A dental hygiene appointment is an appointment with a qualified Dental Hygienist or Dentist that aims to help maintain your oral health as part of a regular oral health regime. Dental Hygiene appointments aim to clean the surfaces of your teeth and around the gum line and remove harmful plaque and tartar from your teeth surfaces. This is also known more traditionally known as a scale and polish, but it is much more than this. The Dental Hygienist or Dentist can also remove everyday staining from tea, coffee, wine etc., and at a Dental Hygiene appointment your Hygienist or Dentist will also offer oral health instructions and advise, and check and score your gum health.

When you attend for a Dental Hygiene appointment in London at London Dental Hygiene you will be asked to complete some quick forms and a medical history form (new patients only) and then you will be collected from reception by your Dental Hygienist. They will take you through to the room where your Hygiene visit will take place.

First the Hygienist will talk to you about your oral health routine and general health and lifestyle relating to diet etc. They will ask if you are having any concerns with your mouth and then your dental hygiene treatment will begin. The Dental Hygienist will use different specialist tools to give you a great clean, scale and polish. These will include a hand-scaler, an ultrasonic scaler and scaler tip and a dental handpiece with a soft brush for polishing (and the polish tastes great!). If you have booked one of our treatments with airflow, they will also use our amazing NSK airflow machine as part of the treatment. The polish takes place at the end of your Hygiene appointment, and after this you will rinse, and the Hygienist will show you the results of your lovely clean teeth in a mirror. They will have a final discussion with you about how to maintain good oral health and tell you when you need to come back again to see them. You’ll then return to reception to check out.

Our Dental Hygiene treatments are typically up to 30 minutes long. Our Deluxe Shine Hygiene is a longer appointment of up to 60 minutes to allow for extra time for those that haven’t had a Dental Hygiene Appointment for a long time. You may need more than one appointment if you have a large amount of build up that needs removing. Your Hygienist will advise. The vast majority of patients who attend regularly only need one session but if you haven’t been for a long time and can see a lot of visible build up and staining on your teeth then the Hygienist will do all they can in the allocated time but may need to continue at another session at a later date.

Yes we are accepting new patients for dental hygiene and dental treatments. Just complete the form on our contact page, call us on 020 7927 2875 or WhatsApp us (messages only) on the same number, and we can book you straight in – we’ll just need a few details at the time of booking.

At London Dental Hygiene, part of tooth dental care, we offer affordable dental hygiene in London. Our Standard Shine Hygiene is only £80/up to 30mins and our Standard Plus Hygiene, which includes use of our special airflow machine, is only £90/up to 30mins. If you need a longer dental hygiene appointment our Deluxe Shine Hygiene, which also includes airflow, is only £170/up to 60mins.

No, but we do always recommend that you see a Dentist for a check up at least once every six months. We would encourage anyone booking a Dental Hygiene appointment to also book a New Patient Exam or a regular dental check up with one of our lovely Dentists. However, we do offer what is known as Direct Access which means that anyone can book directly to see a Hygienist without having to book a Dentist Appointment first. We do this because we never want to put any barrier in the way of people accessing good hygiene services at affordable prices.

At London Dental Hygiene, part of tooth dental care in Waterloo, we offer dental hygiene treatments for everyone – whether you are a regular attender looking to maintain a healthy mouth and keep good oral hygiene, or whether its been a bit longer than it should and you need a deeper or longer clean!

The three main Dental Hygiene treatments that we do are:

Standard Shine Hygiene – a great all round clean for people that attend regular dental hygiene appointments. Our Standard Shine offers a full clean with hand scaling, scaling using the ultrasonic scaler and a polish too. A Standard Shine Hygiene lasts up to 30 minutes.

Standard Plus Hygiene – this is our most popular hygiene treatment which includes all of the same great cleaning as our Standard Shine, but with the additional use of our air flow system – which is a specialist machine that is really good at removing everyday surface staining (tea, coffee, etc) by painlessly blasting fine powder and water at high pressure. Dental Hygiene with airflow is also particularly good for enhanced interdental stain removal (on the edges between your teeth where they touch). A Standard Plus Hygiene lasts up to 30 minutes.

Deluxe Hygiene – this is a longer appointment, up to 60 minutes for those that haven’t been to see a Dental Hygienist for a long time. The price includes use of the special air flow machine, and the extra time allows the Hygienist to really focus in on removing heavy build up of tartar and plaque.

We also do Root Surface Debridement (RSD) which at London Dental Hygiene we call ‘Perio Therapy’. This is done under prescription only from a Dentist and includes the use of Local Anaesthetic to allow the Hygienist to go under the gum line to remove damaging build up of tartar which can cause inflammation of the gums.  

Both Standard Shine Hygiene and Standard Plus Hygiene offer great all round cleans for patients that attend hygiene regularly. The difference is that the Standard Plus Hygiene includes use of our special airflow machine for enhanced interdental stain removal and a great all over clean. Standard Plus is our most popular, and as most people only need to attend to see a Hygienist twice a year, we generally recommend that patients choose the Standard Plus.

Airflow is a special machine that is used in dental hygiene treatments to give a better all round clean, especially good for reaching and removing hard to reach everyday stains from tea, coffee, wine and similar. It uses a fine non-abrasive soft powder, which is mixed with air and water at high pressure and then carefully worked around your teeth for a lovely deep clean of the surface areas. The fine powder and high pressure allow it to reach harder to reach areas (like interdental surfaces). At London Dental Hygiene we use the NSK Prophymate system.

