Most people often wonder if it is necessary to visit the dentist regularly, and if yes, what are the benefits of going to a professional dental practitioner?
Oral hygiene is an essential part of your well-being, and regular dental check is necessary to achieve good oral health. Aside from the fact that you need to maintain healthy oral hygiene, there are other benefits of visiting a dentist. Besides, your teeth are a big factor in having that perfect smile.
11 Benefits of Visiting A Professional Dental Practitioner
- Oral Hygiene Evaluation
One of the first things a dentist does when you go for a check-up is to evaluate your dental health. This involves reviewing your oral hygiene history and examining your teeth to make sure they are in good condition.
The dentist will also jot down any concerns or issues after examination and suggest solutions for any detected problems. After this, the dental practitioner will decide if you need more visits to deal with any problems they found adequately. Depending on the evaluation results, you may be required to come for more tests and treatment.
A professional dental practitioner will also use this time to recommend regular dental hygiene habits that will help you maintain good oral hygiene.
- Early Treatment of Cavities
Also known as tooth decay, cavities are one of the most prevalent tooth problems. They cause permanent damage to the hard outer layer of the teeth, developing into holes or openings.
Visiting the dentist can help you detect cavities early and work on solutions before it degenerates to severe tooth problems.
Dentists usually identify tooth decay by examining your teeth, asking for tooth sensitivity or pain, checking the tooth with dental tools to check for signs of decay and sensitivity, and performing a dental x-ray to show the extent of the damage.
If detected early, treatment need not be extensive, and the damage can be reversed. However, severe cases may require comprehensive procedures such as fillings, replacing the crown, treating the root canal, and in the worst-case, removing the tooth.
This is why regular visits to your dentist are necessary to prevent situations above, the earlier you detect them, the better for your oral health.
- Family’s Dental Health Protection
Practicing good oral hygiene also extends to your family and loved ones. All adults and kids need oral care.
Scheduling regular visits to the dentist with your family will improve your family’s dental health significantly. It will also save you from common tooth problems such as gum disease, bad breath, tooth decay, etc.
In essence, providing oral care to your family means better oral health and fewer teeth problems. It also saves you from the costs that come with battling with severe dental issues.
You can hire the services of a family dentist, to make family consultations easier. There are many professionals’ dentists who provide services to families in need of a dental practitioner. For instance, Dentists Roanoke may be the best consult for people living in Roanoke, Virgin.
Remember that it is better to resolve dental issues with simple oral examinations and treatments rather than spending a lot of money due to the complications. Your tooth decay, if left untreated, will eventually need an expensive crown or root canal treatment.
- Early Detection of Dental Cancer
Oral cancer comes as a sore or growth in the mouth that refuses to go away. It can occur in the lips, gums, tongue, mouth floor, and the cheek.
Although treatable, oral cancer can become life-threatening if it is not detected and treated early. So, visiting a professional dental practitioner can help you detect oral cancer at an early stage.
Regular trips to your dentist can help detect early cancerous growth or sore during a routine dental examination. Examination by a professional dental practitioner is necessary to accurately identify cancerous growths and sores, which sometimes can be very tiny and undetectable with self-examination.
- Identification of Gum Disease
As common as gum diseases are, most people don’t realize that they have until it is too late. This is because they usually can’t correctly diagnose the symptoms of the disease.
A bacterial infection in the mouth causes gum disease, and early diagnosis can help treatment. However, if ignored, gum disease may result in tooth loss as a result of tissue damage around the teeth.
Symptoms of gum diseases are mostly subtle, and this is why you may need a professional dental practitioner to diagnose and proffer treatment accurately. Nonetheless, common symptoms include bleeding of the gums during and after brushing, persistent bad breath, swollen and red gums, and shifting teeth.
Sometimes, you might not notice these symptoms but still have some degree of gum disease. As a result, only a professional dentist can identify and determine the extent or severity of the disease.
- Follow-up Maintenance
Going to a professional dental practitioner offers the opportunity of following up on fillings maintenance and other ongoing treatment.
Tooth enhancements like tooth fillings and crowns may require periodic follow-ups to ensure that they are secure and in perfect condition.
Your dentist may also have to monitor ongoing therapy in the case of oral cancer to ensure that treatment is working. Moreover, you can also check that no further growth has occurred since the last examination.
- Improvement of Overall Health
Untreated tooth problems can cause severe pain and discomfort and chewing difficulties, which also affect your daily performance.
Practicing proper hygiene, regular dental check-ups for early diagnosis and treatment that may arise can eliminate these issues and contribute to your general health and quality of life.
Although modern science is yet to establish a direct causal connection between gum disease and some severe health conditions, a research study shows their relevance to each other. Untreated cases of periodontitis can increase the risks of developing diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, pancreatic cancer, and heart disease.
The most definitive evidence, however, suggests that the link between diabetes and gum disease is the strongest. Periodontitis may affect the ability to control blood glucose and people with diabetes are at higher risks of bacterial infection, which can cause gum disease.
- Avoidance of Severe Halitosis
Severe halitosis, commonly known as bad breath, can be an immediate turn off for most people. Despite being one of the most common oral conditions, persistent lousy breath could also be a sign of a more serious health condition.
