Seeing a Houston Dentist Twice per Year Stops Tooth Decay

Taking care of your oral health is an important aspect of maintaining your overall health. Your teeth, gums, and whole mouth can be indicators of how diseases and medications are affecting your body.

Your teeth need to be cleaned regularly, both at home and by a Houston dentist in the Memorial Galleria area. Cleaning your teeth removes bacteria and plaque, the basis of decay.

What is Decay?

Tooth decay is the most common cause for teeth damage. It is caused by bacteria that has lingered and started wearing away your teeth.

As the bacteria grow, it leaves behind a waste product known as plaque. The plaque provides housing for the bacteria and protects it from the saliva and other bacteria in your mouth (of which there can be hundreds of different kinds).

The best way to remove the plaque is with a professional cleaning at your Houston dentist, but another effective means is to brush your teeth regularly.

If you don’t brush regularly, the plaque will harden to form tartar or calculus within a few days. Tartar is more difficult to remove and it protects the bacteria even more.

While protected by the plaque or tartar, the bacteria is free to feed on the enamel of your teeth, burrowing down into them toward the softer dentin and the even softer dental pulp.

This burrowing and damage to the teeth is tooth decay.

Professional Cleaning for Adults and Kids

Getting a professional cleaning during your dental checkup at your Houston dentist provides the highest quality cleaning you can get.

Your dentist is able to look around and clean tough to see and access areas of your mouth using specialized tools like a concentrated water jet.

If there is any plaque, the dentist will clear it away. The plaque is the most important part to clean so as to remove the bacteria’s safe haven.

When seeing a kids dentist in Houston, they will receive the same high quality cleaning that an adult would. Bringing a child to the dentist regularly (the ADA recommends every six months) helps familiarize them with the procedure and removes fear or anxiety.

Unless there is a major problem, the dentist will only want to perform a painless checkup, cleaning, and perhaps apply dental sealants to protect teeth from cavities.

Finding a dentist that is centrally located in the Tanglewood area of Houston that can take care of all your family dentistry needs makes going to the dentist that much easier.

Building a Relationship with a Houston Dentist

Your dentist wants you and your family to be healthy. The best time to visit the dentist is before a problem arises.

By getting regular checkups, you will be actively preventing tooth decay and gum disease from taking hold.

Of course, it’s still important to maintain a healthy routine of brushing and rinsing at home, but it is also critical to have a professional checkup at least twice per year.

This is especially for children seeing a pediatric dentist in Houston. Many children fear seeing the dentist, but by building a relationship early on with regular, non-invasive and pain free visits, they will feel comfortable with going to the dentist.

Should a problem arise later in their life, they may not be as apprehensive about getting it looked at and treated.

Affordable, Proactive Family Dentistry in Houston

When is the last time you went to the dentist? If it’s been more than six months, it’s been too long! Keeping up with your regular checkups at your local Houston dentist in the Memorial area will keep your teeth healthy.

 

Dentists strive to prevent disease rather than solely treating it. That is the main purpose of the visit to the dentist.

Proactive care for your teeth means fewer problems to deal with later in life. It also means that if a problem does arise, your dentist will catch it earlier, making treatment much more effective.

Proactive Dental Care

Of course, the first part of proactively caring for your teeth is brushing, flossing, and rinsing your teeth at home. But this is just one part of a very big equation.

Brushing your teeth loosens food particles and bacteria (mostly found in plaque) from your teeth. It also helps strengthens your teeth replenishing the minerals that keep teeth strong.

Flossing also helps to loosen food particles and bacteria, but moreso between teeth and just below the gum line.

Mouth rinses flush out the loose particles as you swish the minty solution around and spit it out.

Unfortunately, even with all of these methods, bacteria can still hide out of reach. One of the most common locations is on top of the molars in the back of your mouth.

This area has a rough surface, making it easy for bacteria to take hold. Professional cleanings target these areas along with many others to get rid of all possible bacteria.

Affordable Family Dentistry

Finding a dentist that not only takes care of your teeth, but your kids’ teeth as well makes it much easier to protect your whole family’s teeth.

On top of that, finding an affordable dentist makes it that much easier to go on a regular basis.

Naba Dental is Houston’s premier dentist that specializes as an affordable kids dentist in the Memorial Galleria area.

From the first tooth, your family is protected by an expert team led by Dr. Rubab Mirza. Dr. Mirza loves children, and as a pediatric dentist, she is capable of providing them with a incredibly high level of care that encourages and comforts your child through any procedure.

In Depth Care that Identifies and Prevents Disease

The condition of the teeth and gums can tell a lot about a person’s overall health.

With regular checkups, your Houston dentist performs a thorough visual examination of your teeth, and at least once per year, x-rays should also be conducted.

These two methods combined can give clear insight into how a patient is doing and how their oral health is.

If an issue is present, the x-rays may detect an abscess or other issue under the gums. Visual examinations show if the gum line is receding, discoloration of the gums or teeth, and many other aspects.

If you regularly see your dentist, these issues can be caught very early in their development. The sooner issues are caught and treatment is administered, the greater the chances of stopping disease and reversing damage.

Preventing Gum Disease with Gingivitis Treatments in Houston

Often dismissed as a nuisance rather than a disease, gingivitis can ultimately have some far reaching consequences for those who don’t nip it in the bud when it first shows up.

Characterized by the tendency to have bleeding gums, gingivitis is the first stage of gum disease and is the most easily treated stage. Proper oral care can prevent gingivitis, but should they be necessary, gingivitis treatments are available in Houston.

