At Clarence House, we have a strong prevention-based philosophy.
A healthy, attractive smile starts with good oral health, which is achievable through a combination of excellent dental care, oral hygiene and good diet.
Taking good care of your teeth
At Clarence House, we believe that everyone deserves a healthy, confident smile. We aim to enable all our patients to achieve and maintain good dental health.
Regular checkups (dental examinations) are an important part of our prevention based approach. Checkups help to keep your mouth, gums and teeth healthy by spotting any problems early. We recommend at least two checkups and hygienist visits per year for most people.
For more information about the ways you can improve your smile, please visit the following pages.
Dental hygiene
Oral health examinations
Treating dental decay
Children’s dental therapy
Helping you to maintain good oral health.
Our hygienists play a vital part in our dental care, helping you to prevent gum disease and decay. As well as providing treatments, they give advice and recommendations of appropriate dental care products. Dental health is a goal in itself and once achieved opens a whole range of other treatments.
Why do i need to see a hygienist?
Hygienists clean the parts of your teeth that you cannot reach with brushing and flossing, as well as teaching you how to look after your teeth and gums.
Professional cleaning, as well as looking after your teeth and gums at home, will help to keep your mouth healthy and your breath fresh.
Gum disease and tooth decay don’t get better on their own. Working from a prescription from our dentists, our hygienists plan and deliver treatment that is appropriate for you, to prevent or stabilise gum disease and/or tooth decay, as well as monitoring and responding to any changes in your condition.
Dental hygiene faqs
Do I have to be a Clarence House patient to have a hygienist visit?
No – you can now come to our practice purely for your hygiene visits as a direct access patient.
Why are my gums so important?
Simply put, your gums and bone support your teeth and act as their foundation. The weaker the foundation, the less support your teeth have and the more likely you are to lose them. Gum disease will weaken the ability of your bone and gums to act as the support for your teeth. Gum disease is the most common disease known to man, affecting 90% of the world’s population and is responsible for the loss of more teeth than tooth decay.
My gums bleed when i brush my teeth. Should I be worried?
Bleeding is a sign of gum disease. You may see blood on your tooth brush or in the rinsing water when cleaning your teeth. Your gums may also bleed when you are eating, leaving a bad taste in your mouth. It is important to see a hygienist as soon as possible. They will be able to help you to remove the plaque causing the gum disease and teach you how to prevent it happening again.
What causes gum disease?
Gum disease is caused by a film of bacteria called plaque. You may have noticed this as a sticky, yellowish deposit on your teeth. Plaque is formed constantly on your teeth and gums as is what makes them feel ‘furry’. The bacteria in plaque causes inflammation and the eventual breakdown of the attachment between the gum and the tooth, leading to pockets. If plaque is left, it can absorb calcium from the saliva to form hard tartar. This cannot be removed by brushing and traps more bacteria under it, whilst preventing access when brushing and flossing. Tartar requires removal by the hygienist.
Surely i will know if there’s a problem?
Most people suffering from gum disease are unaware that they are, for a variety of reasons. Until the later stages, it is usually completely painless and there are few obvious symptoms. Unchecked gum disease progresses and this can lead to tooth loss. People commonly only notice once teeth become loose – this may be too late. However if treated promptly and early, the disease can be slowed, stopped and sometimes reversed.
We have a strong prevention-based philosophy. Regular dental checkups help to keep your mouth, gums and teeth healthy by spotting any problems early.
We recommend at least two checkups and hygienist visits per year for most people.
What happens in a routine checkup?
If you are a new patient, your first visit will be slightly different to our routine checkups. Find out more by clicking here.
When your first arrive, we will ask you to complete a ‘dental menu’ which asks you about your teeth at the moment, whether you are having any problems and if there are areas you would like to improve. Then you can relax by enjoying a coffee and the magazines in our reception lounge. When it’s time for your appointment, you’ll be greeted by kate or marc.
Your oral health examination
When you are with the dentist, s/he will:
- Look at your face and neck to see that they are healthy and feel under your jaw.
- Look inside your mouth, at your tounge, your cheeks and lips, the roof of your mouth and at the back of your throat. These are places where there might be a problem that you cannot see or feel.