In order to make great cleaning accessible to all, at London Dental Hygiene we only charge £10 extra for airflow with our Dental Hygiene treatments (most dental surgeries in London charge £30-£40 extra!).

It is recommended that for most patients that you should see a Dental Hygienist at least once every six months. Some patients may need to a dental hygiene treatment more often than this, sometimes every three months, depending on their oral health needs. Our Hygienist team can advise at your first visit.

No, they are both different treatments that serve a different purpose. Dental Hygiene is a treatment that cleans the outside of the tooth by removing plaque and tartar build up from the surface of the teeth and around the gumline, as well as removing everyday light surface stains from the teeth such as those caused by tea, coffee and wine or similar.

Professional tooth whitening is a procedure which can only be done by qualified dental professionals, which changes the shade of the tooth, lifting the tooth shade to make your teeth whiter. So in simple terms, you can look at the two like this – hygiene cleans the outside of the teeth and tooth whitening works on the inside of the tooth.

No, Root Surface Debridement (also known as RSD or root planing) is for people that need a deep clean under the gumline owing to build up of plaque which causes gum disease, sore or bleeding gums and can cause bone loss. RSD is a prescription treatment as it requires the use of Local Anaesthetic (LA) to allow the Dental Hygienists to go deeper under your gums which would be painful without the LA. RSD normally requires more than one visit and is usually done in quadrants of the mouth. At London Dental Hygiene we call it Perio Therapy as most patients find the Root Surface Debridement term confusing.

No, this is a bit of an urban myth. Most dental hygiene treatments are not included as part of NHS treatments. If your NHS dentist says scaling is clinically required, this should be available on the NHS but it is unlikely that a full hygiene appointment will be given. A simple scaling is included in a Band 1 £27.40) course of treatment, but more complex treatment for gum problems may be charged within a Band 2 (£75.30) course of treatment. If you request to see the hygienist at an NHS practice then you will be charged privately, and the cost is usually very similar to prices at London Dental Hygiene, and often more! So, why not just go private and experience the absolute best customer service and patient care for the same price or less!

At London Dental Hygiene our Hygienists are well qualified and experienced in the field of dental hygiene. Their scope of practice does not allow them legally to give advice on dental issues outside those related to the field of dental hygiene. If you are having issues with your teeth, need a filling, have toothache, or anything similar, you need to book a New Patient Exam (for patients that haven’t seen a Dentist at tooth dental care before), a Check Up (for existing patients) or a Dental Emergency Appointment and one of our amazing Dentists will advise and help you.

Yes, we have a Periodontist called Dr. Pasquale Santamaria who is very well qualified and experienced - with two dental Masters Degrees and a Clinical PhD (awaiting submission) has also received a multitude of awards in his field of dentistry and has published many research papers on periodontics.

If you have been referred to a Periodontist by your dentist, you can contact us to book an initial Periodontist Consultation to start your journey to treating your periodontal disease.

At London Dental Hygiene anyone interested in tooth whitening would need to book a free whitening consultation and shade check (or a New Patient Exam/check up) with one of our amazing Dentists. We only use leading brands – Philips Zoom Tooth Whitening and Enlighten Tooth Whitening System. Both are the best in the field. Which one we recommend will depend on your teeth, current shade, how long you have before you want the teeth whitened, and your budget – the Dentist will explain all options to you and recommend which they think is best for you.

Booking to see a Dental Hygienist at London Dental Hygiene couldn’t be easier. We have a large team of receptionists and we aim to respond to emails within two hours during opening hours. You can also WhatsApp us which is the quickest and easiest way to get in touch.

To book a dental hygiene appointment in London just click here to go the bookings page, or call us or WhatsApp us (text only).

London Dental Hygiene is part of tooth dental care, an award winning dental practice in the Waterloo, London which offers dental hygiene as well as all types of dentistry – including emergency dental appointments, check ups and new patient exams, tooth whitening including Enlighten Tooth Whitening, dental fillings (white fillings), dental crowns, dental bridges, Invisalign, tooth chip repair, root canal treatments and much more. We have two dental surgeries on Lower Marsh, Waterloo SE1 – our main practice tooth, 45-46 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7RG which is where all dental hygiene is done, and most general dental treatments. We also have our tooth Specialist Dental Centre, 26 Lower Marsh, London SE1 7RJ where we have a special team of leading Dentists doing dental implants, periodontics, endodontics and oral surgery (including wisdom teeth removal).

London Dental Hygiene is a brand we use with a separate website to help people in need of dental hygiene treatments in Central London find us easily and find all the information they need quickly and easily without having to search through lots of content that isn't relevant - we know how busy everyone is and want to make it super easy for our lovely patients!

London Dental Hygiene is part of tooth dental care in Waterloo, London. You can find tooth dental practice at 46 Lower Marsh, Waterloo, London SE1 7RG just a few minutes walk from Waterloo Station. We are a dental practice near to Southwark, Blackfriars, Westminster, Vauxhall, London Bridge, Elephant and Castle and Lambeth North.

We are pleased to be part of our local community for over 10 years in the heart of Waterloo. Our team is from all around the world so we can help with most languages. As well as English, our reception team speaks Mandarin, Romanian, Lithuanian, Greek and Hungarian, and our Hygienists speak English and Italian. We have Dentists that speak Mandarin, Polish, Spanish, Romanian, Macedonian, Lithuanian, Cantonese, and Greek. Our Specialists speak Italian, Greek and Spanish. So wherever you are from, we'll be able to help!