Why do I need regular dental check-ups?
A lot of people ask, why do I need dental checkups to begin with? Some people don't think it's necessary. Dental checkups are very important for the people who want to keep their teeth their whole life. One of the most important things, everybody familiar with dental checkups understands that they usually get their teeth cleaned at one of those visits. A lot of those visits, they might get x-rays. But the most important thing is coming in for dental checkups on a regular frequency, somewhere between two and four times a year, depending on the patient's needs. It gives us an opportunity to identify what are you doing well, what needs improvement. Our goal is to prevent disease. The second goal is when we fail to prevent disease and we're starting to have some disease form, we want to catch it at its earliest possible stage so we can be as conservative as possible, minimize any discomfort, or risk losing future teeth due to a variety of diseases that might go unchecked if you don't come in for those visits.
How often do I get dental check-ups?
How often you need to get a dental checkup really depends on your situation. So it starts with an initial evaluation to find out what's going on with you. People who struggle with gum disease or gum health, the reality is some people are more prone to that disease than others because of the bugs they inherited from their parents. Bugs meaning bacteria. But those are the little no-see-ums that are in everybody's mouth that determine whether or not you're at high risk for gum disease or high risk for decay. We typically know whether you are or you're not based on your history of disease and your current situation. So some people who struggle with disease might need to be seen four times a year in general. Other people who don't struggle with disease activity and just want to stay ahead of the curve, we usually recommend seeing them twice a year.
Can dental check-ups prevent oral health issues?
Dental checkups can definitely prevent oral health issues. The way that's happening is that we can identify what are you doing well, what are you not doing well, what do you need to work on. If you're leaving plaque and sugar and food debris at the gum line or between your teeth, if we see you regularly, we can determine if things are going south. We can determine are we starting to see damage to the enamel? Are we starting to see bleeding gums? Are we actively seeing buildup of plaque and tartar? All those things are important things to know as a patient so that we can give you some guidance on how to correct that problem or that deficiency and help set you up for success if you go home and use the information we gave you to make your situation better.
What is included in a dental check-up?
So what's included in a dental checkup? Most of the time when you come in, you're going to come in, have an evaluation, have x-rays. In our office, we take x-rays typically once a year unless we see a need to take them more often. We'll also check the health of your gums and measure the pocket depth around every tooth. So we can check for pocket depth. We can check for bleeding and all the factors that help us diagnose your current condition, and then we make recommendations from there. And then we give the type of cleaning that's appropriate for your condition. If there's other cavities and other problems going on that we discover, then we'll put a plan together. That's part of that checkup visit, too. Anything that has gotten unhealthy, we put a plan together to bring it back to health.
What is a dentist looking for during a dental check-up?
What does a dentist do during a dental checkup? A lot of the visit is going to be with the dental hygienist. But when the dentist comes in, he's going to look at or she is going to look at the x-rays. We're going to evaluate the probing depths or the measurements of the gums around every tooth and determine what's going on and what's your current situation. We're going to create a diagnosis for your current state. Hopefully, it's a healthy diagnosis. Many times, there's some level of disease activity with the gums. Many times, there's old, failing dentistry that needs to be updated, teeth that have fracture lines, some teeth that are already broken, some cavities. We're looking for all those things. We want to evaluate the bone levels around your teeth. All those things are important to determine whether or not you're at a state of health or whether you're in a state of decline that we need to help you get back to health. Keep your overall health in good check. Everybody knows or a lot of people know that there is a connection between the health of the mouth and the health of your body. We can't overlook that important fact, and we want to keep you healthy overall. But we also want to help you have a confident, beautiful smile that you're happy to show off and help you keep your teeth as long as you need them.
Do dental check-ups hurt?
Some people ask me, do dental checkups hurt? A dental checkup does not hurt. There are some people who have bone formations in their mouth that can make X-rays a little uncomfortable. Our hygienists at Village Dental Care are wonderful at working around those things, and they look for those things to make sure that we're keeping you as comfortable as possible during those X-rays. The gum probing and things like that where we measure the depth of the gums, that can be a little uncomfortable if your gums are not healthy. Another piece of evidence on whether or not you're in a good state of health or not is how comfortable that process is for you. But even for those people who are tender and sensitive, we go above and beyond to try to keep that process comfortable. There are a lot of ways to do that, and we make that a priority in our office.
How long does a dental check-up take?
Normally, the dental checkup visit is about an hour, including the cleaning, if you don't need X-rays on that visit. In our office, once a year we take X-rays, and once a year we measure the gum. We're always evaluating those things, but we take the official measurements once a year. Unless you have a history of gum disease and you're coming in four times a year, those patients, we measure the gums every visit. So if you're here four times a year, we measure the gums four times in that year. X-rays typically, again, we take once a year, and all that time together typically takes about an hour.
Final Thoughts
I hope this information has been helpful for you and answered a lot of your questions about dental checkups. If you have any further questions, please give our office a call at (972) 992-5223 or visit us on the web at villagedentaldallas.com. Thanks for listening.