It’s not something we all relish doing, but it’s really an important part of our overall health and well-being to ensure that we make and keep a regular appointment with a great dentist. Let’s imagine you’ve just moved to Frankston and you’re asking “Where can you find a dentist in Frankston?” You should be setting up a long-term relationship with that dental practice, and not just planning to visit once and then run.
Here’s why such a relationship and regular appointments with the dentist are so important:
Oral Health
A regular checkup isn’t something you set up so that the dentist can continue to extract money from you time after time. It’s actually the best way to catch oral health problems early and thus save yourself money in the longer term by maintaining good oral health, preventing the onset of serious problems and thus eliminating the need for complex, painful and/or expensive procedures later on.
If you have kids, regular checks on the development of their teeth is also essential, as it’s common for kids to have irregularities that need correction. Seeing the dentist regularly and fixing problems early on can mean that they don’t need braces further down the road, for example.
Cancer Detection
At the most serious end of the oral health spectrum is the fact that regular checkups can keep an eye out for signs of oral cancers, which can sneak up on people and develop into worse conditions or spread to other areas. Early detection of oral cancer makes it much more easily treated, and it’s as simple as having a regular dentist checkup.
Cleaning or Cavities?
Choosing to take up a regular dental appointment every 6 months or so may as well be a choice between getting your teeth cleaned and accepting the inevitability of cavities. Cleaning is a much more affordable option and means a healthier mouth overall. In a choice between a regular appointment with a teeth cleaning, and the aches, pains and other difficulties that come with cavities, which would you choose?
Additional Health Checks
Dentists aren’t just medical practitioners attending to people’s teeth and gums. They also are quite proficient at issues to do with your jaw, neck and lymph nodes. A regular part of a dental check is also taking a look at these areas to see if there are signs of any problems there. Abnormalities in these areas can be the first warning signs of serious health issues, and your regular dentist appointment might just put you on course for life-saving treatment for something you never knew you had.
Getting an X-Ray
Another thing dentists do apart from checking the inside of your mouth with the funny mirror is to get an x-ray and take a closer look at your teeth and jaw bone. It allows dentists to see beneath the surface and see what’s going on with your roots and haw. Once again, problems that could be about to cause you a lot of pain can be detected and solved. These are things that can remain invisible for months or years before suddenly erupting into serious conditions. A simple x-ray as part of your regular checkup can spot them in an instant.
Kicking Bad Habits
Finally, dental checks are a stark reminder of the harm that some of our bad habits can cause, from our diet, to alcohol consumption and smoking. These things can damage, discolour and otherwise harm our teeth, and it’s often a trip to the dentist that will remind us and show us in real terms exactly what that harm is.
