General Dentistry: Why It's Important To Visit The Dentist Regularly

Almost everyone knows you're supposed to go the dentist every six months to get a checkup and a tooth cleaning

. However, while this may be common knowledge, many people fail to go that often. Some wind up going years in between checkups, feeling as though if there was a problem, they would know about it.

This could be due to having a busy life or it could be due to having an innate fear of the dentist's chair, which is a surprisingly common phobia. General dentistry isn't intended to make you afraid, though. It's intended to provide you with the preventative techniques that can keep your teeth in excellent health.

The American Dental Association is at the forefront of encouraging individuals to get to their dentist's office more often. While the default time period in between visits remains six months, they do recommend that certain people-those that have been labeled "at risk"-make the visit even more often than that.

The reason such frequent visits are recommended is because of the speed in which tooth decay can set in. Once it has, there's little that can be done to reverse it. Staying on top of it and preventing it in the first place is by far the best way to maintain a healthy smile.

Since far too many people see general dentistry as something only the vain need be overly concerned about, it's important to understand that keeping clean and healthy teeth has much more to do with health and function than it does vanity and appearances. The dental hygienist can clean your teeth in ways you could never hope to at home.

Professional teeth cleaning systems are not for sale to the public and even if they were they would not be safe for home use. They are, however, powerful tools in the hands of a trained professional. The equipment and techniques used in the office can clean off the buildup of tartar and plaque that brushing alone cannot.

Of course, cleaning is not the only purpose of regular visits. During these visits, the dentist himself will have a chance to check out your teeth and make sure there are no cavities forming and no other forms of gum disease brewing. If there are, he can then make recommendations as to the next best step. He can perform an X-ray and see problems that would be impossible to detect on your own until things had progressed far past the preventative stage.

by: Andrew Stratton

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