- Look at your teeth and gums to see whether they are healthy and if there are signs of decay, damage or gum disease. For children, we will also check tooth and jaw development to see if orthodontic treatment may be required now or in the future.
- Compare your mouth to how it was when we last saw you.
The dentist will then discuss with you any treatment you may need, explaining the choices and whether there will be any cost.
Understanding the causes of tooth decay.
With the benefit of new research and exciting advances in dental technology, we are able to treat the base causes of dental decay instead of only fixing its results. This significantly reduces the need for future dental treatments and increases the lasting effects of any treatment carried out.
An emphasis on prevention
In the past, the treatment of dental decay centred on dealing with holes using fillings, crowns and extractions. However, it is now understood that cavities are the result of a disease process. Recent research has reinforced the importance of creating and maintaining healthy teeth and gums to prevent the progression of dental decay and to reduce the number of cavities.
To find out exactly which factors are causing your dental decay, we carry out a decay risk assessment. This includes a detailed oral history examination together with a range of diagnostic tests and screening which may include checking your saliva, diet, dental history, medical history, occupation and sports activity. We use the information to accurately determine the root cause of your dental decay and to prescribe an appropriate prevention regime.
Treating dental decay faqs
Can tooth decay be prevented?
By using our decay risk assessment, we are able to identify a person’s specific decay factors. This allows us to give you the treatment and techniques to use at home to stop the decay disease in its tracks.
What does dental decay treatment mean to me?
Whether you are an adult or a child, we are convinced that by following our individually tailored, preventive programmes, you will need less future treatment and enhance the longevity of existing dental work, giving you a healthy, comfortable and confident smile for life.
Is it possible to repair decay?
It is even possible to repair early decay, avoiding the need for a conventional filling and reducing the need for future treatment. We are now more aware of the importance of diet, saliva and minerals working together to achieve this.
How do you check if the treatment is working?
Close monitoring is an integral part of our preventive programme. It allows us to quickly see whether the treatments are working and allows us to make changes, to make sure you see an improvement.
Good dental care starts at a young age.
Our children’s dental team passionately promotes the importance of dental health in children.
Excellent dental care for our youngest patients
Our dental therapists carry out treatment for our child patients following a recommendation from one of our dentists. They undertake a wide range of treatments, including:
- Removing plaque
- Applying fissure sealants
- Taking x-rays
- Carrying out simple fillings
- Extracting deciduous (milk) teeth where necessary
Find out more about our dental therapy team by clicking here
Child dental therapy faqs
What’s the advantage of seeing a dental therapist?
Our dental therapists are able to spend more time with each patient, which we believe is an essential part of children learning about the importance of caring for their teeth. Ali grice and hazel lumley have many years of experience working with children and easily put children at ease. Having a longer appointment time means that part of their role is to educate children about how to care for their teeth and why this is so important.
Will my child still see a dentist?
Yes – your child will see a dentist at least once a year. Your dentist and our dental therapists work together to help your son or daughter to learn dental hygiene skills, prevent gum disease and tooth decay as well as undertaking treatments as required.
Are children seen free of charge?
Yes – under 18’s are treated free of charge as nhs patients, provided that they are the children or grandchildren of one of our regular patients.
Schools and nursery education
Hi. My name is kate pearse and I’m part of the oral health team at clarence house.
We are proud of our holistic, preventive approach and we believe in helping to educate children in a friendly and enjoyable way. To help to promote good oral health in the youngest members of our community, we visit local primary schools and nurseries.
During our visits, we talk to the children and teachers about oral hygiene, demonstrate brushing techniques and use disclosing solution to show plaque that may have been missed when brushing. We also help the children to identify sugars within their diet, which can help them to eat more healthily and prevent them from needing to have dental treatment. We also talk to the children about what we do everyday in our dental practice. We do all of this in an accessible, fun way using work sheets, games and drawing, as well as dressing up as a dentist, dental nurse and a patient. We hope that our approach helps children to be aware of good oral health from an early age and importantly, introduces them to dentistry while they are young, showing them that it is not scary.