Issues You Might Confront after a Lengthy Break from Dental Exams
An essential part of your overall health and well-being is dental and oral health. Poor oral hygiene can result in issues like cavities and gum disease, which are also associated with cancer, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
When you commit to maintaining healthy teeth and gums, it is a lifetime commitment. The sooner you learn about proper dental hygiene practices like brushing daily, flossing once, and limiting sugar intake, the better your chances of avoiding expensive dental procedures and long-term health problems.
If you have avoided dental exams for long, you might be vulnerable to all the above but might have undoubtedly developed some oral infections that might have created permanent damage in your teeth that will likely remain in your mouth for a lifetime. Therefore, dentists recommend seeing them at least twice yearly to ensure you don’t develop conditions in your mouth, making it likely for you to visit them more often or expensive dental procedures.
Symptoms of Dental Health Problems
Waiting until the symptoms of dental health problems before visiting the affordable Phoenix dentist defeats the purpose of seeking preventive dental care. Instead, it makes you a reactive patient rushing to the dentist only after you experience problems with your teeth and gums. In addition, the approach will likely make you spend more money on restorations for tooth decay and deep cleanings to remove plaque and tartar deposits on your teeth and below the gum line.
Instead of waiting too long, you must make an appointment with the dental offices in Phoenix, AZ, every six months to enable them to detect problems in your mouth that constantly develop from neglected dental visits.
You must ensure you contact the dental office at the earliest if you notice ulcers, sores, or delicate areas in the mouth that don’t heal within three weeks because it could be a symptom of oral cancer. If you have bleeding or swollen gums after brushing or flossing, besides chronic bad breath and receding gums with pain when chewing or biting, it is a sign of gum disease that progresses silently if left untreated. If you notice your jaw bones clicking or have cracked or broken teeth, you might have a problem with your temporomandibular joint or bruxism. If the symptoms described are accompanied by a high fever, face, or neck swelling, you might require emergency dental treatment from the Phoenix dentist.
Reasons for Dental Health Problems
Your oral cavity has different types of bacteria, with some of them being of a harmless variety. However, if your diet has a high sugar intake, it creates conditions where the harmful bacteria, producing acids, flourish to dissolve tooth enamel and leave cavities.
The bacteria near your gum line flourish on a sticky matrix known as plaque. Unfortunately, plaque accumulates on your teeth, hardens, and moves down the length of your if you do not clear it by brushing and flossing as instructed by dentists. The hardened plaque called tartar inflames your gums, making you a victim of the earliest stage of gingivitis gum disease. When left untreated, gingivitis causes your gums to recede and pull away from the teeth to create pockets where pus collects. The collection of the pus indicates gingivitis has progressed to advanced-stage periodontitis.
Diagnosis of Dental Health Problems
Dental health problems are not comfortable to diagnose without performing a thorough exam of your mouth, teeth, tongue, throat, seeks, jaw, and neck. When diagnosing dental problems in your mouth, the dentist takes x-rays and uses various dental instruments to help with the diagnosis. X-rays provide dentists with images of your teeth and jaw to help them detect micro-cavities between your teeth that might soon develop into severe conditions to require endodontic treatment, a therapy that can send shivers down your spine merely at the mention of it.
A dental hygienist proceeds with cleaning teeth after your dentist completes the comprehensive exam to remove plaque and tartar deposits on, between, and beneath your gumline and also measures the depth of the pockets if you already suffer from receding gums. If the professional observes lumps or growth, they perform a gum biopsy for examination in a pathology lab, checking for cancerous cells. You mustn’t delay dental exams for too long if you wish to prevent the dental problems described above to safeguard your oral and overall health.
Dental exams are not scary and do not require an entire day. The dentist merely examines your mouth before handing you over to the dental hygienist for teeth cleaning to prevent any issues or treat them in the earliest stages. However, if you think you must give your dentist a break, rest assured you will be pretty busy after seeing the dentist, eventually trying to manage infections you never thought were possible in your mouth.
If you have delayed dental exams for too long, do not consider giving On Pointe Dentistry a break. Instead, contact them today to receive your dental exam to detect problems in your mouth and get them treated immediately before they progress.