Hi, it's Dr. Abalos from Sunbrite Dental, and I just wanted to go over one of the questions that I get often: why do I have to keep coming for dental checkups when nothing really bothers me? So I'll go over why it's important to continue to get your dental checkups. The usual question is, especially when my girls in the front are calling our patients to come back for their regular dental checkups, why do I need to come so often? Nothing bothers me, I was just there, and a whole list of other reasons why not to come.
Why do I need dental checkups?
Well, the very most important reason is just to catch things early and to keep yourself on track with health. It's a lot easier to prevent things from happening rather than fixing things that are going wrong. We have a picture of nice, clean, and healthy teeth. The gums are pink and tight; they're not puffy, they're not bleeding, and then the teeth are not chipping, breaking, cracking, or rotting. Then we have a picture of not so clean, not so healthy. The gums are red and puffy; patients can experience bleeding and/or gums receding. Things are building up on the teeth, and teeth can start rotting, chipping, or breaking.
Dental checkups are really important, especially if you've achieved health, just to maintain it. It's so much easier to come in at least twice a year. Here at Sunbrite Dental, we like to see patients four times a year for hygiene visits. The reason is because we eat every day. When we eat, we take a bite, we chew, and we swallow, but not all the food we chew up gets swallowed. There's a bunch of chewed-up food in liquid form that stays around our teeth, and that is actually the food that the bacteria that live in our mouth feed off of.
How I remembered it in dental school, I thought, ha, the bacteria that live in our mouth are like people at a party: "Hey, where's the food at?" And they'll go straight to where the food is. What the bacteria will do is they'll start eating, and now that they've eaten, they have energy. What they do with that energy is they multiply themselves, so the bacteria will just continue to eat and multiply for as long as they can find food. Eventually, it starts to get really crowded, and the bacteria don't want to go here; there's not very much food; it's nice and clean. They want to stay close to where the food is. So if given the opportunity, the bacteria will start burying themselves into the gums..
When we brush, imagine my fingers are toothbrush bristles. When we brush, yes, we remove most of the chewed-up food and most of the bacteria, but if the bacteria has had an opportunity to bury themselves in the gums, you know when you're brushing, this is pretty much what they're saying to you: "Neer ner ner, you can't get me." One of the early signs of gums not being healthy are bleeding gums. Food acts the same way on our teeth as it does on dirty dishes, pots and pans, Tupperware, or even those countertops after a party. Meaning once a food has had the opportunity to just sit there, it'll get hard and stuck so that it's harder to just simply wipe it off. So when we brush and food has had an opportunity to get hard and stuck like those crusty dishes, the toothbrush is no longer effective. That's another reason why we encourage our patients to come in and see our hygienist, so we can help you get the crusty food that we've eaten that we're not able to reach when we brush and/or floss or water pick, so that we can keep you at health and prevent things from going wrong, which then will end up in costlier dental visits. The key is prevention for health.
How often should I go for a dental checkup?
We follow the ADA guidelines, which would be at least twice a year. We like to see our patients, especially our patients that have had a history of gum disease or that are known diabetics, come and see our hygienists four times a year for their regular hygiene visits. For patients with diabetes, that is because enough research is out there to show that gum disease and diabetes are linked. Unfortunately, it's like the question: which came first, the chicken or the egg? They don't know which causes what, but there's enough research out there to show that gum disease and diabetes often come hand-in-hand. So what I tell my patients with diabetes is just like you're prescribed to take either insulin, metformin, or diabetes medications to control it, that is the same reason why here at Sunbrite Dental, we encourage our diabetes patients to come in four times a year for hygiene, so that we can be on watch, monitor, and keep the gum disease under control. That is the key because gum disease, like diabetes, is a silent disease. Oftentimes, when gums are red, inflamed, and/or receding, patients don't usually feel pain until it's at the very end and a tooth crisis happens. Enough gum and bone that's holding on to the teeth have receded so much that the teeth start to feel loose, and we want to prevent that. We want to prevent tooth loss for our patients, so it's just better to come in, be on the safe side, and prevent any of this from happening.
How long does a dental checkup take?
It can take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour if you've been coming regularly, and that's because you're on the path of health, so it's very standard. We take X-rays once a year for our existing patients, and they're not as many as your initial visit. If you are on the path of health and are coming regularly, dental visits can be as quick as 45 minutes. What takes longer is when a patient hasn't been in and things have been able to go sideways, meaning now we're seeing teeth are rotting or breaking, gums are bleeding or receding. Then the checkup becomes longer because I need to take photos, or I like to take photos, so that patients can see what I see, and I can go over, based on what I see, these are my treatment recommendations, and we can come together so that we can get you back to the path of health.
Do dental checkups hurt?
Well, it depends on what state of health you're in. If you are healthy and coming in regularly, dental checkups are quick, simple, and painless. Now, dental checkups can be painful, not because of the checkup itself, but because of the state of health the gums or the teeth are in. I have had patients request for me not to use my dental instruments because they know for a fact their gums are going to bleed when I check them out. I definitely abide by my patients' wishes; I will not do my regular gum probing. It's just a way for us to grade the health of the gums when patients have requested that. Rather, I like to do that keeping in mind the patients' comfort when they come in for dental treatment, because at that time they will be numbed up for their dental treatment, and since they're numb, then I can do their dental probing. So in general, dental checkups would not be painful. Now, if you've got known bleeding or receding gums, a tooth is broken or swollen, then taking X-rays can be uncomfortable, not because of the exam or the X-rays themselves, but because of the state of health.
I hope I was able to help you with some questions that you may have had regarding dental checkups. If not, feel free to give me a call at (702) 819-0866, and you can come in, request a consultation, or have an exam done by me personally and ask your questions. So I will see you soon.