According to a prospective study of 932 young adults in the Journal of Dental Research, many young people who grew up having tooth cleanings start to go much less often as they get older, as they transition from childhood patients to adults. In this study, at age 15 about 82% were getting regular cleanings, which fell to 28% at 32 years of age. Why is this such a bad thing, and why does your dentist want you to get cleanings? Simply put, you need to have regular cleanings if you want the best chance to maintain good oral health and to avoid more expensive work down the road due to tooth loss and cavities. It is in the statistics. From this same study, at age 32, patients who regularly got teeth cleanings at the dentist had fewer decayed tooth surfaces (1.1 vs 2.7), nearly three times fewer. Regular dental visits also reduced the incidence of loss of more than one teeth, from 174 to 35, close to a five times difference. It is said that numbers don’t lie. Your dentist wants you to have cleanings because they care not simply about numbers, but for you, as their patient and fellow human. We advise teeth cleanings because they improve your wellbeing. – ProDentalFx, LLC (Source: J Dent Res. 2010 Mar; 89(3).)