Dental Cleaning in Medellín

A dental cleaning in Medellín costs $220,000 COP and takes one visit: ultrasonic scaling, polishing, and a check-up with a dentist.

If you are not sure what you need, this is where to start. A dental cleaning is also the appointment where a problem gets found early, while it is still small.

What actually happens in the chair

This is what dentistry calls prophylaxis, from the Greek for “to prevent beforehand”. The point is not the clean feeling afterwards. The point is that gum disease starts under tartar you cannot see.

What a dental cleaning will not do

Polishing lifts what sits on the enamel. It does not change the colour of the tooth underneath.

For heavier surface staining — years of tobacco, or coffee every day — there is a step beyond paste: air polishing, a jet of air, water and fine particles. We have the equipment, at $220,000 COP. The unit is shared between treatment rooms and is not always free, so ask for it when you book rather than on the day.

So if your teeth look darker than you remember and a dental cleaning does not fix it, that is not a failed cleaning. The colour is in the tooth, and the treatment for that is whitening, not scaling. We will tell you which of the two you are actually looking at, and we will tell you before you pay for the wrong one.

Will a dental cleaning hurt?

For most people, no.

When a dental cleaning does hurt, it is usually one of three things: a rushed technique, exposed root surfaces that are already sensitive, or gums that are inflamed before the appointment starts. Inflamed gums are the most common reason, and they are also the reason you needed the cleaning.

Tell us at the start if you have had a painful cleaning before. There are things we can do about it, and none of them involve you enduring it quietly.

What a dental cleaning costs

$220,000 COP. One visit.

That covers the scaling, the polishing and the check-up. If the exam finds something else, you will hear the number before anything is done, not after.

How often you should have a dental cleaning

Twice a year for most people. Some need it more often — heavy tartar builders, smokers, anyone who has been treated for gum disease before — and that is something the dentist tells you at the end of the appointment rather than something you have to guess.

If you live in Medellín, this is the appointment to keep. It is the cheapest thing on this website and the one that stops the expensive things from happening.

If you are flying in for something else, a dental cleaning is usually worth adding to the trip. It is one visit, there is no laboratory involved and nothing has to be collected later, so it fits into a day you were already going to spend here.

When a dental cleaning is not enough

Sometimes the tartar is not on the tooth but under the gum, on the root. A dental cleaning cannot reach that, and having one more often will not change it.

That is a different treatment with a different name: scaling and root planing, which Americans are usually told is a “deep cleaning”. It works below the gum line, it is done with local anaesthetic, and it is carried out by a periodontist rather than by a hygienist.

It is not something we decide at the front desk. The pockets around your teeth get measured first, and the measurement is what decides it — not a glance, and not how much tartar there happens to be.

In many cases the answer is that a dental cleaning handles the problem, and we would rather tell you that than sell you the bigger treatment. When it genuinely is needed, what it involves and what it costs is on its own page.

Thinking about whitening too?

Both of our whitening packages include a dental cleaning first, because whitening gel cannot reach enamel that is covered in plaque and the shade comes out patchy.

If you want both, book the whitening. The cleaning is already in it. See teeth whitening in Medellín.