3 Common Dental Problems Prevented by Regular Checkups

A healthy mouth makes a healthy smile. Visiting your dentist on a regular basis can improve your oral health and keep your smile happy. Listed below are just a few of the most common dental problems that can be prevented by regular dental checkups.

Sometimes, your toothache is more than just an overactive nerve. A toothache can often be a warning sign of a deeper problem—a cavity. Cavities are holes that grow inside of your teeth. These holes are caused by the deterioration of calcium in your teeth. Also called tooth decay, cavities are caused by multiple issues including poor daily dental hygiene, drinks with high sugar content, and heavy amounts of mouth bacteria.

Scheduling regular dental checkups with your orthodontist will help to catch cavities in their infancy before they can develop into larger, more expensive dental conditions such as the need for a tooth extraction or the need for a root canal to save a damaged tooth. You will want to have your cavities detected during a regular checkup at your local dental clinic while they’re still small enough to drill out and fix with fillings.

Gum disease is a common dental problem that has very subtle warning signs. You can easily overlook the warning signs during your daily dental hygiene routine. Pink gums, swollen gums, bleeding during brushing, and tenderness are all warning signs that you could have gum disease. Also known as gingivitis, gum disease has the potential to destroy the soft tissue surrounding your teeth and cause your teeth to rot. Gum disease is caused by bacteria that becomes a substance called plaque. Plaque forms between and around teeth. If not cleaned by brushing and flossing, the plaque hardens into tartar, which can only be removed by a dentist. Regular dental checkups will remove this plaque and tartar before it can do real damage to your teeth.

Tooth erosion is the condition where the protective enamel coating your teeth begins to disintegrate, leaving your tooth vulnerable to erosion. The structure of your tooth will begin to break down, making it weak. Symptoms of tooth erosion are tooth sensitivity or tooth cracking. Regular checkups with your dentist can help to spot tooth erosion before it becomes too serious and leads to tooth loss.

There are daily dental hygiene practices you can perform to help protect your teeth in between cleanings to help prevent these common dental problems.