Dental Examinations

Teeth are meant to last a lifetime! To achieve and maintain good oral health, regular visits to your dentist is recommended!

During your routine dental visit, we will examine your entire mouth (teeth & gums), head and neck area:

• Check your teeth for decay, faulty fillings, cracks and wear.
• Check your gums to ensure that they are healthy. Bleeding gums is a sign of gum disease.
• Cheekbones, cheeks, tongue, palate and other parts of the mouth and face for any unusual swellings or surface changes.
• Give you advice on, your diet, smoking and alcohol use and any teeth-cleaning habits.
• Update your medical history. Many diseases can affect your mouth and teeth. For example, people with diabetes are at a higher risk of developing periodontal disease.
• Update your medication with dosages. Some medicines cause dry mouth, which can increase the risk of cavities. An updated medication list will ensure that any drugs we prescribe don’t interact with the drugs you are already taking.
• Take X-rays when necessary. Normally every 24 months for decay screening. X-rays can be very helpful in detecting dental problems which may not be apparent during the clinical examination.

Leaving problems untreated could make them more difficult to treat in the future, so it’s best to deal with problems early on, or, if possible, to prevent them altogether.

With routine dental visits, we will become familiar with your health. This will allow us to notice changes or problems more easily during future visits.

Preventive dentistry is the modern way of helping you keep a healthy mouth. It helps you to keep your teeth and could mean less dental treatment in the future. The two main causes of tooth loss are decay and gum disease. The better we prevent or deal with these two problems, the more chance you have of keeping your teeth for life.

We would recommend a course of treatment to get your mouth into good condition, and then work out a ‘maintenance plan’ to help you keep it that way.