Preventive Dental Treatment

What is a preventive dental procedure?   

Preventive dentistry is a dental treatment that focuses on optimally keeping your teeth and gums. It involves a combination of frequent dental examinations and healthy oral hygiene practices such as brushing and flossing.  

Why is preventative dental care important?   

Prevention is always preferable over treatment.

Gum disease, cavities, tooth sensitivity, and other common dental problems are all kept at bay with preventive dentistry. This is because preventative dental care prevents or reduces issues such as tooth decay, tooth enamel erosion, and gum disease. These issues, once discovered in their early stages, can be remedied by your dentist in a less intrusive and less expensive manner.  

It is also important to note that your oral health and overall health are linked. So, by avoiding dental issues, you are also keeping the rest of your body healthy and free of systemic diseases.

Why is preventive dental care important for children?  

Preventive dentistry is especially crucial for children since it prepares them for a lifetime of healthy teeth and gums. In fact, most dentists suggest that every child must go on a dental check-up before their first birthday to ensure that their teeth and gums are healthy and to create this mindset that regular check-ups with the dentists are good for them.

Although your child’s baby teeth are just temporary, it is still vital to take care of them because it gives room for their permanent adult teeth to erupt correctly and even more importantly, be able to chew good nourishing food they need as they are in their most important years of growth and development.

What are 3 examples of preventative care for your teeth?  

• Oral prophylaxis

• Oral examination

• Diagnostic tests

However, not all dental problems can be seen by the naked eye. So, once your dentists see and suspect that you have an underlying oral health problem, they will carry out diagnostic tests such as X-rays to determine its severity.  

What is the difference between preventative and restorative dentistry?   

Preventive dentistry as the name suggests, is an active approach to prevent the dental problems from arising in the first place. These include identification of risk factors for the disease and ways to avoid those elements. It involves changes in lifestyle, better oral hygiene, dietary changes etc. Basically better oral health education to increase the desirable elements and to reduce if not eliminate the undesirable elements to have best possible oral health.

The restorative dentistry is a very broad term coined for treatment that dentists provide for teeth that already have problems or damages/losses. These are procedures like normal fillings, crowns and bridges or veneers.  

What is the best oral hygiene routine?   

Going to the dentist for frequent check-ups and a combination of at-home personal care techniques are the greatest ways to keep your teeth healthy. Everyday oral hygiene should involve the following steps:

•     Brush your teeth at least twice a day and use fluoride toothpaste.

•     Floss at least once a day.

•   Use anti-bacterial mouthwash to further aid the control of disease causing bacteria