You try to keep your teeth and gums healthy by brushing twice daily, flossing once, and avoiding sugary, starchy, and acidic foods and beverages. However, at the end of every six months, you receive a reminder from your dentist that you are due for a dental exam and cleaning with them as a preventive measure.
The text message you receive from the dentist can make you wonder why you must have your teeth cleaned by a dental professional when you are doing a proper job and feel your teeth and gums are healthy. However, can you guarantee you don’t have plaque remaining between your teeth that might cause severe infections like gum disease that require lifelong treatments from dentists because it doesn’t have a cure discovered until this date? If you have yet to consider this possibility, we suggest you continue reading about how exams and cleanings help keep your mouth and overall health in prime condition.
What Makes Dental Exams Essential?
If you have misconceptions about exams and cleanings, let us clarify your thoughts by mentioning these are two separate procedures coupled in one dentist appointment when they examine your teeth and also clean them to ensure you don’t develop infections in the next six months.
Six monthly dental exams enable the dentist in Bradford to assess and diagnose problems in your mouth and provide early treatments essential for your dental or oral health issues. The earlier you receive treatment for minor problems, the better for you to save money on intensive therapies later.
Dental exams involve looking at your teeth and gums and examining your entire oral cavity to look for signs of oral cancer. You might think you don’t have oral cancer and the examination is non-essential. However, can you be sure you are not affected by this devastating condition to ignore the exam even when you receive it as a complementary gesture? If you can’t, you might as well get your mouth examined by the dentist, who looks for red and white patches and lumps in your mouth that might indicate oral cancer.
When you receive six monthly dental exams, the dentist examines your teeth and gums to verify whether you have cavities, gum disease, loose restorations, or need any advice to improve your oral health. The dentist completes the exam in a few minutes before handing you over to the hygienist for teeth cleaning.
Essentiality of Teeth Cleanings
If you think teeth cleaning near you by a dentist is non-essential, the hygienist will likely surprise you by revealing how much plaque remains between your teeth and below your gum line despite maintaining excellent dental hygiene. Dental plaque constantly forms on your teeth when mouth bacteria and food particles combine and deposit acids. Besides making you vulnerable to tooth decay and periodontal disease, your mouth bacteria can also enter your bloodstream to cause health problems needing treatments from different medical professionals. However, if you allow the hygienist to thoroughly clean your teeth, you possess a mechanism to combat dental health problems for the next six months.
Happenings during a Teeth Cleaning
During teeth cleaning, the hygienist looks at your teeth and gums, searching for signs of dental plaque using probes and scraping your teeth. They aim to remove hardened tartar on your teeth and beneath the gum line to eliminate the problem of gum disease. After cleaning your teeth, the hygienist polishes them with gritty toothpaste and an electric toothbrush to remove excess plaque left between the teeth and give them a polish to make them appear brighter than earlier.
You also receive a flossing demonstration from the hygienist trying to detect spots between your teeth that bleed during the flossing. Finally, you receive a fluoride treatment to help strengthen tooth enamel and battle against cavities for the next six months.
After concluding your dental exam and cleaning, the dentist near you will discuss your dental health suggesting changes to your diet and dental hygiene regimen if necessary to ensure you don’t attract infections in your mouth that might result in tooth loss. Therefore even if your teeth and gums appear healthy, you must schedule appointments with the Bradford dentist for examination and cleanings every six months to benefit your dental health.
We admit you have an excellent dental hygiene regimen that makes you think your teeth and gums are healthy. However, it is not the reason for avoiding exams and cleanings from South Simcoe Dental that works as a preventive measure to safeguard your oral and general health. Therefore contact them today and have your teeth examined and cleaned before you attract infections in your mouth.