Are Preventive Dental Care Procedures Painful?

Preventive dentistry is an excellent way to maintain healthy gums and teeth now and in the future. Preventive dentistry is about keeping your mouth healthy to avoid oral health issues such as tooth decay, enamel erosion, halitosis, gum disease, teeth loss, and certain cancers. It ensures you maintain a perfect smile and eat comfortably without embarrassment, pain, or difficulty. It also helps avoid the need for painful and expensive dental procedures in the future.

Preventive dentistry can include a variety of techniques like brushing your teeth daily, healthy eating, and preventive dental treatments from your dentist. When considering preventive dental care, you might wonder whether it’s painful. The good news is no. Most preventive dental procedures are easy, quick, non-invasive, and painless.

Common Preventive Dental Procedures

When you visit our dentist in Bristol, they can recommend the following preventive treatments:

• Routine dental check-ups

Regular dental assessments are your best way of maintaining healthy teeth, gums, and mouth. During the check-up, the dentist will review your medical history, assess your mouth for potential oral problems like cavities and gum disease, and provide the necessary treatments.

Dental experts recommend having routine dental check-ups at least every six months. People with underlying oral issues should have more frequent appointments. Even if you don’t have any symptoms of oral problems, routine exams can help detect oral issues early before they progress to advanced stages. Most oral problems are painful, expensive, and harder to reverse at late stages.

• Dental x-rays

While the exterior part of your teeth and gums is visible, the dentist can’t see the interior of the teeth or jawbone with the naked eye. That’s where dental x-rays come in. When you visit a dentist for a toothache, they will likely recommend dental x-rays to check the tooth’s interior for potential issues like decay.

Dental X-rays help the dentist observe what’s happening inside your teeth, jawbone, and below the gums line, where the naked eye can’t see. Dental X-rays can show issues like bone loss, tooth decay, abscesses, gum diseases, tumors, breakage, change in bite, and teeth roots. Dental X-rays are painless.

• Dental cleanings

Even with excellent brushing and flossing, there’s still a risk of leaving behind debris, especially at the back of the mouth. Over time, this debris mixes with bacteria to form bacterial plaque and tartar, which you might not be able to remove on your own.

If left untreated, these deposits cause bad breath and attack your teeth and gums, causing decay and gum disease. Routine dental cleanings allow the dentist to remove these harmful deposits, protecting your mouth from potential oral problems.

During the cleaning, the dentist or hygienist uses a scalar to scrap off this debris. You can expect no to minor tooth sensitivity or discomfort. You should get a professional tooth cleaning every six months. People with underlying conditions like gum disease may need more cleaning.

• Fluoride treatments

Over time, your teeth can lose essential minerals due to acidic attacks. Regular fluoride treatments help remineralize the teeth to strengthen and protect them against acid attacks and decay. Fluoride treatment entails applying fluoride varnish on teeth, which is quick and painless. You can have fluoride treatments every 3 – 6 months based on your oral health and risks.

• Oral health education

As part of preventive care, the dentist or hygienist can give you effective tips on how to care for your teeth, gums, and mouth. They can also educate you on bad habits that can harm your mouth.

• Dental sealants

If you or your child are at a greater risk of decay, applying dental sealants to the chewing surfaces of the back teeth can help protect them against cavities. Dental sealants make it harder for debris to get trapped on the teeth, reducing the risk of bacterial plaque and tartar buildup in the mouth. Applying sealants is non-invasive and, therefore, painless.

• Mouthguards

Do you or your child engage in high-contact sports or grind teeth at night? A custom mouth guard is an excellent way to protect your teeth and mouth from injuries from bruxism or sports accidents.

Schedule an Appointment Today

Are you interested in preventive dentistry in Bristol, CT? Contact Admire Dental – Bristol for more information.