more like scraping an old gasket off of a car engine. You don't want to scratch or gouge the metal but you have to remove all of the old gasket.
Except if you do it twice a year since your adult teeth come in, you're going to have accumulated a lot of scratches by your 40s...
And this isn't like scratching a gasket where you have to remove the old one so a new one seals better.
Our teeth didn't evolve to last 80 years, but they evolved to last to our 50s/60s at least.
A hell of a lot more damage is caused by constantly consuming sugary drinks than a little bit of tarter stuck there for an extra 12 months till a cleaning. Hell, with just proper brushing or eating fiberours foods like apples, tartar really shouldn't be accumulating to begin with.
Like, that's literally what tartar is...
Just placque that wasn't removed in a timely fashion and hardens over time.
I'm not sold that the dental tools can unintentionally damage enamel. Also I don't think a sugar filled apple is going to clean teeth.
Source that even "hard" brushing can damage enamel:
https://www.webmd.com/oral-health/tooth-enamel-erosion-restoration
And here's the source for high fiber foods like apples helping:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6051571/
If you brush too hard you can chip enamel, but apples are too soft/mushy to do so, while still neutralizing cavity forming bacteria.
Now, that study didn't find that apples removed plaque, but it showed they prevent bacteria causing cavities and more importantly the study also required participants to only use apples as their sole dental hygiene regiment...
And I realize I said:
But I never imagined people would think I meant only brushing would be all the dental healthcare they needed.
But man...
After this thread I am fully prepared to say I drastically overestimated my audience.
I can admit that.
I'll trust WebMD the day I'm dead.
The study you linked:
So it doesn't actually help.
and yet
Mr Dunning, Meet Ms Kruger.
Incorrect. Evolution doesn't care about you after your genes have been passed on.