The common cause of bad breath includes dry mouth, leftover food particles, alcohol, and tobacco products. However, health conditions such as diabetes, kidney and liver diseases, lung disease could cause severe halitosis.
Routine visits to a professional dentist and good oral hygiene practices could help curb bad breath and also determine if underlying conditions are causing severe halitosis.
- Maintenance of a Bright Smile
Indeed, practicing proper oral hygiene such as flossing and brushing twice can significantly improve the health and look of your teeth. Nonetheless, routine check-ups with a dental practitioner are still necessary.
Part of maintaining a bright smile is having a white set of pearly teeth. To achieve this, you will need the expertise of a dentist to remove hard stains that can’t be cleaned by brushing.
For one, only a professional dentist can remove plaques that have formed on your teeth and the gum line. Characteristically, plaque and tartar spread to areas that are hard to reach with your toothbrush, so you will need the services of a dentist to remove them.
By visiting a professional dental practitioner, you are sure that you get to walk away with a white set of teeth and a bright smile. You will also gain an ally that can help you maintain that bright smile over the years.
- Self-esteem and Confidence Boost
Smiling is good for your health and facial features, and as you smile more, people will notice and compliment you. With a great smile naturally comes confidence. Don’t forget that your smile is one of your best facial features and a significant determinant of people’s first impressions about you.
Often than not, you will smile less when you have bad and stained teeth. However, having a set of great-looking, white, and polished teeth can naturally boost your self-esteem and confidence.
A small change like a great smile and set of teeth can make the difference in how you feel on the inside.
- Tooth Loss Prevention
Preventing tooth loss is one of the ultimate goals of oral hygiene. The cheapest way to do that is to practice proper oral hygiene and schedule routine visits to the dentist.
Scheduled visits to the dentist will ensure that you have preventive teeth care. It involves periodic professional cleanings and examinations, fluoride treatment, and other vital care that can prevent eventual tooth loss.
Moreover, routine check-ups can also help your dentist identify dental problems early enough to recommend immediate treatment that will prevent further damage that can lead to tooth loss.
How Often Do You Need To See A Dentist?
A lot of people often question the need for seeing a professional dentist, especially if everything seems okay without any symptoms of tooth problems. As mentioned above, routine visits to the dentist are necessary to maintain good oral hygiene. It also helps you detect any dental issue that self-examinations can’t identify.
But how many times are you required to see a dentist in a year? Most professionals agree on twice a year, which is every six months.
The good news for people who don’t like visiting the dentist is that you can wait a little longer than six months before visiting if you practice good oral hygiene and don’t have any problems.
However, exactly how long you can wait before the next appointment is dependent on several factors such as your risks assessment, level or oral health, age, etc.
Therefore, it is better to consult a dental practitioner first, to work a schedule that will both be convenient for you and your dental needs.
Signs that You Need To See A Dentist
Oral care is not optional, but for one reason or the other, you might find yourself missing dentist appointments. Staying away from your dentist for a while does not necessarily mean something is wrong.
However, some signs and symptoms are real alarms that it is time to visit a dentist. Some of these include:
- Constant Toothache: Having a mild toothache might not call for concern. However, you should visit a doctor when you have a continuous toothache that refuses to go away.
Cavities have varying degrees of pain, which can range from mild discomfort to excruciating pain. Even when you only have mild pain, it is still advisable to see your dentist immediately, as this may be an early symptom of tooth decay. Failure to address toothache early might cost you a tooth, severe pain, and expensive treatment options.
- Swollen, Red, and Painful Gums: These are often signs of periodontitis (gum disease). Experiencing bleeding gums once in a while may not call for concern, as it may be as a result of aggressive brushing.
However, frequent bleeding and tender gums are something that calls for concern. You will need to visit the dentist as soon as possible to prevent tooth loss and a severe case of gum disease.
- Constant Jaw Pain: Feeling constant pain when chewing, opening and closing your mouth or hearing popping sounds are signs that there is something wrong with your jaw. You need to see a dentist as soon as possible.
- Bad Breath or Halitosis: What you eat, drink or eat and sleeping for a long time can cause a temporary bad breath, which is no cause for alarm. However, you should see your dentist if you have continuous bad breath, despite practicing proper oral hygiene.
Bad breath is a sign of gum disease or underlying conditions such as diabetes. Whichever is the case, early detection will go a long way in ensuring the success of treatment and recovery.
- Dry Mouth: You may notice that your mouth is continuously dry, which means it doesn’t produce enough saliva, and this can cause tooth decay. It is advisable to visit a dentist if you have prolonged dry mouth. In which case, your dentist should be able to provide ways to restore moisture and prevent further deterioration of the condition.
- Cracked Teeth: Cracked teeth are often very tiny and may not be visible to the naked eyes. However, they can be very painful. So if you are experiencing toothache without seeing any visible crack, you should visit a dentist to check if there is a crack or not, the extent of damage, and also proffer treatment.
Conclusion
There is a lot you stand to gain when you pay routine visits to your dentist. These include reviewing your oral health, detecting tooth decay and gum disease early, improving your confidence and self-esteem, and protecting your family’s oral health.
Apart from helping you maintain good oral health; a professional medical practitioner also helps you take charge/control of your oral health and improve your general health.