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We try not to take it too personally when our patients feel they don’t need to set up their regular dental exams. After all, we pride ourselves in creating long-lasting relationships through our family dentistry services in Mississauga that allow us to keep track of our patients’ dental health for life. Unfortunately, it just seems many patients fail to see the importance of regular dental exams and cleanings, no matter how much we nag them!
To make sure you don’t miss out on the many benefits of regular dental exams offered by family dentistry services that Mississauga clinics provide, here we explain just why those dental exams are so important to both your dental and overall health.
Improves Your Overall Health
We’ll start here only because it seems that patients view their overall health as more important than their dental health. Here’s the rub, though: Your oral health can affect your overall health. If you allow dental issues to get serious, they can lead to oral health infections.
Oral health infections, like any infection, can spread throughout your body. This can lead to serious issues if it is left untreated, including a risk for the infection attacking your vital organs. A simple dental exam at least once a year spots issues that can lead to an infection and treats them before one can set in.
A Penny Saved is a Penny Earned
If you think that dental exams and dental cleanings are a waste of money, then think again. Your dental exams are a small investment to avoid far more costly treatments down the road. By ensuring you have your regular professional dental cleanings, you remove plaque that can build up and lead to tooth decay and gum disease.
This, in turn, can lead to costly treatments the longer the decay or gum issues are allowed to progress. In the long run, you end up costing yourself far more money because the treatments for serious dental issues are much more expensive than your basic cleanings and exams.
A Little Inconvenience to Avoid a Lot of Pain
If you simply hate having your teeth cleaned and examined, imagine what might happen without these simple appointments. Treatments for things such as gum disease, root canals, and deep cavities are far less convenient than a simple cleaning. As well, the discomfort that you experience from gum disease and tooth decay are pretty difficult to live with. So, by scheduling your regular dental exams, you have to deal with one short appointment to avoid far more complicated and difficult treatments, not to mention potential pain associated with progressive decay or gum disease.
More Than Just Teeth
Although your routine exam is designed to look for signs of tooth decay, cavities, and other issues like gum disease, it is also a proactive approach to cut potential issues off at the pass. For example, if you have signs of excess plaque and tartar buildup, we can arrange for more frequent cleanings so you can avoid gum disease. We also look at other potential issues, including:
- Cancers of the mouth and throat: Your dental exam includes an exam to detect oral cancers. As with any cancer, the sooner the issue is detected, the more positive the outcomes.
- Periodontal disease: Periodontal or gum disease can lead to infections, and when left unchecked can also cause tooth loss. More than 70% of people suffer from some form of periodontal disease in their lifetime. So, it’s always in your best interest to have your checkups to avoid developing periodontal disease.
- Bad breath: Often, patients with bad breath try to treat it by chewing gum, mints, or using mouthwash. However, if you find you are doing this more often, you probably have halitosis. Having bad breath all the time is not normal. It can indicate many potential health issues, including diabetes, yeast infections in the mouth, and lung problems, to name a few. If we notice that you have halitosis not caused by a dental issue, we can recommend you speak to your doctor to see if there is an underlying health problem that requires treatment.
Preventive Dental Treatments
We believe in taking a preventive approach to your dental care. One of the main proactive treatments we offer is professional cleaning by our dental hygienist. This eliminates plaque and tartar buildup and, in turn, helps reduce bacteria that you can’t remove even with regular brushing and flossing. Our team has the right instruments to safely remove these deposits from your teeth, which, if left to build up, turns into tartar. Our professional tooth cleaning is the only way to remove tartar.
As well, our tooth polishing removes stains that can make your smile appear yellow. We offer advice on trouble areas that we spot during your cleaning to help improve your oral hygiene regime, such as pointing out areas with more plaque buildup that you might be missing when brushing. We can show you how to improve your brushing and flossing technique to reduce plaque buildup and help improve your oral health. Without regular cleanings, your teeth can continue to stain, so your smile becomes less bright, while also increasing your risk for tooth decay, cavities, and gum disease. All of these issues require further treatments, or they will continue to progress and lead to serious problems, including risk for tooth loss.
Keeping You Comfortable
You might be suffering from discomfort or even pain from a list of issues treated by your dentist. This can include:
- Tooth sensitivity
- Tooth pain
- Swelling or sore gums
- Jaw pain
- Headaches
- Neck pain
All of these issues could be related to conditions your doctor doesn’t address. Always mention things such as pain in the head, neck, or jaw, as this could be caused by dental issues such as wisdom teeth, teeth grinding, jaw clenching, or TMJ (temporomandibular joint) syndrome. We check these symptoms and will provide recommendations that can help keep you comfortable. As well, tooth sensitivity and discomfort of the gums could be due to gum disease, receding gum lines, or issues such as tooth grinding at night.
Now that you know why dental exams are so important, you might want to reach out to our team to set up your next appointment! Call Bristol Dental Clinic at 905-712-3409 today.
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