What Is Preventive Dentistry?

Preventive dentistry is the practice of caring for your teeth to keep them healthy. This helps to avoid cavities, gum disease, enamel wear, and more.

There are many forms of preventive dentistry, such as daily brushing and dental cleanings. To maintain optimal oral health, the American Dental Association (ADA) recommends visits to the dentist at regular intervals determined by a dentist. These practices are designed to ensure that teeth are clean, strong, and white. Children should be taught proper oral hygiene at an early age.

Keep reading to learn more about the steps you can take to keep your teeth healthy.

 Brush your teeth daily

The most important part of preventive dentistry is to brush your teeth daily with fluoride toothpaste approved by the American Dental Association (ADA). Most people should replace their toothbrushes three to four times per year or as the bristles start to fray.

Don’t forget to brush your tongue. This will help remove bacteria from your mouth and also help freshen your breath.

 Floss Daily

Daily flossing is also recommended. Flossing helps to clean out the tight spaces between the teeth. If you have braces, you may need to use floss threaders to get between the metal brackets.

To get the most benefit out of flossing, you’ll want to make sure you’re flossing in the correct way. At your next dental appointment, ask your dentist for a quick flossing demonstration to make sure you’re getting the full benefit from using this tool.

 Visit Your Dentist 

You should see your dentist at least once per year for an exam to check for any problems in the teeth or gums. If you’re at a high risk for dental problems, you’ll likely benefit from more frequent dental visits. If you’re at a low risk for dental problems, you may see the same benefits from only one cleaning per year. Dental cleanings and exams allow dentists to identify problems and take care of them right away.

If you have dental insurance, find out what’s covered. Many insurance plans cover two preventive dental visits per year.

Eat a Balanced Diet

Eating a balanced diet also helps to protect your teeth by providing them with the nutrients they need. Limit your sugar intake, including simple carbohydrates like white bread, and drink plenty of water throughout the day.

Vitamins are important for oral health. Eating a varied diet will help you to get all of the vitamins you need to maintain a healthy smile.

What Does Preventive Dentistry Do?

Preventive dentistry prevents people from developing dental problems later on. If you use proper dental care, you can avoid or lessen the effects of these:

• cavities
• gingivitis
• enamel loss
• periodontitis

Who Benefits from Preventive Dentistry?

Everyone benefits from preventive dentistry. Children, in particular, benefit because it allows their newly developing adult teeth to come in strong and healthy. Dental sealants and topical fluoride treatments help prevent decay in your children’s teeth. If you’re an aging adult, you can benefit from preventive dentistry because it helps you to keep your real teeth.

Oral health is connected to the health of your body as a whole. This is because the mouth is a breeding ground for harmful bacteria. Maintaining a clean mouth benefits your overall health.

What Are the Benefits of Preventive Dentistry?

With good dental hygiene, you can greatly reduce your risk of getting cavities, gingivitis, periodontitis, and other dental problems. This, in turn, can reduce your risk of secondary problems caused by poor oral health. Some health problems that may be linked to poor oral health are:

• diabetes
• heart disease
• osteoporosis
• respiratory disease
• cancer

Premature birth and low birth weight may also be linked to poor oral health. You should continue to practice or adopt good preventive oral health if you’re pregnant. This includes visiting your dentist for routine checkups during your pregnancy.

In addition to reducing your risk for other health issues, practicing good preventive health can save you money. Even with dental insurance, the costs associated with poor oral hygiene can add up. While preventive dentistry may not completely eliminate your need for fillings, root canals, or dental implants, it can go a long way in reducing your need for these costly treatments.

As a result of improved oral hygiene and fluoride, more people are keeping their own teeth into old age but in order to continue to maintain healthy teeth and gums, a regime of brushing and rinsing twice a day should be combined with interdental brushing – cleaning between the teeth.

The major cause of tooth decay and gum disease is plaque. The formation of plaque is continuous and its growth cannot be stopped. Whilst brushing controls plaque formation around the surfaces of your teeth, it does not reach between your teeth and that’s why interdental brushing once a day is so crucial.

Cleaning between your teeth is made possible by the use of the following:

• Dental floss
• Interdental brushes
• Single tuft toothbrushes
• Dental sticks
• Rubber tip stimulators
• Irrigation device

Consult your dentist and hygienist to learn more about the right method of interdental brushing for you

Healthy smile, healthy you: The importance of oral health

  Regular dentist visits can do more than keep your smile attractive – they can also tell dentists a lot about your overall health, including whether or not you may be at risk for chronic disease.

