What Can You Expect during Dental Exams and Cleanings?
Are you due for your six-monthly dental exam but are finding it difficult to schedule an appointment with your regular dentist? Dental exams and cleanings are routine procedures provided by every dentist. If you confront challenges scheduling appointments with your regular dentist, you can visit a dentist for a dental exam near you without hesitation. So long as you don’t avoid the procedure, rest assured getting your mouth and teeth evaluated to determine whether they are healthy is OK from any dentist.
The Purpose of Undergoing Six Monthly Dental Exams
Dental exams are incredibly essential to ensure you care for your teeth appropriately, receive a diagnosis and proper treatment for conditions in the early stages. When you get problems with your teeth and mouth diagnosed early, you prevent the need for intensive and expensive treatments and unnecessary pain. In addition, any issues detected by the dentist or hygienist during a dental exam receive prompt treatment increases your chances of a successful remedy saving time and money in the future.
How Often Are Dental Exams Essential?
As recommended by the American Dental Association, dental exams are essential once every six months or even frequently if you have specific oral infections like gum disease or are at risk of oral health issues. However, you may schedule appointments once every three months if severe conditions bother you.
The dental exam and cleaning process is pretty straightforward and not a cause for dental anxiety. In reality, you must welcome the opportunity to have your mouth and teeth evaluated every six months by your dentist because it ensures you are free from infections or concerning diseases that might affect your mouth and even your overall health.
The dentist looks at your teeth and gums for signs of tooth decay and gum disease during the dental exam. Dentists also performed oral cancer screening as a preventive measure looking for signs of abnormal lesions or lumps in your mouth. Oral cancer screenings shouldn’t scare you because they aren’t painful and are completed in under five minutes.
The Dental Cleaning Process
The dental cleaning process is usually performed by dental hygienists using tiny mirrors to guide them along with a scaler for plaque and tartar removal around your gum line and between your teeth. If you have excessive tartar buildup, you will also require deep teeth cleaning near you and get to hear plenty of scraping sounds in a specific spot.
Brushing and flossing help prevent plaque buildup from hardening into tartar. However, if you let plaque harden, you need help from dental professionals to remove it because brushing and flossing don’t help with tartar removal.
After your teeth are entirely clean, the hygienist begins the following process and brushes them with an electric toothbrush and gritty toothpaste. You may not like the scary sounds of the brushing, but it is an excellent way to get another deep clean and remove any tartar left behind by a scaler. The brushing is similar to polishing your teeth because the toothpaste gently scrubs your teeth to leave you with fresher breath and brighter-looking teeth.
You also receive a flossing demonstration from the hygienist regardless of whether you floss home or not. The flossing demonstration helps remove any excess plaque or toothpaste from the cleaning process earlier.
After the hygienist has completed the cleaning, you can rinse your mouth and prepare yourself for fluoride treatment, the last step of the cleaning process. Fluoride helps strengthen your enamel assisting in your battle against cavities for several months. As a complementary gesture, the hygienist gives you a choice of flavor you like for the fluoride treatment.
Other Steps to Expect
Dental exams and cleanings are essential every six months. If you pause your meeting for over a year, the dentist might request dental x-rays to conclude whether irregularities exist between your teeth. However, depending on what your dentist or hygienist perceives in your mouth, they may decide to perform different exams during your visit. Children also need six-monthly dental exams and cleaning when dentists recommend molar sealants and fluoride treatments to prevent cavities in the difficult to brush areas of their mouths.
Whether you need further exams or not, it is essential to revisit the dentist for bi-annual exams and cleanings to prevent problems altogether. By learning what is occurring in your mouth in advance, you feel at ease you are free from any infections in your mouth.