At first, minor dental problems may not seem like a big deal. What difference does one cavity really make? Is it actually that bad for your gums to be a bit red and sensitive? Indeed, cavities, gum disease, and other minor dental ailments are treatable – but that doesn’t mean they’re not a big deal.
Dental problems tend to snowball. What starts as a small cavity can soon worsen into a dental abscess that requires antibiotics and a root canal. Gingivitis can progress to periodontal disease, which leads to deep gum pockets and loose teeth. If you want to avoid these ailments and keep your smile as healthy as possible, it’s best to take a preventive approach. In other words, we suggest focusing on preventing cavities and gum disease in the first place so you don’t have to worry about advanced decay and lost teeth down the road.
At Orange City Modern Dentistry, our core focus in treating your smile always comes back to preventive dentistry. Here are a few of the preventive dental procedures we often recommend for patients.
Dental Cleanings
You should be as thorough as possible when brushing and flossing your own teeth. Using a toothbrush that’s properly sized for your mouth, or even an electric toothbrush, can really help. But even the most effective brushers miss a little plaque here and there. Over time, that dental plaque hardens into a substance called tartar. Unfortunately, tartar cannot be removed with a simple toothbrush. It needs to be removed by a dental professional. That’s why professional dental cleanings are so important.
For most patients, we schedule professional cleanings every 6 months or twice a year. During a cleaning appointment, your hygienist will use specialized tools to remove tartar from your teeth. In most patients, we see some buildup along the gumline. If left unchecked, that tartar, which harbors lots of oral bacteria, could lead to gum disease and tooth decay. By removing it during a standard dental cleaning, we can help prevent cavities and gum disease from developing in the first place.
Regular dental cleanings can also keep your teeth looking whiter! Tartar has an off-white, yellowish color and may stain teeth if it’s left in place for too long. With regular, professional cleanings, you may find yourself less reliant on whitening toothpaste and whitening strips to maintain your smile.
Your hygienist will tell you where they spotted the most tartar on your teeth. You can use this information to help yourself become a better brusher over time. For example, if your hygienist sees a lot of tartar buildup on your molars, they can give you tips to help you reach and clean those molars more completely.
Routine Checkups
We usually do a checkup at the same appointment as your 6-month cleaning. We look over all of your teeth and gums for any signs of decay, gum disease, or other ailments. If we do see some decay or a small cavity, this gives us a chance to treat it before it worsens. Or, maybe we’ll notice some redness along your gumline and suggest you start using a mouthwash to treat minor gingivitis.
Cancer screening is another valuable part of any routine dental checkup. We look over your gums, cheeks, tongue, and lips for any lesions that look suspicious. Many oral cancers don’t cause pain or discomfort in their early stages. So, you may not notice the issue until it’s advanced and more difficult to treat. By identifying precancerous and cancerous lesions early, we increase your chances of a good outcome. Early diagnosis and treatment can prevent cancer from spreading to the jaw bone, lymph nodes, and other internal structures.
And no, oral cancer does not only occur in smokers. While smoking does increase your risk of oral cancer, there are many other risk factors involved. Regardless of your diet, genetics, and lifestyle habits, it’s important to be screened for oral cancer early and often.
Root Scaling and Planing
Redness, swelling, bleeding, and sensitivity are all early signs of gum disease. Sometimes, flossing more thoroughly and adding an antiseptic mouthwash to your routine can stop gum disease in its tracks. But other times, we may recommend a preventive dentistry procedure called root scaling and planing to prevent gum disease from worsening.
Root scaling and planing is an advanced dental cleaning technique that removes plaque and tartar from along and slightly below the gumline. Don’t worry; we’ll use local anesthetics to numb your mouth and ensure you don’t experience any pain during this treatment.
Scaling and planing, also known as periodontal therapy, can help keep your gums from developing deep pockets due to bacterial infection. It’s a lot easier to treat gum disease before these pockets form since they tend to hold on to bacteria and food particles. Remember, gum disease can lead to losing teeth and more, so we want to get rid of it ASAP, even if it’s not overly painful or bothersome yet.
Sealants
One of the most common places for patients to develop cavities is in the deep crevices in their back molars. Getting food particles and plaque out of these grooves can be incredibly tough, even if you’re a champion brusher. Kids, especially, tend to have a hard time cleaning these far-back areas.
Dental sealants are like tough plastic fillings we can use to fill in the grooves in your back molars. They prevent food and oral bacteria from entering those grooves, which in turn prevents cavities.
We often suggest sealants for young patients who recently got their 6-year and 12-year molars. However, older teens and adults often benefit from them, too. The process of applying sealants is quick and painless, and they’ll stay in place for many years. If you do ever lose one, we can simply put a new one in place.
Fluoride Treatments
Fluoride is a mineral that’s essential for strong tooth enamel. If your enamel is really hard and strong, then you’ll be less likely to develop cavities and decay. We suggest that patients use fluoridated toothpaste to help strengthen their enamel, but sometimes that’s not enough.
If your enamel is thin, soft, or otherwise prone to decay, we may suggest fluoride treatments. We apply a concentrated solution of fluoride to the teeth, let it sit for a short period, and then rinse it away. Often, we can do this at the end of a normal cleaning and checkup.
Fluoride treatments are especially helpful for kids. They can harden the outer layers of the enamel and decrease the risk of cavities and decay across a lifetime. The fluoride solution tastes a little bitter, but these treatments are absolutely pain-free and easy.
As the saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Let the dental professionals and Orange City Modern Dentistry provide your ounce of prevention. Contact us today to schedule an appointment or learn more about our patient-centered approach.