When thinking about medical health, oral care is often overlooked. However, once you’ve received your second set of teeth, it’s important to remember that you won’t get a third set! Without adequate oral care, teeth can decay, and gums may recede which can cause severe dental problems later in life.
Proper oral care includes seeing a dentist on a regular basis for checkups, a clean and polish, and to verify if there’s any oral work necessary to keep your teeth in tiptop shape. When caring for your oral health, prevention works effectively in avoiding more serious dental procedures a lot of the time. But sometimes you may still need a wisdom tooth pulled out or to have a tooth whitening procedure to enhance your smile.
Here are some of the dental procedures available to you.
Teeth Whitening
Teeth whitening is one of the first things dental patients look at after a regular polishing. There’s only so much that a polish can do if the teeth are a little stained or discolored from the passage of time. This cosmetic procedure uses bleaching gel, which whitens the teeth successfully without leaving any signs on your pearly whites. You’ll look more presentable for workplace meetings and feel confident about finding a partner in life when your smile doesn’t turn them off!
Before the process is started, a good dental surgery like https://www.123dental.com.au/will check the teeth and gums first. They’re looking for signs of tooth decay, cracks in a tooth, or receded gums indicating gum disease. The reason for the check is simple-a crack in a tooth or gum disease would react negatively and painfully to the whitening solution. In some situations, it’s necessary to resolve issues with tooth decay or gum disease before having a whitening procedure done. The dentist will review your case and confirm first.
Wisdom Tooth Extractions
Your wisdom teeth are the molars at the back of your mouth. They’re large and sometimes become outsized compared to the teeth next to them. As a result, one or more might need to be removed to allow your other molars space to sit without obstruction. With four wisdom teeth that mature by your late 20s, sometimes they get compressed and positioned poorly. It becomes a sensible option to have a wisdom tooth extracted if one of your teeth has become impacted. Some people are just lucky, and their wisdom teeth sit naturally; it’s just pot luck how it works out.
To have a wisdom tooth pulled, an X-ray is usually performed to get a clearer look at the arrangement of the teeth, the bone and nerve structure below the gumline. The procedure to remove a wisdom tooth includes a numbing agent or anesthesia, depending on how extensive the surgery will need to be. The gum might need to be cut minimally to help remove the tooth. Where a tooth is stubborn, it may have to be cut into sections and removed gradually, then the gap is disinfected and sealed up.
The difficulty of the removal procedure depends on the awkwardness of the tooth’s relative position, where other adjacent teeth are located, and how difficult the extraction process is.
Invisalign
The idea with an Invisalign dental aligner is to help straighten your teeth without the need for the fitting of metal braces. Each aligner is custom-designed for the wearer. They are designed to be transparent making them far less obvious when they’re being worn. This type of aligner is easily removable when eating, drinking or undertaking another activity where wearing the Invisalign is not desirable.
Dental aligners are a newer option for anyone who isn’t sure about getting braces. They’re far less obtrusive and more comfortable too. They work gradually to adjust the position of your teeth over time. Invisalign is an interesting alternative for anyone who would like to straighten their teeth for a more even-looking smile but cannot face wearing braces for a year or more.
Millions of patients are already benefiting from the Invisalign treatment which includes the use of the latest 3D printing technologies, which makes them a good talking point too.
Dental Implants
Getting a dental implant to fill in for a missing tooth or replace one that’s decayed and been removed fixes several issues. It prevents good teeth on either side from migrating across to the open space creating more unsightly gaps and it gives you your smile back.
The implant process includes drilling holes into your jawline. These are widened gradually until a post and a screw can be put in place. With the post securely in position, the new tooth fits right in. The new tooth doesn’t get discolored or decay like a regular tooth, so it’s even better than the ones that you have already. You may find that you want to get a tooth whitening procedure later to make the coloration across the row of front teeth look consistent.
With a tooth replacement, it resolves situations like accidentally knocking out a tooth during an accident or a tooth becoming so decayed that it couldn’t accept a filling and had to be extracted. It’s certainly a more serious dental surgery. Nevertheless, some patients opt to have more than one dental implant if they have multiple missing teeth.
Laser Dentistry
Laser dentistry is one of the latest innovations in dentistry. It can help in specific cases like gum disease or inflammation, core sores, root canals that have become infected, to assist with biopsies, or free up wisdom teeth that don’t wish to come out.
Using lasers with oral care is quite new. It’s used on a case-by-case basis. It’s currently not as frequently chosen as some of the other dental procedures.
Improving your health should cover all aspects including dental. Caring for your dental health is just as important because you need your teeth throughout your life and life gets very inconvenient without them! It’s never too late to invest in your oral care to transform your smile.