Stages of Gum Disease

Stage 1: Gingivitis is the first stage of gum disease. It may not always show any symptoms and can often go unnoticed because of that, but the main symptoms to look out for are:

·         Swollen or puffy gums

·         Tender or sore gums

·         Perpetual bad breath

·         Gums changing color to a milky white

·         Receding gum line

Stage 2: Periodontal Disease is the second stage and brings with it more consequences.Most notably, the gums are painful and bright red, possibly with pus developing. You may also notice loose teeth or space developing between teeth.

Stage 3: Advanced periodontal disease is even worse, with teeth actually falling out, the gums receding great distances, and jawbone infections developing.

Taking care of gingivitis early on will prevent it from advancing to the later stages, which are much more difficult to treat.

Causes and Risks

The primary cause of gingivitis is the buildup of plaque along the gumline.

Plaque is the waste material of bacteria, and it becomes a haven for the disease spreading bugs to grow. As plaque hardens, it becomes tartar, which is more difficult to remove and protects the bacteria from at home care.

The main risks associated with developing gingivitis stem from poor oral hygiene. Taking care of your teeth will greatly reduce your chances of developing gum disease, though there are other risk factors as well.

Smoking, old age, prescription medications, and diabetes can all increase the risk of getting gingivitis.

Gingivitis Treatment in Houston

Your local Galleria dentist can easily diagnose and treat gingivitis, leaving your mouth clean and your smile bright. You should schedule an appointment with your Houston dentist as soon as you discover the symptoms of gingivitis developing.

Diagnosis of the disease is typically conducted with a thorough visual examination of the mouth and description of symptoms you’re experiencing. Should no obvious signs be detected, more thorough examinations such as x-rays may be necessary.

A complete deep cleaning of teeth is usually more than enough to treat gingivitis, and the best dentist in Houston certainly has the tools and methods needed to clean teeth exceptionally well.

Beyond a deep cleaning at the dentist, your Memorial dentist will also recommend brushing and home care techniques to prevent further development of gingivitis.

She will teach you the proper way to brush your teeth to effectively remove plaque from the teeth, along with flossing and rinsing to get rid of hidden plaque. All combined, these tips will help you keep your smile bright at home.

The Best Treatment from the Best Dentist in Houston

Taking care of your teeth is important to your overall health. We’re here to ensure your teeth get the care they need to be healthy.

Through teaching of proper cleaning techniques at home, you can prevent the onset of gingivitis and periodontal disease. Should you discover the symptoms of either of these two diseases, we’ll help you bring it under control so you can bring back your smile.

Thanks to Modern Medicine, Root Canal Treatments are No Big Deal

While it is of course best to preserve teeth so they don’t suffer from decay or infection, it can get the best of us at times. Restoring and preserving teeth can be just as important, and a root canal treatment in Houston could be just the thing to save your teeth from being lost entirely.

What to Watch For

Most people will be unaware that they need a root canal treatment unless symptoms are apparent and bothersome enough to get checked at a dentist. Regular visits to the dentist every 6 months can show early signs that a root canal may be necessary or avoided entirely.

But when the pain gets too bad, a checkup is definitely in order. Main symptoms for needing a root canal treatment include:

●     Tenderness when chewing or touching a tooth

●     General pain, even when nothing is touching the tooth

●     Increased sensitivity to hot and cold temperatures, like coffee or ice cream

●     Swelling of the gums around a tooth

●     Drainage of pus

It is also possible that no symptoms could be apparent. That’s why proactive checkups are so important.

Saving Teeth, One Root at a Time

The primary purpose of root canal treatments, beyond stopping pain, is to preserve as much of your natural tooth as possible.

A root canal cleans out the inside of a tooth rather than removing it completely, so if you’re worried about cost or personal appearance, you can rest easy knowing it will look natural and be affordable.

Root canals are not unlike getting a filling. You’re Memorial / Galleria dentist drills into the tooth to reach the pulp chamber where the infected pulp is removed from the chamber down through the roots of the teeth.

Once the infected tissue is gone, the tooth is filled with gutta-percha (a rubber compound) and a standard filling, which can be made from

●     Gold or Silver Amalgam

●     Porcelain

●     Resin

Personal Appearance and Durability

The fillings used for root canal treatments can be tailored to match your teeth so they look more natural, or they can be tailored for durability and strength.

Fillings made from metal are more durable, but they will be more noticeable. These kinds of fillings are more apt for the rear teeth, as they are not as noticeable and they also must withstand greater bite pressure.

Front teeth are more suited to porcelain or resin fillings, as they look more natural, but they aren’t as durable as metal fillings. These teeth aren’t subjected to quite the same pressures as back teeth, so it’s still a promising solution.

During and After a Root Canal Treatment

Sedation dentistry is a powerful tool that allows dentists to perform a lot of work in a shorter amount of time. Whether it’s through nitrous oxide (laughing) gas or an IVsedative, sedation dentistry calms patients and keeps them from moving a lot during a procedure.

A kids dentist who uses sedation dentistry must be certified to utilize it, following many rigorous tests and knowledge courses. Regardless of who gets sedation dentistry, it is precisely balanced continuously throughout the procedure.

After the procedure is complete, it can take a few hours for the effects of sedation to wear off, but the most common side effect experienced is tiredness. Once it wears off, everything will be back to normal.

You may also want to wait until the tooth is fully recovered from the procedure before biting down on anything, however.