New research suggests that the health of your mouth mirrors the condition of your body as a whole. For example, when your mouth is healthy, chances are your overall health is good, too. On the other hand, if you have poor oral health, you may have other health problems.

Research also shows that good oral health may actually prevent certain diseases from occurring.

Gum disease and health complications

According to the Academy of General Dentistry, there is a relationship between gum (periodontal) disease and health complications such as a stroke and heart disease. Women with gum disease also show higher incidences of pre-term, low birth-weight babies.

Other research shows that more than 90% of all systemic diseases (diseases involving many organs or the whole body) have oral manifestations, including swollen gums, mouth ulcers, dry mouth and excessive gum problems. Such diseases include:

• Diabetes
• Leukaemia
• Oral Cancer
• Pancreatic Cancer
• Heart Disease
• Kidney disease

Since most people have regular oral examinations, their dentist may be the first health care provider to diagnose a health problem in its early stages.

Poor oral health can lead to problems

If you don’t takecare of your teeth and gum, your poor oral hygiene can actually lead to other health problems, including:

• Oral and facial pain.According to the Office of the Surgeon General, this pain may be largely due to infection of the gums that support the teeth and can lead to tooth loss. Gingivitis, an early stage of gum disease, and advanced gum disease affect more than 75% of the U.S. population.
• Problems with the heart and other major organs.Mouth infections can affect major organs. For example, the heart and heart valves can become inflamed by bacterial endocarditis, a condition that affects people with heart disease or anyone with damaged heart tissue.
• Digestion problems.Digestion begins with physical and chemical processes in the mouth, and problems here can lead to intestinal failure, irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive disorders.

What you can do

Seeing a dentist regularly helps to keep your mouth in top shape and allows your dentist to watch for developments that may point to other health issues. A dental exam can also detect poor nutrition and hygiene, growth and development problems and improper jaw alignment. Provide your dentist with a complete medical history and inform him or her of any recent health developments, even if they seem unrelated to your oral health.

At home, you can practice good oral hygiene:

• Brush twice a day, for at least two minutes, using fluoridated toothpaste.
• Floss daily, to remove plaque from places your toothbrush can’t reach.
• Eat a healthy diet, to provide the nutrients necessary (vitamins A and C, in particular) to prevent gum disease.
• Avoid cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, which are known to contribute to gum disease and oral cancer.
• Visit the dentist regularly, for cleanings and exams. This is one of the most effective ways to detect the early signs of gum disease

What Are Treatments for Receding Gums?

If you’ve noticed that your teeth look a little longer or your gums seem to be pulling back from your teeth, you have receding gums.  This can have several causes. The most serious cause is periodontal disease, also known as gum disease. While there’s no cure for periodontal disease, you can and should manage it. The health of your mouth and teeth depend on it.

In a healthy mouth, the gums are pink and the gum line is consistent around all the teeth. If gum recession develops, the gums often look inflamed. The gum line also looks lower around some teeth than around others. Gum tissue wears away, leaving more of a tooth exposed.

Gum recession can happen slowly, so it’s important to take a good look at your gums and teeth every day. If you notice receding gums and you haven’t been to the dentist in a while, make an appointment soon.

Symptoms of receding gums

In addition to less gum tissue around the teeth, receding gums often result in:

• bad breath
• swollen and red gums
• a bad taste in your mouth
• loose teeth

You may notice that your bite is different. You may also notice some pain or that your gums are especially tender. One of the major concerns with receding gums is that they become more susceptible to bacteria growth. This is why regular dental checkups and good and daily oral care is essential.

Causes of gum recession

Gum recession has many causes. The most serious is periodontal disease. Other causes include:

• old age
• poor oral hygiene
• medical conditions, such as diabetes

Is your toothbrush causing your gums to recede?

Brushing your teeth too hard may also cause your gums to recede. Here are some tips for brushing your teeth:

• Use a soft toothbrush instead of one with hard bristles.
• Be gentle as you brush. Let the bristles do the work, not your arm muscles.
• Brush at least twice per day, and for at least two minutes at a time.

Other causes of gum recession

Additional causes of gum recession include the following:

• Sports injury or other trauma to the mouth.For example, body piercing studs of the lip or tongue can rub against the gum tissue, causing recession.
• It’s not just cigarettes, either. You’re at increased risk for gum recession if you chew tobacco or dip with a pouch of tobacco.
• Teeth not in right alignment.Prominent tooth roots, misaligned teeth, or attachment muscles may force gum tissue out of place.
• Poor-fitting partial dentures.
• Teeth grinding while sleeping.Grinding and clenching can put excessive force on your teeth. This can cause gum recession.

