Our team believes in taking a preventive approach to dental care, stopping problems before they can threaten the health and stability of your smile. With family dentistry, we offer preventive care for people of all ages, from babies and toddlers to adults and seniors. In today’s blog, your Virginia Beach, VA, dentist looks at our approach to family dentistry.
Starting Your Family’s Treatment with a Checkup
To begin, we want to see you and your family for a checkup. A dental exam is a chance for our team to take a close look at your smiles for signs of trouble. We then create a diagnosis with accuracy and precision, so we can address any concerns we find. As part of the process, we will employ advanced digital x-rays and intraoral cameras to catch problems in the earliest stages. We watch for cavities, gingivitis, and infection in patients of all ages. For adults, we also look for gum disease, TMJ disorder and bruxism (teeth grinding), and screen for oral cancer. For kids, we make sure teeth are erupting and falling out as they should, so kids can avoid complications down the road like misalignment. These visits are necessary for people of all ages every six months. If you haven’t scheduled one lately, consider an appointment today for family dentistry!
Cleaning and Perio Maintenance
Cleaning your teeth is an essential part of family dentistry. In the same visit as your checkup, we will conduct a traditional dental cleaning, in which we use an ultrasonic scaling device and a manual tool to break up and remove all plaque and tartar buildup. This buildup can weaken enamel and inflame gum tissues, leading to an increased risk of tooth decay and gum disease. The buildup is also linked to bad breath and teeth stains too. While brushing and flossing can limit the severity of buildup in between visits, you need a professional procedure to remove the plaque and tartar entirely. After we remove the plaque and tartar, we will polish the teeth. This not only makes the smile brighter, but makes it more difficult for plaque and tartar to adhere to the teeth in between your visits.
What if you exhibit the early warning signs of gingivitis and gum disease, such as sore, red, and bleeding gums? To manage the disease and prevent worsening symptoms or the risk of eventual tooth loss, we may suggest a perio cleaning. Also known as a scaling and root planing, this involves our team using the same ultrasonic scaling device and maul pick to remove buildup from the teeth, but to also remove it from the roots and from beneath the gum line too. The procedure is more involved, and could take two to four visits in some cases, depending on how severe your buildup is. We again polish the smile afterward.
Bruxism and TMJ Treatments
Our team also uses family dentistry to address concerns like TMJ disorder and bruxism. TMJ disorder means that imbalance in your bite has strained the jaw joints, leading to painful symptoms and even issues opening and closing your mouth. Bruxism means that you grind and clench your teeth at night, which places pressure on your smile to cause uncomfortable symptoms and even damaged teeth. Causes of both disorders could include high levels of stress, injury to the jaw or face, issues with the growth of the jaw or the eruption of the teeth, misalignment, or missing teeth. Both could lead to headaches, migraines, jaw and facial pain, popping in the jaw, or toothaches and tooth sensitivity. To bring relief, we will take detailed digital images of your smile and use them to create a custom mouthguard, which repositions the jaw to ease symptoms and prevent further damage from teeth grinding by placing a barrier between the upper and lower sets of teeth.
Sleep Apnea
If you have sleep apnea, then you stop breathing multiple times a night as soft tissues collapse and block airflow. You literally stop breathing! This leads to exhaustion the next day as the brain interrupts your sleep cycle to make you breathe again. and impacts your quality of life. Eventually, this could strain your heart health and immune system! But we can help with an oral appliance, one that shifts the jaw and tongue forward to keep air passages open and free of obstruction.
If you have any questions about family dentistry, then contact our team today to learn more.
Schedule Your Next Family Dentistry Visit With Our Team
Our team can provide dental care for every member of your family! Call Absolute Dental Care in Virginia Beach, VA at (757) 428-7440 to schedule an appointment and start your path to a better smile with family dentistry.
