How Often Should I See a Dentist?

Everyone will have unique dental care needs and your dentist can provide you with an ideal schedule for regular dental visits to ensure the best care for your teeth. This can be based on several factors such as the condition of your teeth, gums, and mouth, any existing dental conditions you have, any dental conditions that you have an increased risk for, and what your dental coverage is through your insurance plan. The goal of regular visits to the dentist is to ensure that you are keeping up with proper dental care and hygiene for the long-term health of your teeth and gums, as well as to monitor for early signs of any serious dental complications that can be treated with minimal pain, invasiveness, and cost if caught early enough. It is recommended to visit your dentist every 6 months or so for a checkup and thorough cleaning but that can be more or less frequently depending on your dental health. Your dentist will recommend what they think is best for you and this can change over time based on what they observe from one visit to the next.

Going to the dentist on a regular basis is a good practice to get into as it not only ensures your teeth get a thorough cleaning once or twice a year but also allows the dentist to check for any new or worsening symptoms of dental conditions that require treatment. People may neglect regular dental visits for one reason or another but skipping the dentist can have repercussions beyond your smile not being the best. Going to the dentist on an ongoing basis not only ensures you maintain your clean teeth and fresh breath but can also prevent costly treatments down the road from root canals to tooth replacements in one form or another. Dentists are focused on preventative care for all of your oral health needs, ensuring you know the proper way to floss and brush your teeth, and regularly monitoring for early signs of conditions that can cause problems and require treatment in the future. Through regular care, many of these problems can be treated in the early stages of detection to prevent them from developing further. Poor oral health can also cause health conditions in other parts of the body, so while people think of a visit to the dentist as strictly being focused on the teeth and mouth, it can have a ripple effect on your overall health.

Skipping regular dental cleanings can have many negative consequences for teeth, that over time can lead to serious problems and complications for the health of your teeth and your overall health. Professional cleaning by a dentist will remove excess build-up of plaque on the teeth in areas that are hard to reach through at-home flossing and brushing. If left unremoved, the plaque will harden into tartar. Small cavities can form in teeth without regular cleanings which can lead to pain and bad breath, eventually leading to tooth decay and potentially tooth loss if left untreated. Tooth loss can be the result of decay, gum or bone recession, or other issues that can be prevented with regular cleaning. Not getting your teeth cleaned can also result in the development of gum disease and oral cancer that can be detected as part of your regular dental care and maintenance.

Depending on how long it has been since you have seen a dentist, and how consistent and thorough you are with at-home oral hygiene, you may require several visits in a short amount of time to get your dental care back on track. Your dentist will ask you a series of questions about not just your dental health and if there are any issues or areas of concern, but they will also ask questions about your overall health as well as some family medical history questions. The dentist will perform a thorough dental exam, which will most likely include a series of dental X-rays, as well as a complete professional cleaning. The dentist will let you know how often you should return for follow-up regular appointments based on your dental health and the results of the X-rays, as well as any additional treatments required to address any cavities, tooth decay, or other conditions that have formed as the result of not having received dental care in an extended amount of time.

At Beyond Smiles, we take a preventative care approach to your dental needs. We will build you a treatment plan to take care of any existing conditions. And we focus on the prevention of further deterioration or advancement of them or the formation of any new conditions. For more information, call us or schedule an appointment online. We serve patients from Dallas TX, Plano TX, Addison TX, Garland TX, Richardson TX, Carrollton TX, and BEYOND!