Maintaining a healthy, bright, and glowing smile is a lifetime endeavour. You need to brush your teeth, floss, minimize your sugar intake, and protect your teeth from damage. These at-home habits are all very important for your oral health; however, they need to work in tandem with professional dental care from a dental clinic.
You need to visit your dentist every six months for a check-up, which includes an examination and cleaning. Regular dental check-ups are an essential part of preventative dentistry, halting the onset of painful, complex, and costly oral health issues.
In this blog, we will explain why regular appointments are so important for your oral health.
What happens during your dental check-ups?
Every dental visit has two parts: examination and cleaning.
Examination
During the examination, your dentist checks your mouth for signs of decay, damage, and disease. They visually examine for cavities and may also take X-rays to help them detect tooth decay in difficult-to-see places.
Additionally, dental X-rays can reveal impacted teeth, jawbone damage, cysts, tumours, and abscesses. For children, these X-rays provide valuable information on the development of their teeth and jawbone, helping dentists gauge the need for orthodontic treatment earlier.
Your dentist also examines your gums closely. Using a special tool, they measure the depth of the spaces between your teeth and gums. This space is shallow in healthy gums. Those with gum disease, however, develop deep periodontal pockets as the diseased gum pulls away from the teeth.
Lastly, your tongue, throat, face, and neck are checked for swelling, redness, or signs of cancer.
Cleaning
Even if you brush and floss your teeth diligently, you still need to receive professional dental cleanings every six months. These cleanings (technically called oral prophylaxis) are extremely important for your long-term oral health.
Your at-home oral health hygiene works in tandem with the professional care provided by your dentist and hygienist. Brushing your teeth twice a day with a soft-bristled toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste keeps oral bacterial growth in check.
Crucially, this helps prevent plaque from forming on the surface of your teeth and along your gum line. It also removes any plaque that has already started to accumulate.
When plaque is not removed, it hardens into tartar. Tartar cannot be removed at home by brushing or flossing. Only a dental professional can remove tartar with special tools. This process is called scaling, and it’s a vital part of routine dental cleanings.
Why are regular dental check-ups important?
1. Prevention is the best medicine
One of the gifts of modern dentistry is that we can now effectively and safely treat many different types of oral health issues. We can replace missing teeth, preserve teeth that have been ravaged by infection, reverse gingivitis, and remove cavities.
However, the goal is to keep your mouth healthy and free from decay. Treatment is always the last resort. Prevention, not treatment, is the best medicine.
Preventive dentistry includes all the positive oral care habits required to keep your mouth healthy. It combines your daily at-home routine with healthy lifestyle choices and regular dental check-ups, including professional examinations and cleanings. This is the best tactic for preventing the development of oral health issues, which can be complex, costly, and lengthy to treat.
Additionally, preventive dentistry involves identifying potentially problematic behaviour in young children, like thumb sucking. Even orthodontics can be a form of preventive dentistry, since misaligned teeth increase the likelihood of tooth decay and gum disease.
2. Earlier diagnosis of oral health problems
The early diagnosis of oral health problems is second only to prevention. If a problem cannot be prevented, then the next best thing is quick detection.
However, the majority of dental issues are painless at first. You only begin experiencing discomfort or pain once the problem has progressed significantly. At this point, you are more likely to require an intensive oral health solution, like a tooth extraction or root canal.
Consequently, regular dental check-ups are the only way to address oral health problems quickly before they progress.
Dentists have the expertise, knowledge, and technology to detect cavities, gum disease, impacted teeth, oral cancers, and other conditions before they worsen. Ultimately, this saves you from pain and costly treatments.
3. Removal of plaque and tartar
Oral health and hygiene go hand-in-hand. You are responsible for your oral hygiene at home, but your dentist still has an important part to play.
Your mouth benefits greatly from a deep clean every six months. Even with brushing twice daily and flossing, some plaque accumulation is normal. Plaque deposits not removed by at-home brushing turn into tartar, which is impossible to eliminate without professional dental equipment.
This means that you must visit your dentist to have tartar buildup removed. If left unaddressed, plaque and tartar eat away at the protective tooth enamel, leaving the inner tooth vulnerable to decay and infection. At your regular check-up, a dental hygienist removes plaque and tartar deposits, keeping your teeth bright and healthy.
4. Maintain (or improve) the appearance of your smile
Teeth naturally fade and discolour over time due to age, diet, genetics, and other factors. Although professional teeth whitening is always an option (and the best way to brighten your smile significantly), regular dental check-ups also involve some light stain removal. Polishing helps remove surface stains, leaving your teeth brighter and healthier.
Plaque, tartar, and stains, however, aren’t the only things that can compromise the appearance of your teeth and make you hesitant to show off your smile. Orthodontic issues, like misaligned, crowded, or crooked teeth, can also affect your confidence.
Your routine check-up is also a great opportunity to ask about any cosmetic procedures. Bloor West Smiles offers a wide range of cosmetic procedures that dramatically improve the look of your smile, such as professional teeth whitening, dental bonding, and veneers.
5. Learn how to care for your teeth properly
Great dental clinics are also educators. As your oral health partner, we want you to know how to best care for your teeth so that you can have an attractive and functional smile for life.
We’re available to explain techniques, offer tips, provide dietary counselling, and advise on lifestyle changes that will benefit your oral health. After all, we want to make sure that your teeth and gums are well looked after during the months between your appointments.
Furthermore, proper at-home oral care means your teeth will be in better shape every time you visit our clinic. Not only will your appointments be faster, but you’re also less likely to need lengthy, invasive, or expensive treatments.
Schedule Your Next Dental Check-Up at Bloor West Smiles
Bloor West Smiles offers complete dental care in Toronto. We combine extensive expertise, modern dental techniques, and a personalized approach to dental treatments.Using this approach, we have built long-term and trusting relationships with our patients. We are proud to serve Bloor West Village and the Greater Toronto Area (and have been for more than 25 years).
We provide comprehensive, quality oral health solutions for patients of every age. Contact us today to experience professional dentistry with a personal touch.
To learn more about our dental office’s treatments in Toronto, call Bloor West Smiles Dental at 416-766-2853 or contact us here.
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