Dental prosthesis cleaning – Smokers should pay attention | Denture cleaning agent

Dental prosthesis cleaning – Smokers should pay attention

Especially on dentures of smokers and people who regularly consume tea or coffee, unsightly discolorations quickly develop. These color deposits usually occur in those areas that have soft and/or firm plaque deposits. Bacterial pathogens that grow within this plaque damage the denture surface and allow various color particles to penetrate the denture material.

Since these are discolorations based on the smallest microdefects in the surface structure of the denture, discolorations are difficult to remove by smokers. In many cases, the prosthesis can be cleaned by the smoker by regular, careful polishing. However, this should under no circumstances be attempted by the patient himself.

A gentle polishing of a dental prosthesis can generally only be carried out in the dental practice or dental laboratory. In addition, there are various cleaning solutions or tablets that have been specially developed to remove smoking-specific stains. However, the effects of these denture cleaning agents are often hardly detectable.In general, it can be said that discoloration of the denture material in smokers or people who frequently consume tea or coffee can be easily controlled if the denture is cleaned regularly. Removal becomes cumbersome only if the deposits persist over a longer period of time.

Prosthesis cleaning – Accounting, GOZ

In many cases a thorough cleaning of dentures can only be carried out in a dental practice or dental laboratory. Cleaning solutions and tablets usually only remove soft deposits from the denture surface. In the case of solid deposits, denture cleaning must often be carried out with the help of ultrasound or polishing.

If it is necessary to clean the removable denture, the patient concerned must be aware that this is a purely private service. This means that neither the public nor private health insurance companies have to pay for the costs of this measure. A professional prosthesis cleaning is usually settled via the so-called “Gebührenordnung für Zahnärzte” (short: GOZ).

There is no specific performance figure for the billing of professional denture cleaning. Rather, according to § 2 (3) of the “Gebührenordnung für Zahnärzte” (GOZ), it must be invoiced with a flat fee, which is appropriate to the effort involved. It should be noted that this fee must be set down in writing and signed by both parties (dentist and patient) before the prosthesis cleaning is carried out.

Only in this case can a settlement be made according to § 2 (3) of the GOZ. A so-called treatment and cost plan is usually the usual written document. In cases where professional denture cleaning is not performed in the dental practice but in the dental laboratory, billing can be done in accordance with § 9 of the Gebührenordnung für Zahnärzte (GOZ). This paragraph covers all expenses incurred for dental technical services.