How to Prepare Your Smile for a Healthy New Year

After an especially challenging year for maintaining our health, we are all eager to fulfill our resolutions to commit to improving our health in every way in this new year. As one of our valued patients, you know that dentistry plays a very important role in this goal and these are a few important points you may wish to share with family and friends.

The Importance of a Regular Dental Checkup

Few of us grew up knowing that oral bacteria can travel throughout the body, significantly raising the risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke, dementia, and cancer. Seeing a dentist twice a year for a checkup is vital to catch any infection in the teeth and gums. This may include a low-radiation digital x-ray to examine the health of the underlying jawbone. A third of Americans do not even see a dentist once a year, which allows the bacteria to grow out of control, causing unnecessary pain and expense to stop. Many fear that treatment will cause pain, unaware that a variety of anesthetics can make any of our procedures pain-free.

A checkup with the dentist is also an opportunity to find out if you might have the symptoms of other serious oral-facial problems we can treat, such as sleep apnea (often indicated by frequent snoring and being tired during the day) and TMJ Disorder (common signs are a clicking sound when you open and close your mouth and soreness in your jaw). 

The Importance of a Professional Cleaning

Brushing after breakfast and dinner for a full two minutes can be boring and hard to do exactly right. Flossing can also be challenging. Next time you come in, have our dental hygienist show you how to brush and floss to be sure you get all the bacteria and hardened tartar completely off. She also has the tools, training, and solutions that can do a much better job of rooting out bacteria than any patient can. To avoid emergency cases, you might need this done once or up to four times a year and will be amazed at how quickly your oral health improves.

The Importance of a Beautiful Smile

As obvious as the benefits of physical health are, a wonderful smile is just as important. People often make quick judgments just on appearance when they first meet someone, whether introduced by a friend in a store, at a business conference, a social event, or on a first date arranged by someone else or online. You want to radiate self-confidence with a welcoming smile and we can help you enhance nature through our variety of cosmetic dental treatments, including Invisalign for straightening teeth, veneers to cover imperfections, and porcelain implants for teeth that need to be replaced. Check out our gallery of before-and-after photos of patients who left our office with a special smile because of the new smile we created together.

Read More Resources on Cosmetic Dentistry:

• Fighting Coffee Stains on Your Teeth
• Dental Implants Help Prevent Long-Term Effects from Tooth Loss