Why are dental exams and cleanings necessary?
For the most part, we're trying to find big problems before they become big. So if I can find that early stage where there's a pre-cavity, if I can find the early stage where just something's beginning to go wrong and we can stop that process and prevent it, I think that's probably the best thing we could do for our patients. So it's keeping small things from becoming bigger. That's the real purpose of a checkup or an exam. Of course, there's the scary ones, is there something that's growing that shouldn't be growing there? Does someone possibly need to be tested for cancer? Let's screen for those. Those are terrifying. Let's put those aside. But I think the biggest, most day-to-day thing that we find is a problem when it's really small. Let's keep it small. Let's keep it from getting bigger. That's the best thing we can do for you.
What are you looking for in a dental exam?
There's lots of different regions of the mouth that we look, and there's lots of things even outside of the mouth that we look. You might have experienced this. If you go to the dentist and they ask about a particular spot, whether it's a mole or a lump or some discoloration that could be on your lips or your cheeks or even elsewhere around the head and neck, we're screening for each of those when we do our exam. There's been a number of cases where we've found small spots on the lip or small spots on the cheek or the nose or even the ear that have been referred to the doctor and then later found out to be something that was concerning or potentially concerning. We're checking the outside of the mouth first. Our second is to look inside and check for the soft tissue. That's the skin. It's the gums. It's the tongue. It's the top and underneath the tongue, the roof of the mouth, all of that. Even sometimes we'll ask you to stick out your tongue and we'll look at the back of your throat. Now, we're not checking for the common cold, but a lot of times we can see things that then go back to your dental exam as well and say, hey, if I'm seeing something going on in the tonsil region, in the back of the throat, does that have something to do with their airway? Maybe that has a correlation to some other systemic illness that you might have. If we can find those early stages during a dental exam, a lot of times it can give you a lot more information or maybe even start a conversation with your regular doctor in terms of what is this? My dentist found it. He mentioned it. He asked me to ask you about it and that might in turn point you towards some other sort of medical issue going on. Then, of course, we check the teeth. We check the teeth visually. We check them sometimes by feeling the surface or touching them and then we check the teeth by looking at x-rays as well. That gives us a snapshot in between the teeth to see things that we can't see with the regular exam. At the same time as we're checking those teeth, especially on the x-rays, we're looking at the health of the gums. Now, the gums aren't just the pink things that you can touch around your teeth. Below the surface of the gums is the bone and that bone holds each tooth in place. Now, if something's happening with that bone, we don't always feel it. You wouldn't necessarily know that's happening. By checking it, by measuring it, by looking at not just the soft structures but then the hard structures of the gum tissue, we can a lot of times let you know if something's happening that could take your teeth and make them loose, that could pull your gums away from the edges of your teeth, that could give you recession, that could give you some other gum infection. Let's find those early as well so that you know that that's happening and then you can take the right steps to make that stop.
What recommendations might come from a dental exam?
Well, one of the biggest would be you might have a success story. You're doing everything right. Things are looking great. Here's the things that you can do to make your teeth the most protected, your gums the most protected, your whole oral environment the most protected from the outside world and let's keep those things going. At the other end of the spectrum, you might receive bad news. Maybe you knew it was coming. Things aren't looking so good. There's broken, chipped, cracked teeth. Things are loose. You might even have infections and abscess, something that's not quite right that needs intervention. The point of that exam is to find out what are those things, what stage are they at, what can you do to correct it so that you end up with the most number of good, healthy, proper looking teeth and a smile that you can be proud of.
How long does a full dental exam take?
During your regular recalls, that's a really quick exam. We've already measured all the teeth. We've already measured the health of the gums. Most of the time, the hygienist has been in there for the better part of an hour actually looking at your teeth and preparing a report for us. When we come in, those exams might be really short, but that's an illusion. What really happened is we have the x-rays, we have all of the gum health data, we have all of the inspection of the teeth done from prior time and we're really updating those. Let's check that there's no growths that we need to be concerned about. Let's check that there's nothing new that's changed in the status of your teeth and let's really make sure that everything that's been repaired is staying repaired. Those are the biggest things that we would check for during a regular checkup. But during your first exam, especially the first time that I'm able to meet a new patient or when you first go to the dentist that you've chosen, those things take a long time to gather. So that first appointment, you might notice, what are they doing? Why is this taking so long? Really counting every single tooth. They're really measuring every single pocket. They're really recording everything that's in there and the answer is yes, we do that. That's so we have that good baseline and it speeds us up in the future so that we can be much more efficient at your next visits.
Are dental exams painful?
Well, sometimes if you ask a young child, they'll come in, they're crying and they're upset and they're afraid of the unknown. They don't know if it's going to hurt. The answer is no, checkups don't hurt. Dental exams aren't painful. If we found something in there that's painful, I want you to tell me. That could be a sign of a problem. I want to make sure that I check that really carefully. But the checkup doesn't hurt. We're not here to hurt you. We're here to find stuff when it's small before it becomes large. And in that case, we can go about and repair it and make sure that you have a simple, good looking bite that you can be proud of and a smile that you can be proud of and you can be confident with everything that's in there. That's why we're doing what we're doing. Not to cause you discomfort, not to cause harm.
How can I schedule a dental exam?
I don't think I really need to say it out loud. Go on the website, book an appointment, give us a call, smokescreen, messenger pigeon. You can text us. Anything's fine. Just make contact with the front desk, with our schedulers. They'll let you know, hey, here's all the availabilities. They'll do something that works in with your schedule. But really it takes your action. We can't go out into the community and capture you with a net. We can't make you come in. But if you're like, gosh, it's been a while, I should check into this. I should find something small when it's still small so it's easy to repair, sooner is better than later. Make that appointment.