Meet the Cavitron

We’d like to take this opportunity to introduce you to one of your teeth’s best friends: The Cavitron. The Cavitron is a state-of-the-art ultrasonic cleaner that your hygienist uses every time you come see us for a dental wellness or gum care visit. Technically, Cavitron is a brand name (like Kleenex) but we think it sounds catchier than “ultrasonic scaler” so we’re going to run with it.

The Cavitron vibrates at the super high frequency of around 15,000 movements per second, which creates waves outside of the range of human hearing. These powerful little motions vibrate away plaque and tartar that have had a chance to build up between visits. If you have an electric toothbrush at home, it produces about 62,000 movements per minute. That’s impressive, but it’s got nothing on the approximately 192,000,000 movements per minute that the Cavitron boasts. The Cavitron has different sized tips, including an extra tiny one that allows it to gently reach into the small pockets between your gums and your teeth and remove areas of tartar that may be forming. This action helps manage or prevent gum disease, and your toothbrush bristles can’t reach all these pockets.

During a dental wellness visit, the Cavitron uses a steady flow of water to wash away the debris that it has loosened from your teeth. The water also helps flush away loose bacteria that have made themselves at home in the pockets between your teeth and gums. For our gum care patients, we may use a steady flow of special antimicrobial wash instead of water during your gum care visit to help control bacterial levels.

At all visits, our hygiene team will also use hand instruments in conjunction with the Cavitron, to help make sure that you have the best possible visit and leave with squeaky clean teeth. At gum care visits we’ll use the Cavitron both before and after we work by hand. We always offer you our full complimentary comfort menu, which includes topical numbing gel & a lavender towelette, to make sure your visit is comfortable.