Our lives seem to be getting busier and busier by the day. With school starting in the fall and holidays lining up week after week, it’s easy to let routine appointments slide past our radar. Whether we keep pushing them further back or canceling them altogether, regular maintenance appointments, like dental cleanings, tend to be put on the back burner, especially when you have always had good oral health.
However, slipping into a pattern of not going to the dentist can lead to some serious complications down the road. Your dentist and team of dental hygienists are resources that should not be ignored as they can help prevent, identify, and treat issues of oral hygiene that may otherwise worsen if not attended to. Check out these reasons why scheduling regular general dentistry check-ups is so important and why the team at Skyline Smiles is your best friend when it comes to keeping your oral health in check.
Provide Preventative Care
When you make an appointment for an annual or semi-annual dental cleaning, you are not just getting a romanticized tooth brushing. Dental hygienists are licensed professionals who combine their years of schooling with special equipment to deep clean your teeth to prevent any decay or disease from happening between appointments.
Using a rotary toothbrush and special tooth polish a hygienist can get your teeth as clean and sparkling as ever. Special picks and scraping tools can remove built-up plaque and tartar that regular flossing alone may not be able to take care of. By brushing your teeth properly and regularly, you and your hygienist work as a team to keep your smile healthy and happy.
Catch Problems Early
Regular appointments are also important for identifying problems related to oral health. By attending yearly appointments or cleanings, your dentist can identify problems that you may not even know you have.
Dental diseases or even oral cancer are all issues that, when caught early, can be treated and corrected. Some of these issues have symptoms that you may not even notice. Bad breath is a common indicator of an underlying issue like tooth decay or gum disease but can also be a side effect of different medications. That is why seeing your dentist is so important, as it can help identify and distinguish oral problems that may otherwise go untreated.
Identify Mouth Cancer
Getting a cancer diagnosis is a terrifying possibility, but when caught early enough, many cancers can be diagnosed and treated before causing significant damage. The same goes for certain mouth and throat cancers, which is why dentists will always look for signs or symptoms of these cancers when completing your routine check-up.
Dentists are not just responsible for checking up on the health of your pearly whites, they also make sure that the overall health of your mouth and throat are in good standing too. Dentists will look for small lumps, ulcers, or red and white patches in your mouth and throat that may indicate a type of oral or throat cancer. Attending your annual appointments could mean saving your life, should your dentist identify oral cancer in its early stages.
Provide Personalized Advice and Help
Everybody knows that you should brush your teeth and floss at least twice a day, but oral care is not a cookie-cutter routine. Maybe you tend to apply too much pressure when you brush and need to switch to a soft-bristle brush. Or maybe you have permanent retainers from previous orthodontal work and need to modify your flossing routine. Seeing a dentist regularly and in person means getting care that is personalized to your needs and anatomy.
There are so many ways that humans are different from each other, so individualizing care makes a huge difference when it comes to the effectiveness of treatments or routines. Your dentist and dental hygienist have seen it all, so they are incredibly knowledgeable when it comes to suggesting care that is best suited to you.
Oral Health is Linked to Overall Health
Every part of your body works together to create the person you are. When one part is experiencing some technical difficulties, it can lead to issues in other areas as well. Your mouth and teeth are no exception to this phenomenon, meaning the condition of your oral health is more widespread than you might think.
Good brushing habits, including tongue brushing or scraping, can help prevent detrimental bacteria from forming in your mouth leading to painful stomach ulcers. Other oral issues like gum disease have also been linked to heart disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. When you keep your teeth, tongue, and mouth happy, you make way for a happy body entirely.
Schedule Your Consultation
Ready to get back into a routine mindset and take control of your oral health? Schedule a consultation today with Dr. Harleen Grewal. We at Skyline Smiles handle anything from regular cleanings to cosmetic dentistry with high-quality patient care at our core. We are located in Santa Clarita, CA, and can be reached online or at (661) 244-8644.