Beresford Dental – The Smile Pros Mermaid Waters offers exams, oral hygiene care and dietary advice to help you maintain good oral health. When was the last time you visited the dentist? Have you been putting it off hoping if you ignored it, everything would be fine? The truth is you’re not alone. More than 45% of Australians don’t visit the dentist as often as they should. But did you know how much difference a regular check-up and clean can make? Good quality preventive care can be the difference between a relatively short, inexpensive trip to the dentist and a series of appointments over weeks or months to correct an unhealthy mouth. A dental exam or check up Your Smile Pro dentist will assess your oral health and considers your diet, general health and lifestyle. Usually small low dose digital x-rays are used in combination with a trained eye, medical and dental histories. They will check your teeth, implants, gums and jaws to ensure there are no underlying concerns. The advantage of dental x-rays is elimination of guess work, allowing seeing what is going beneath the gum line as well as inside your teeth to check for decayed teeth and gum disease. Small digital x-rays are usually sufficient however with greater concern a 3 dimensional cone beam scan may be prescribed. This is available at Beresford Dental – The Smile Pros and no referral is necessary. Why get a clean from a dentist? Everyday plaque bacteria grow on teeth, implants and gums. This complex of plaque bacteria and calculus is called Biofilm. And if it’s been a while since you went to the dentist you may notice that your gums bleed. This is not a good thing—although, it’s not necessarily a terrible thing. Sometimes it just means you haven’t been brushing and flossing as much as you should be. Other times it can indicate gingivitis or gum disease. A clean from our dentist removes the plaque which your toothbrush can’t get rid of. When our dentist cleans your teeth with the AIRFLOW Master with guided Biofilm therapy, it’s more thorough than what you can achieve with a toothbrush. It disrupts the Biofilm reducing the bacterial load and can change the growing species of bacteria to less harmful plaques, helping to prevent gum disease and tooth decay. Airflow Master Further Reading The Future Of Dental Hygiene Why you want to avoid gum disease Gum disease is the leading cause of adult tooth loss in the world. It is also one of the easiest to prevent. A good at-home oral hygiene routine with regular professional biofilm disruption at Beresford Dental – The Smile Pros can help you to prevent gum disease. Of course, there are no guarantees with health. After all, there are so many genetic, dietary and lifestyle factors that can affect a person’s oral health and poor oral health can affect dietary choices, general health and well being. If gum disease around teeth and implants is not detected, and progresses to its advanced stage (periodontitis or peri-implantitis) teeth and implants may become loose and painful. Once it becomes periodontitis (around teeth) it can still be managed but this is more complex and may require referral to a gum specialist. Early peri-implantitis (around implants) is manageable at The Smile Pros but if not detected early may lead to the loss of the implant. The benefits of a regular exam and clean The benefits include preventing little problems from becoming serious. It can be the difference between needing a filling and needing root canal therapy, or the difference between curing gingivitis and having to manage mobile teeth with gum disease. Essentially, by visiting Beresford Dental – The Smile Pros every six months for maintenance you have a better chance of good oral health. If you would like to know more about getting an exam and clean, or to request an appointment, please contact us today. Don’t forget to share this via Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and LinkedIn.