Hygienist services

Heather Maynard and Emma Thomas

What is a Dental Hygienist?

We are dental care professionals who as part of the dental team. Our role is twofold – we have both clinical and health promotion responsibilities.

We play an important role in your dental health care, concerned with tooth and gum health and showing you the correct homecare.

What do you do?

• Our most important role is to showing patients of all ages and abilities the best way to keep teeth free of plaque (a sticky film of bacteria that forms on all teeth), by means of demonstrating correct tooth brushing techniques and effective use of dental floss, tape or small brushes
• We also give advice on diet and preventing dental decay, we apply flouride or fissure sealants (a plastic coating applied to the chewing surfaces of teeth)
• We provide help and support with smoking cessation
• We also perform more complex non surgical (deep scaling) therapy (local anaesthesia can be administered to aid comfort)

Why doesn't the dentist do this?

Some dentists do, however this practice recognises that the dental hygienist has been specially trained to carry out scaling and polishing and can spend longer with you. We are also skilled at teaching you how to achieve the best oral hygiene regime for you. What's more, our time is cheaper than a dentist's, therefore it is more cost effective for you.

We work closely with your dentist to provide care individually tailored to your needs.

If you would like to book an appointment or if you would like an informal chat first, please do not hesitate to contact us.