With preventive dentistry, our team can examine your smile and help you enjoy good oral health. We want to help you avoid common issues like tooth decay and periodontal disease, so you can smile with confidence. In today’s blog, your Kansas City, MO, dentist talks about our approach to preventive dentistry.
Starting With Your Routine Checkup
We recommend a dental exam for our patients every six months, so that we can monitor the smile and catch common problems in the early stages, allowing gums to address them before they cause pain or threaten smile stability. We will examine the teeth, gums, roots, and jaw with digital x-rays and intraoral cameras, so we can make a diagnosis with precision and accuracy. We then create a personalized treatment plan. These visits benefit all ages, from kids to adults, and help you enjoy better oral health. Issues we watch for tend to include cavities, infections, gingivitis, and gum disease, as well as TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding). For adults, we screen for oral cancer, and for kids we make sure baby teeth fall out on time and permanent teeth arrive without complication. You can schedule your first one of 2025 now!
Dental Cleaning
In the same visit as your checkup, we will also clean your teeth. The dental cleaning allows our team to completely remove all plaque and tartar for the teeth, something brushing and flossing alone cannot do. To accomplish this, we use an ultrasonic scaling device and a manual pick. By removing plaque and tartar, we lower the risk of cavities, dental infection, and even periodontal concerns like gingivitis and gum disease. This helps fight bad breath and teeth stains too. We then polish the teeth, which not only brightens them. But makes it more difficult for plaque and tartar to attach to the teeth in between your six months checkup and cleaning visits. You can help limit the severity of buildup in between visits by brushing for two minutes twice a day, and flossing every evening.
Bruxism Appliances
Our team may also provide personalized treatment to take on bruxism, also known as chronic teeth grinding. We could grind our teeth due to high stress levels, misalignment, missing teeth, injury to the face or jaw, or complications with the growth of the jaw or the eruption of the teeth. Untreated TMJ disorder could be a factor too. Without treatment, the pressures from grinding and clenching your teeth nightly could wear down enamel and crack or chip the teeth, changing the appearance of your smile and increasing the risk of tooth decay and dental infection. Warning signs include jaw and facial pain, neck and shoulder aches, and headaches and migraines.
We can help with a special bruxism appliance. This oral appliance is custom-fitted for your smile and worn as you sleep at night. When in place, this helps shift the jaw to ease the factors behind bruxism and TMJ disorder. This also puts a barrier between the upper and lower sets of teeth to prevent further damage to your smile. Speaking of damage, our team can repair this with dental bonding or even custom dental crowns.
Children’s Dentistry
Our team also offers unique treatments to help protect children too! As with adults, we recommend a visit for a checkup and cleaning every six months. In addition, we can offer unique treatments to lower the risk of tooth decay. For example, we can apply fluoride to the teeth during your checkup to strengthen the outer enamel and lower the risk of cavities. You can also help by ensuring the toothpaste your child uses contains fluoride. Kids often have trouble reaching the rear teeth when they brush and floss, so tooth decay is more likely to form there. But we can help with dental sealants, a special acrylic layer we add to the rear teeth to prevent food and drink particles from being trapped there, lowering the risk of cavities. The application takes seconds and they can stay in place for up to ten years, gradually wearing away.
If you have any questions about preventive dentistry, or if you want to schedule your first exam and cleaning of 2025, then contact our team today to learn more.
Schedule An Appointment for Preventive Dental Care
We want to help you and your family start a new year with a new smile, and to do so we recommend preventive dentistry. To schedule an appointment with the team at Delightful Dental Care in Kansas City, MO, call our office today at 816-942-7669.