Cosmetic — 5 min read
Airflow Cleaning
A warm jet of water, air and fine powder that lifts biofilm off enamel, implants and orthodontics without a single scrape.
Screened and introduced free, usually within a few hours. Sunny Isles Beach, Florida and the surrounding corridor.
Indications
Airflow suits you particularly well if
Airflow is the delivery system at the centre of Guided Biofilm Therapy, a protocol that disclosing-dyes plaque first, removes it with air-polishing, and reserves instruments for the hard deposit that genuinely requires them.
- Standard cleanings leave your teeth sensitive for days afterwards
- You have implants, veneers or crowns that steel instruments can scratch
- You wear braces and the brackets trap stain and plaque
- Coffee, tea, red wine or tobacco staining returns quickly
- The sound and vibration of an ultrasonic scaler is what you dread
- You want a gentler maintenance option between periodontal visits
Good candidate if
- You have implants, ceramics or orthodontic appliances
- You find conventional scaling uncomfortable
- Staining returns quickly between visits
- You want to see where your plaque actually is
No cost, no obligation, no lead list.
The detail
Why the powder matters
A warm jet of water, air and fine powder that lifts biofilm off enamel, implants and orthodontics without a single scrape.
The original air-polishing powder was sodium bicarbonate: effective, abrasive, and salty. Modern Airflow uses erythritol at around 14 microns — fine enough to be used sub-gingivally in pockets up to about 4mm without damaging root cementum, and gentle enough for titanium implant surfaces and porcelain margins where a steel curette leaves permanent scratches. It also carries an antibacterial effect on the biofilm itself.
The protocol is the other half. Plaque is stained with a disclosing solution first, so both you and the clinician can see exactly where it is — usually somewhere you were confident you cleaned well. Airflow removes it, and only then does the clinician use a piezo scaler on the remaining hard calculus. The sequence is inverted from a traditional cleaning, and the practical result is far less instrumentation on your teeth.
The sequence
What actually happens, in order.
Timings vary between practices and cases. The order does not — and a plan that skips a step is worth asking about.
Disclose
A dye stains the biofilm so both of you can see it. It also functions as the coaching tool.
Airflow
Warm water, air and erythritol powder remove biofilm and staining from all surfaces, including just below the gum line.
Piezo where needed
Only remaining hard calculus is instrumented, with a fine tip and minimal contact.
Check and protect
Re-disclose to confirm nothing remains, then fluoride application where indicated.
Recall
Interval set from risk. Many patients move to three or four months and need less instrumentation each time.
Getting the right hands
Who should be doing your airflow.
This is the variable that decides your result, and it is the one you have least ability to assess from the outside.
Not years in dentistry. How many of these they do in a month, and what the difficult ones looked like.
Anyone can photograph a result on delivery day. We want to see it after it has been used.
CBCT, microscope, scanner, printer — whichever this case genuinely requires, on site rather than referred out.
For anything ceramic, the technician is half the result. A dentist who cannot name theirs is outsourcing blind.
Airflow FAQ
What people ask us about airflow.
Including the cost question, answered with a real range rather than a request to call.
For biofilm and staining it is more thorough and considerably more comfortable, and it is safer around implants and ceramics. It does not replace instrumentation for hardened calculus — Guided Biofilm Therapy uses both, in that order, which is the point.
Typically $150 to $250 in South Florida, often a $40 to $80 premium over a conventional cleaning. Some insurance plans reimburse it at the standard prophylaxis rate, leaving a modest out-of-pocket difference.
Erythritol powder used with correct technique is safe on enamel, dentine, cementum, ceramics and titanium. Older sodium bicarbonate powders were more abrasive and are not used sub-gingivally. Practices trained in the protocol are specific about which powder they use where.
It is one of the better reasons to ask for it. Steel curettes scratch titanium, and roughened surfaces accumulate more bacteria afterwards. Air-polishing with erythritol cleans the implant surface without altering it.
It removes extrinsic staining thoroughly, which typically makes teeth look noticeably brighter, and it is an excellent preparation before whitening. It does not change the intrinsic shade of the tooth.