Dental Exams and Cleanings Vital for Your Oral Health

If you think brushing and flossing are sufficient to maintain your oral health in excellent condition, you are mistaken because you are missing out on a vital criterion. You must also include regular dental exams and cleaning in Hempstead Station, NY, as a preventive measure to keep your oral health in excellent condition.

Dental exams and cleanings are not scary because the dentist near you completes in under an hour by first examining your mouth to evaluate your risk of developing oral problems like cavities, gum disease, and oral cancer and taking x-rays if required besides other diagnostic procedures.

Your dentist will likely discuss your diet and oral hygiene habits with you and demonstrate proper brushing and flossing techniques. Other subjects addressed might include lifestyle factors influencing your oral health and superficial improvements to your teeth.

Why Are Dental Exams and Cleanings Essential?

Six monthly dental exams help protect not just your teeth and gums but also your overall health. For example, signs and symptoms of diseases like lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes are initially detected in your mouth. If your dentist locates any indications of these conditions, they recommend you see your primary healthcare provider.

Dental exams enable your dentist to provide you with tips on caring for your teeth and detect oral health problems early when treatment offers the best outcomes.

When to Schedule Dental Exams?

Adults must schedule regular dental exams at intervals determined by their dentist, recommends the American Dental Association. Dental exams are essential even if you no longer have any natural teeth because they help you maintain your overall health and its usefulness for replacement teeth.

The Teeth Cleaning Procedure

After completing the dental exam, the teeth cleaning dentist begins the cleaning procedure. Using tiny mirrors to guide them besides a scaler, the professional get rid of plaque and tartar between your teeth and around the gum line. You can expect to hear scraping sounds which are normal. If you have excessive tartar on your teeth, you will likely hear scraping sounds longer.

Brushing and flossing prevent plaque buildup from hardening into tartar. However, after you let plaque harden, you need help from the dentist’s office for removal. Therefore if the scraping sounds are your least favorite part of the cleaning process, you must brush and floss more often.

After the dentist completes the tartar removal procedure, they will brush your teeth with a high-powered electric toothbrush making a grinding noise. The dentist uses gritty toothpaste to give you a deep clean to remove any tartar left behind by the scaler.

Professional teeth cleanings are performed with toothpaste having a gritty consistency to scrub your teeth gently. However, you mustn’t try the toothpaste at home because you will likely wear down the enamel.

After brushing your teeth with gritty toothpaste, you receive a flossing demonstration when the dentist gets deep between your teeth to detect any potential trouble spots where bleeding might occur. The flossing demonstration also helps remove any leftover plaque and toothpaste from the earlier cleaning.

After completing the flossing demonstration, you rinse your mouth to get rid of any debris and receive fluoride treatment that helps fight cavities for several months.

Dental exams and professional cleanings are scheduled at six-monthly intervals while dentists request x-rays annually. However, depending on what the dentist may observe in your mouth, they might conduct other exams during your visit. Children are recommended molar sealants to inhibit cavities from developing in the difficult to brush areas of their mouths.

Whether you need additional exams or not, it is crucial that you keep revisiting your dentist every six months for teeth cleanings and to prevent problems from developing. If you try to understand what will happen during dental exams and cleanings, you will feel more at ease and perhaps look forward to the dental appointments.

Between Dental Exams and Cleanings

Between your six-monthly visits to the dentist, you must continue maintaining dental hygiene excellently, brushing and flossing as recommended by the dentist, and steering clear of sticky and sugary foods. Dental exams and cleanings are undoubtedly essential to maintain your oral and overall health in excellent condition. However, in between, you are responsible for maintaining dental hygiene in appropriate conditions to ensure you don’t fall prey to dental issues like tooth decay or gum disease. Schedule your appointment, to know more about our services with our teeth cleaning dentist near you for dental exams and cleaning in Hempstead Station, NY.