What Exactly Is Preventive Dental Care?
Dentists in Lexington MA
Dentists play a vital role in protecting the oral health of their patients. But the patients themselves must also maintain their efforts at home to ensure that their teeth are free of tooth decay and their gums are not affected by gum disease.
Preventive dental care is focused upon doing the right things in the right way on a regular basis. This means regularly brushing and flossing at home and keeping up with your routine dental appointments, such as dental exams and cleanings.
Preventive dental care helps:
- Prevent tooth decay
- Prevent gum disease
- Spot early signs of problems like oral cancer
- Prevent costly dental work
Preventing Tooth Decay
Tooth decay has become extremely common over the last few decades, with an increase in sugary snacks and beverages that are advertised on virtually every TV program, as well as magazines, radio and the Internet. For this reason, visiting your dentist regularly is important.
Tooth decay begins with the presence of oral bacteria. Bacteria can hang around in the mouth and form a sticky substance called plaque. Plaque can be removed by brushing and flossing, but it can gain a foothold if you miss a spot, or it finds a hiding place. Plaque creates an acidic environment within your mouth that eats away at tooth enamel, leading to cavities and tooth decay.
The best way to avoid tooth decay is to brush at least twice a day and floss daily. Ideally, you want to brush following every meal and snack. If you find yourself away from home, try to remember to rinse your mouth with water to at least remove much of the food debris in your mouth that would otherwise feed oral bacteria.
Dental Exams and Cleanings
As mentioned earlier, it is still possible to develop plaque in spite of your best efforts at home. Plaque can find places that you cannot reach, or you may miss a spot. The best way to rid your mouth of plaque is to keep up with your regular dental exams and cleanings, as well as following any specific recommendations made by your dentist.
A dental exam gives your dental team an opportunity to have a visual inspection of your mouth to look for signs of problems and prevent them before they gain momentum. The cleaning part of the appointment is when your dental hygienist removes plaque and tartar from your teeth. Tartar is a hardened form of plaque that can only be removed with specialized dental instruments.
What are some other ways to prevent tooth decay and gum disease?
Limit your consumption of sugary foods and beverages like cakes, cookies and sodas. If you should have an occasional indulgence, that’s perfectly fine. Just make sure to brush or rinse your mouth out with water after indulging in a sugary snack.
Another way to prevent costly dental care is to stop smoking if you are currently a smoker, as smoking tobacco is a known risk factor for developing gum disease, not to mention the fact that it can stain your teeth.
Schedule Your Appointment
Has it been a long time since you have had a dental exam or had your teeth cleaned? Although some patients feel that these routine visits are not that important, we hope that we have demonstrated that they are vitally important. Our dentists in Lexington recommend that you get back on track with any missed appointments by scheduling a dental exam and cleaning today.
Contact Lexington Smile Studio today!