Diagnosing receding gums

A dental hygienist or dentist can usually spot receding gums right away. If you look closely at all of your teeth, you may also notice the gum pulling away from the root of one or more teeth.

Gum recession tends to happen gradually. You may not notice a difference in your gums from one day to the next. If you see your dentist twice per year, they should be able to tell if there’s been recession during that time.

Treatment for gum recession

Gum recession can’t be reversed. This means receded gum tissue won’t grow back. However, you can keep the problem from getting worse.

Treatment usually depends on the cause of the gum problems. If hard brushing or poor dental hygiene is the cause, talk with your dental hygienist about changing your brushing and flossing behaviours. Using a daily mouth rinse that fights plaque may help get plaque between teeth. A dental pick or another type of interdental cleaner may also help keep hard-to-reach areas clean.

Mild gum recession increases your risk of bacteria forming in pockets around the affected area. Gum disease can develop more quickly where other gum disease exists. However, mild gum recession doesn’t necessarily put your mouth at increased risk of gum disease.

You may need to have occasional deep cleaning treatments called “scaling and root planing” to treat gum recession. During scaling and root planing, your dentist will clean tartar and plaque from the surface of your teeth and the roots of your teeth.

If gum recession is serious, a procedure called gum grafting can restore lost gum tissue. This procedure involves taking gum tissue from somewhere else in the mouth and grafting or attaching it to an area that’ lost gum tissue around a tooth. Once the area heals, it can protect the exposed tooth root and restore a more natural look.

What’s the outlook?

Receding gums may affect your smile and increase your risk for gum disease and loose teeth. To slow or stop the progression of gum recession, you’ll have to take charge of your oral health. See your dentist twice per year if possible. Follow your dentist’s instructions about proper oral hygiene.

If your gum recession is serious, you may want to consult with a periodontist. This is a specialist in gum disease. A periodontist can tell you about options such as gum grafting and other treatments.

Tips for prevention

A healthy lifestyle will also help prevent receding gums. This means eating a balanced diet and quitting smoking and smokeless tobacco.

Try to see your dentist twice per year, even if you take great care of your teeth and gums. The earlier you or your dentist can spot problems developing, the more likely you’ll be able to prevent them from getting worse.

Can I alleviate my fear of the dentist?

overdose on the gas as the mixture quickly leaves your body if you breathe in one or two breaths of ordinary air. There are no after-effects and you are able to drive a car about 15 minutes later. Many dentists use this safe and effective technique.

Some people are so frightened of the dentist that they avoid dental treatment altogether but today’s dentists are symp

athetic and in recognising that some patients experience real anxiety, they have developed new techniques and approaches to help. In fact if you check the Yellow Pages or dental websites you will find dentists who specifically mention treatment for anxious patients.

Modern dentistry is very customer focused and as such, a range of sedation and relaxation techniques have been developed to help anxious patients overcome their fears.

What is sedation?

An effective way to treat the most nervous of patients is via intravenous sedation (injection). The drugs have a relaxing and calming effect but don’t prevent communication between dentist and patient so treatment can still be carried out easily. Weight, age and medical condition must be assessed befo

re suitability for this kind of sedation is determined but this would all be discussed during the consultation with the dentist. Usually the patient would need to be referred to a specialist clinic for this treatment.

How will IV sedation in the surgery affect me?

Whilst IV sedation will make you drowsy and unaware of the treatment you are undergoing, you will remain lucid enough to communicate and cooperate with the dental team. The effects of the sedative will take time to wear off and you won’t be able to drink alcohol, drive or work machinery during this time so it

is important that someone can help you home after treatment and keep a careful eye on you for sometime afterwards. Your dentist will tell you how long it will be before the drugs are completely clear from your body.

What else can help?

You can be helped to feel relaxed by ‘relative analgesia’ sometimes known as inhalation sedation. This means breathing in a mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen (‘laughing gas’) which quickly leads to a pleasant, relaxed feeling. At the same time, your dentist puts you at ease through calming speech. Although you may feel a little drowsy, you remain conscious throughout but any treatment given causes you no discomfort. You breathe in the mixture through a nosepiece which is very comfortable. You can’t

Will I ever feel differently about visiting the dentist?

It is highly likely!

As you get to know and trust your dentist, hygienist and other members of the dental team at your practice, your fears will dampen.

In time you will come to see your regular visit to the dentist as just another part of your normal life.