An air‐powder abrasive systemwas tested among 20 volunteers, who had healthy gingiva or slight gingivitis, but no periodontal pockets. Impressions of randomly selected areas (n = 103) were taken before and after airpolishing and positive replicas were prepared for scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Gingival bleeding increased statistically significantly (p<0.001) during the treatment. Also gingival erosive changes were increased when using airpolishing technique (p<0.001). The erosive changes observed by SEM and the subjective symptoms during and after the operation positively correlated to the presence of gingival inflammation (p<0.001). It can be concluded that also the negative aspects of the airpolishing technique should be taken into consideration, especially when operating near the gingival margin.