Our team believes in prevention, helping our patients avoid the need or treatments like fillings and crowns, or even tooth replacement. With a preventive approach, we monitor the smile every few months and offer treatment to keep issues like tooth decay at bay. In today’s blog, your Conroe, TX, dentist talks about preventive treatment options.
When to See Our Team
We agree with the American Dental Association (ADA). Everyone ages two and older needs to see the dentist for a preventive checkup and cleaning every six months. During these appointments, we can uncover areas of concern and oral health issues that need treatment in the earliest stages, addressing them before they threaten stability and cause discomfort. After all, wouldn’t you rather have a filling to treat a cavity as opposed to a root canal and crown for an infection? Your preventive treatment starts with an initial exam, and summer is a great time to schedule a visit for you and your family.
Checkups and Cleanings
The dental checkup involves our team taking a close look at your smile with digital x-rays and intraoral cameras, which use a fraction of the radiation and provide results instantly chairside, no waiting for development. We can walk you through the diagnosis and discuss the state of your smile so you understand what treatments are needed. For kids, we watch for cavities, gingivitis, and issues that could lead to misalignment. For teens and adults, we screen for oral cancer, watch for gum disease and cavities, and address the threat of issues like TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding). We then create a personalized treatment plan to address these concerns and restore your health and beauty.
In the same visit, we also clean the teeth. A cleaning helps smiles of all ages by removing the layers of plaque and tartar from the teeth. Doing so helps lower the risk of bad breath, teeth stains, cavities, and even periodontal issues like gingivitis and gum disease. We then polish the smile to leave your teeth brighter and make it more difficult for plaque and tartar to adhere to them in between your six month cleaning visits.
Treating TMJ Disorder and Bruxism
As part of our preventive treatments, we provide care for TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding). These are two different issues, but are often related, one leading to the other in many cases. TMJ disorder means the jaw joints are strained, upsetting how you open and close your mouth. Bruxism means chronic teeth grinding and clenching, which damages teeth and wears down structure, leaving smiles vulnerable to tooth decay and infection. Both could be brought on by changes to bite balance, such as high levels of stress, tooth loss, misalignment, complications with the growth of the smile and the eruption of the teeth, or even injury to the face or jaw.
With both, you encounter symptoms like headaches, migraines, jaw and facial pain, and aches in the neck and shoulders. You could experience a popping or clicking sensation in the jaw, or even toothaches and tooth sensitivity. To bring relief, we could create an oral appliance based on detailed digital images of your smile, which we combine to create a 3D model. The oral appliance will fit like a mouthguard and is worn as you sleep. This adjusts the jaw to ease tension and also puts a barrier between the upper and lower sets of teeth to avoid further bruxism-related damage.
Sleep Apnea Solutions
Our team can also take a preventive approach to a common sleep disorder like sleep apnea. With sleep apnea, you stop waking multiple times a night as airways are cut off by the collapse of soft tissues. This creates a loud snoring sound and also leaves you feeling exhausted, even if you don’t, remember these episodes of sleep cycle interruption. With an oral appliance, we can keep airways open by moving your tongue and jaw forward. You breathe without interruption and feel more rested and alert the next day. Not only that, but treating sleep apnea helps protect your immune system and heart health, which could be impacted by this disorder and alter your overall health.
If you have any questions about our approach to preventive dentistry, then contact our team today to learn more. We want to help you enjoy good oral health and a smile that looks great too!
Your Conroe, TX, Dentist Offers Preventive Dentistry
With a preventive approach, you can keep your smile healthy and bright! For more information on preventing serious oral health concerns, then contact The Dental Centre of Conroe in Conroe, TX by calling 936-441-4600 today.
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