Will a time come when you don’t have to visit your local dentist?
Going to the dentist for a regular checkup has become routine for most of us, or at least had until the start of the pandemic. Gradually, as dental practices return to normal, this will start to happen once again. Those of you who use social media a lot though may have noticed what seems to be an ever increasing number of dental treatments that are offered with some degree of remoteness.
As we become more accustomed to technology and given that most of us would like to save time where possible, could this be the future of dentistry, or is this something that might be more problematic for our Canterbury patients?
At Bradley and Partners Dental and Implant Clinic, we value the face to face meetings with our patients. Not only does this allow us to physically examine your teeth and gums, but also helps us to put you at ease. With nervous patients, for example, they might be reluctant to tell us of a problem as they want to avoid treatment. Detecting these problems though and talking them through any procedures can really put them at ease and help them to keep their teeth and gums healthy.
Let’s take a look then, at some of the types of ‘remote dentistry’ that you may have heard about.
Initial virtual consultations
During lockdown, some dental practices have used video communications to hold consultations with their patients. Whilst few would probably want this as an alternative to physical visits, they have certainly been useful during this last year or so. The question is whether these are likely to continue once things return completely to normal. In our opinion, there may be a use for this type of remote care. It could potentially save time for both patient and dentist where an initial consultation could be held remotely. Although in most cases, this may well also require a follow up visit to the dentist, it could remain useful for initial consultations, and especially cosmetic ones.
We feel then, that the use of this technology will almost certainly have a role to play but will not completely replace the traditional visit to your dentist.
Although we may not be entirely out of the woods yet, there is little doubt that there is more optimism in the air than at this time last year. Some of you will, no doubt, have had your first post lockdown pint or taken part in some other activity.
By now, most of you who read our blogs regularly will be aware of dental implants and why they offer benefits that other tooth replacement options can’t match. Implant placement is a field of dentistry which is growing in popularity with our Canterbury patients, and with good reason.
We hope that you enjoyed our recent three part ‘a-z’ of dental terms, and in today’s blog, we return to one of the basics of good oral care. Most of us know how to look after our teeth well, and hopefully do so on a daily basis. There are still a significant number of people though who pay much less attention to their gums. This is a mistake that can not only lead to some unpleasant symptoms but can even result in tooth loss if neglected for too long.
Today’s blog wraps up our A-Z series of things that you might have heard a dentist say but were not sure what it meant. We hope that you have found this useful and, as they say, normal service will be resumed with our next blog.
Last time, we took a look at some of the dental terminology that you may have heard at our Canterbury practice up to and including the letter ‘I’.
As experienced dentists, as with many other professions, it can become all too easy to slip into using terminology that we understand but which may sound strange and possibly even concerning to the patient sitting in the chair. Some of the dental terms that we commonly use are at least vaguely familiar to most people, but this isn’t the case for all of them.
We don’t know how long we will be in lockdown, but indications are that it will be a little while yet, and although there are calls for schools to reopen as soon as possible, it is likely that children will be learning from home for several weeks to come.