Preventative dentistry is the best value in healthcare, and perhaps the best investment you can make toward your future quality of life. Damaged, infected, or lost teeth can cause major health problems as you get older, including dementia, cardiovascular problems, and digestive difficulties.
Preventative dentistry is best as a team effort. If you’re looking for a partner to help maintain your oral health with preventative dentistry in St. Louis, please call (314) 678-7876 (Downtown St. Louis) or (314) 678-7876 (Clayton) today for an appointment with Dr. Chris Hill at City Smiles in downtown or Clayton.
Preventative Dentistry with Professional Teeth Cleaning
While dental emergencies can strike anyone, our patients who commit to regular preventive care present with significantly fewer problems over time. Professional cleanings with a registered dental hygienist allow us to bring a blend of proactive efforts to you. Deposits of mineralized plaque, known as tartar, adhere to certain areas of the teeth, even with your best efforts. These deposits offer suitable housing for millions of harmful bacteria to reside. Left unchecked, they produce a flood of toxins into the gums. This frequently cascades into devastating chronic problems, even resulting in loss of the teeth.
When you visit us periodically, we can gently remove the deposits from the tooth surfaces. Without sitting undisturbed, bacterial tartar doesn’t have the same opportunity to produce irreversible damage. Furthermore, we use professional-strength polishing paste that gently buffs away stain and microscopic plaque, leaving your teeth ultra-smooth and shiny. Since discoloration settles into the enamel of your teeth over time, this helps slow yellowing while maintaining a glassy surface for better cleansing.
Preventative Dentistry with Home Hygiene Routine
A healthy smile is highly dependent on what happens between visits to see us. Good oral care habits can be established by anyone committed to carving a few minutes out each day to make it happen. Like regular exercise, consistency builds on previous efforts to enhance your health. At least two brief sessions of brushing and cleaning between your teeth daily set a foundation for optimum health.
With so many products available to consumers today, your hygienist serves as a personal trainer when it comes to dental homecare. We’ll quickly narrow down the endless options and form a plan that fits you. Would a Waterpik make more sense and reach deeper than floss for your condition? Should you use a prescription toothpaste due to high risk from a reduced saliva condition? Many factors fit into a plan that makes your time and effort work for you.
Some patients identified with high risk for dental problems benefit from even more personalized routines. Simple, inexpensive additions can transform the environment of your mouth and dramatically reduce disease activity. For example, Xylitol is a naturally-derived sweetener that can reduce cavity activity in children and adults when used in the right dosages and exposure times.
Sealants
Sealants give us a tool that can dramatically reduce the number of fillings placed in permanent teeth during critical stages of growth and development. On the chewing surface of molars, deep grooves reach into the center of the teeth. Under a microscope, these crevices might look like a deep canyon. In fact, most of them are narrower than a single toothbrush bristle but wide enough for bacteria to hide. It’s easy to see how cavities can form in such a perfect hideout.
If the grooves in permanent molars are sealed at a young age, the risk of decay occurring on the chewing surfaces decreases dramatically. Fortunately, this procedure can be done quickly and without any discomfort. If the grooves are free of cavities, they can be gently cleaned out and conditioned for bonding. Then a resin material is flowed into the grooves and sealed quickly with a blue activating light. Within a few minutes, the permanent molars receive a protective measure against cavities.
Sealants only last a few years and may need to be repaired or replaced periodically. But research confirms a 90% reduction in chewing surface cavity activity in sealed molars. This cost-effective, simple step may help your child enter adulthood with fewer fillings and less risk of major dentistry in the future.
Some adults can even benefit from sealants.
Protect Your Teeth!
If you are looking for a dentist in St. Louis who can help you protect your teeth from decay and loss, please call (314) 678-7876 (Downtown St. Louis) or (314) 678-7876 (Clayton) today for an appointment with Dr. Chris Hill at City Smiles.
