Preventive Dental Care

Preventive: Good oral hygiene, including healthy teeth and gums, is an important part of our general health. Nowadays, people are living longer, and they want to enjoy a long, healthy life which of course includes a healthy smile. Due to this trend, over the past 20 years a significant amount of emphasis has been placed on preventive dentistry.

For many, a visit to the dentist is a daunting thought, and because of this many will delay or ‘put off’ a visit to the dentist. The problem with this approach is that it can lead to more serious problems. This is where preventive dentistry comes in.

The new thinking in dentistry is PREVENTION; if you don’t want to go to the dentist, then you should go to prevent potential serious dental problems, which will only require more complicated and frequent dental visits.

Preventive dentistry is the key to a healthy smile and the sooner it starts the better, no matter what your age. Children, adults, and even those who no longer have their teeth anymore can benefit from preventive dentistry.

• For children, preventive dentistry begins with their first tooth and becomes a lifelong process. Regular check-ups from an early age will help prevent tooth decay and gum problems from even starting. If started at this stage, preventive dentistry can help to make a huge difference in a child’s future oral health.
• For adults, preventive dentistry can help to reduce decay and gum disease, which increases the chances of keeping your own teeth.
• For those who no longer have their own teeth, preventive dentistry plays an important role in detection of mouth cancer or denture sores.

Depending on your age, some other elements of preventive dentistry include brushing, flossing, topical fluoride, oral habits, orthodontics, parental involvement, proper diet, sealants, and crowns or onlays for cracked teeth to avoid further damage.

Sealants

These are used to fill in narrow grooves in teeth that cannot be adequately cleaned by brushing. In some cases, a tooth has fine grooves or pits which accumulate plaque, not because the person does not brush, but because they’re too narrow to allow even one bristle into them. With newer sealant methods, we are able to prevent decay early in life.