Dental polishing is designed to leave the tooth surface as smooth as possible. This makes it harder for biofilm to build up on the teeth. During polishing, exogenous discolouration and soft plaque can be removed, enabling the patient to maintain high levels of hygiene during cleaning and oral hygiene at home.
One simple rule needs to be followed during polishing: the harder the polishing medium, the more successful the cleaning – but the greater also the abrasion to the tooth structure. This makes the correct choice of polishing medium extremely important. Polishing brushes or polishing cups are available in different hardness grades. As a general rule, softer materials are gentler on the tooth structure, but not quite as fast or intensive as harder materials in terms of the cleaning result. For this reason, polishing media that are particularly soft are preferred today in order to protect the tooth structure.
Not every polishing medium is equally well suited to all working areas. For example, a polishing brush offers advantages for the cleaning of fissures. By contrast, a polishing cup is ideal for gentle cleaning of smooth surfaces or for polishing telescopic crowns or dental implants. However, interdental brushes, dental floss or polishing strips can also be used for cleaning of the proximal surfaces.
The RDA value provides an indication of the abrasiveness of a prophy paste. Coarse, medium and fine abrasive pastes are available on the market, and these differ again in terms of flavour, ingredients and composition. Alternatively, self-reducing all-in-one or two-in-one preparations are also on offer. During the polishing process, their abrasive materials break down and reduce in size in the space of just a few seconds. The resulting gradual reduction in abrasiveness simplifies and shortens the treatment process. One example of this is the self-reducing Lunos Prophy Paste Two-in-One. In the flavours Neutral and Orange they also contain hydroxyapatite, while fluoride is added to the Mint flavour in order to promote remineralisation.
An even gentler variant is the Lunos Prophy Paste Super Soft. It has an extremely low RDA value of < 5, is free of fluoride and contains hydroxyapatite. As the name already says, the Super Soft variant is only used in cases where particularly gentle polishing is required, for example during individual prophylaxis treatments for children. It is also suitable for the polishing of orthodontic appliances, implant restorations, dentures or for particularly sensitive tooth surfaces.
To ensure that the polishing is a success, it is very important that the correct working methods are used and the polishing instruments are applied correctly. Overheating of the working area can be prevented by working without pressure at low rpm speeds and using sufficient amounts of prophy paste. To simplify and accelerate all work procedures, all tubes of Lunos Prophy Paste have a snap-open closure, which allows the tube to be opened and closed quickly with just one hand. The Lunos Prophylaxis ring for application with a finger also ensures optimised handling and can also help in the day-to-day practice environment. This special ring can be positioned in an upright position using the small feet when preparing the work tray. This prevents the prophy paste from spilling once it has been filled in.