Preventative Dentistry – Reducing your Need For More Complex Treatments

Paying regular visits to our Canterbury dentist will prove beneficial for your teeth.

Modern dentistry has made a lot of advances over the years. For example, digital scanning helps us to detect problems and carry out treatments more accurately. Missing teeth no longer means loose dentures but the option of having a dental implant instead to replicate the looks and functionality of a natural tooth. Despite these advances though, the fact remains that it is far better to prevent the need for these in the first place; something we are sure that our patients would agree with.

While not every dental issue is avoidable, for example, a tooth being knocked out in an accident, many issues are, and, by making a point of maintaining regular appointments at Bradley and Partners Dental & Implant Clinic, we can help you to keep your teeth and your gums in the best health possible.

Oral care starts at home

While we can support your oral health, we can’t perform miracles and a large part of good oral health care starts at home. Regular brushing and flossing are essential, as is eating (and drinking) a reasonably tooth friendly diet. If you do this, you will have made a good start to maintaining healthy teeth and gums.

Dental check ups

Everybody should have their teeth checked by a dentist every six months. This enables us to keep an eye open for any problems that might be building up. For example, we might notice that tartar is forming around your teeth and the gum line. If we see this, we will recommend that you make an appointment with our hygienist to have this removed. Ideally, this is something that you should be doing anyway as we will see shortly. We may also notice that you might be paying less attention to some areas of your mouth when cleaning, and encourage you to focus there more as well.

Mostly though, check ups ensure that any problems that arise are treated at an early stage. A classic example of this would be where a cavity is forming. This can happen for quite a while before you start to suffer from problems such as a painful toothache. Treating this early not only means avoiding any discomfort you might experience, but also a smaller filling will be required, as opposed to a larger one, or even a crown or extraction in some cases if the problem is left to worsen over a longer period of time.

If you have children, you should also ensure that they receive the same check ups at six monthly intervals from around their first birthday.

Dental hygienist appointments

While most people see the dentist every six months, this isn’t always the case with dental hygienist appointments. This is unfortunate as doing so greatly improves your chances of having a healthy mouth, including your teeth and gums. These appointments are important and should not be seen as ‘optional extras’ as, unfortunately, is sometimes the case.

Hygienists will discuss your general lifestyle and teeth cleaning habits with you and may offer some improvements that you could make to improve this. This could range from stopping smoking to changing the type of toothpaste you use. Any advice given will depend on each person’s individual circumstances.

On most visits you will also receive a scale and polish procedure. This is a non-invasive treatment that is designed to remove tartar from the teeth and around the gum line. Tartar is a hardened form of bacteria mixed with minerals from saliva. This produces a rough ‘crust’ that attracts even more bacteria. This, in turn, may lead to gum disease. While this can be relatively easily treated in its early stage of gingivitis, hence why we provide this treatment, it can become more serious and complex at the latter stage of periodontitis.

Where periodontitis occurs, it can affect the bone which supports the teeth and can cause teeth (and any dental implants you might have) to become loose and potentially fall out. While a ‘deep clean’ may prevent this from happening, it is a highly invasive procedure and success is not guaranteed. It makes sense then, to have a scale and polish procedure every six months or so.

For anyone who may be ‘sitting on the shelf’ about having this done, there is a pleasant bonus of the scale and polish procedure leaving your teeth and mouth feeling fresher and also removing some surface staining from your teeth, making them appear more attractive.

If you have recently moved to Canterbury or nearby and are looking for a dentist, or if you have missed appointments and are looking to get things back on track, why not call Bradley and Partners Dental & Implant Clinic today to book your appointment with us? You can do this by calling us on 01227 463529. Our team looks forward to assisting you.