Prevention
Dental Hygiene
Professionally cleaning the teeth is part of dental hygiene treatment and is usually called scale and polish. Though this is important, our most important role is showing the patient the best way to keep their teeth plaque free.
Dental Decay Detection
Early tooth decay does not tend to show many physical signs. Sometimes the tooth looks healthy, but your dentist will be able to see from an x-ray whether you have any decay under the enamel, any possible infections in the roots, or any bone loss around the tooth. The use of X-Rays makes it easier to detect decay at an earlier stage to prevent excessive tooth damage making it easier and less expensive to treat.
Children
When treating children’s teeth, fluoride applications and fissure sealants (tooth coloured sealants) are applied to the biting surfaces of their teeth in order to prevent dental decay rather than treating it at a later date.
What can you do at home?
The amount of sugar intake is not the main cause of tooth decay. Rather it is how often it is consumed. The more often your child has sugary foods the more likely they are to have decay. Therefore it is importance to reduce the frequency of sugar intake by limiting sugary foods to mealtimes only.
Furthermore, acidic fruit juices or fruits such as oranges when consumed regularly can cause acid erosion in the teeth. By telling your child to wash their mouth with plain water after eating any acidic foods you are getting rid of any excess acids in the mouth.
By implementing small things such as these as well as thoroughly brushing twice a day, particularly last thing at night you are already taking a big step in helping prevent tooth decay.
Gum Disease
An essential part of your routine examination is screening for gum disease. Swelling, soreness or infection of the tissues supporting the teeth is called gum disease and there are two main forms; Gingivitis and Periodontal disease.
Gingivitis
This means inflammation of the gums. This is when the gums around the teeth become very red and swollen and often bleed when brushed during cleaning.
Periodontal Disease
Long-standing gingivitis can turn into periodontal disease. The various types of periodontal disease all affect the supporting tissues of the teeth. As the disease worsens, the bone anchoring the tooth in the jaw is lost making the tooth lose and if it goes untreated the tooth may eventually fall out.
