Regular visits to your family dentist are a key part of your oral hygiene. It is recommended regular six-month dental checkups be made to help maintain healthy teeth and gums. Family dentists do more than keep your smile attractive; they also check up on your overall health as well. The health of your mouth serves as a mirror for your general health. Your dentist can help you catch any oral health issues such as cavities, and help to solve the problem and cure the disease at its roots, before complications and further decay can occur. Toledo area dentist Dr. Natalie Nechvatal can help keep your mouth healthy!
Oral Hygiene & Health
Most people are aware that poor oral hygiene can cause tooth decay, bad breath and gum disease. Dentists serve as the front guard against such oral problems. Your family dentist checks for tooth decay, but they also do much more than that. During a regular checkup, dentists and dental hygienists will evaluate your overall oral health, perform a head and neck evaluation, and examine your mouth for oral cancer, diabetes or vitamin deficiencies.
Family dentists also help ensure your teeth get a thorough cleaning. Most dentists pay special attention to tartar and plaque build-up, as tartar and plaque are a strong indicator of regular dental health habits due to how quickly they can build up in between dental visits. Plaque is a clear, sticky layer of bacteria, and if it is not removed, it hardens to become tartar. Tartar cannot be removed by brushing and flossing and require a dentist or dental hygienists help to remove. If it is not removed, tartar can cause oral diseases.
Family dentists like Dr. Natalie Nechvatal can also measure your gums to check for diseases. Healthy gums should have shallow space between the teeth and gums. Deeper spaces could be an indication of gum disease, which a dentist could diagnose and help with treatment.
Dental Cleanings
A visit to your family dentist usually consists of two major parts. The first is the check up for your oral health. The second is the cleaning. Cleanings at the dentists help give you a more thorough and powerful cleaning. While regular brushing and flossing is very important, brushing and flossing alone cannot take care of tartar. To address tartar, dentists use special tools during your cleaning to remove the buildup. This process utilizing special tools is called scaling. After your teeth have been scaled, a dentist will usually polish your teeth. This is usually done with a gritty paste. This polishing can also help with cleaning and reducing, even removing stains on your teeth acquired from coffee, tea, soft drinks, and other sources.The final step to a professional cleaning is flossing. Dr. Natalie Nechvatal will help remove any detritus from between your teeth with a quick floss.
Gum Disease and Health Complications
Beyond your oral health, regular visits to your family dentist can also be important to your overall health. There is a link between gum disease and health complications such as heart disease. The health of gums can also indicate risk of preterm, low birth-weight babies in women. Research also shows that 90 percent of all systemic diseases – that is, diseases that affect multiple organs of the body – have oral symptoms such as swollen gums, mouth ulcers, dry mouth and excessive gum problems. Diseases that have such symptoms include diabetes, leukemia, oral cancer, pancreatic cancer, heart disease and kidney disease. Your dentist can help identify these early signs and help direct you towards discovering their root causes.
While it is certainly important that you visit your family dentist regularly, it is even more important that you find one who is an expert in their craft. See Toledo area family dentist Dr. Natalie Nechvatal at Light Touch Dental Care to keep your family’s smiles happy and healthy for life.
