Preventive Dentistry

Why Prevention is Important

Everyone wants a great smile and a healthy mouth. How do we achieve this? It starts with prevention for everyone!

Routine exams and cleanings with a dentist/hygienist team give you "eyes" everywhere in your mouth. Because we are able to see more - we can give you information about potential problems and figure out ways to prevent problems from occurring.

What preventive measures do we take?

• Exams - Magnified and illuminated
• X-rays
• Cleanings
• Fluoride Treaments
• Sealants

How do these preventive measures help me avoid cavities and gum disease?

With good lighting and magnification, plus air to dry the teeth and mirrors, we can see every surface of the tooth up close to inspect the integrity of the tooth. Changes in the outer part of the tooth (enamel) are seen early which gives opportunity to prevent advanced problems.

Films (X-rays) look "inside" a tooth, at the density of your teeth. A healthy tooth full of minerals is very dense, but disease can weaken a tooth and areas on x-rays will appear darker because the density has changed. An x-ray tells us if a tooth is as solid inside as it appears outside. With cavities, the destruction of the tooth can occur inside, silently destroying the tooth from a small passage way in a groove on the top of the tooth.

When this happens, a tooth that appears healthy can suddenly break, or maybe start hurting. If we detect the changes in density early, a filling can be done to remove weak tooth and replace the damaged structure with a solid resin material which will keep the tooth from having bigger problems later.

Cleanings are the ultimate form of prevention. First, it keeps all surfaces of the tooth free of debris which can lead to gum disease or cavities. The cleaning by the hygienist also assists the doctor with the examination. Sometimes cavities are discovered after a hygienist has moved instruments across surfaces of the tooth to find defects not ordinarily seen.