Author: Ahmed Abbas
Dental visits are an essential component of maintaining a healthy mouth and smile. It is recommended to visit your dental professional every six months or as recommended by your dental professional (CDA, 2021). Regular dental check-ups allow your dentist to ensure no dental problems are present, reducing your chances of dental decay and removing any buildup of tartar. Also, dental care utilization is an important determinant of oral health and well‐being. Regular dental visits provide an opportunity to ensure optimal oral health that can prevent costly and serious complications in the future such as tooth loss, gum disease and oral cancer (Zangiabadi, 2017).
Due to the majority of your oral care happening at home, dentists can teach you preventative dental techniques. This includes good oral health habits such as how to brush and floss your teeth properly to lower the risk of dental diseases during the dental visit (CDA, 2021). Additionally, dentists can advise you on how to maintain good oral health through lifestyle changes like eating a nutritionally balanced meal, having a low-sugar diet, avoiding tobacco and limiting alcohol (CDA, 2021).
During the visit, the dentist can provide any necessary treatments or schedule a future appointment to provide treatment in the future. If there is no need for treatment, the dentist will generally perform a dental cleaning to remove any tartar, which are the hard calcified deposits that form and coat the teeth and gums (CDA, 2021).
With today’s modern technology, some dental visits can be done remotely through Tele-dentistry software. This allows you to receive advice and get checked-up while being in the comfort of your home. This can make visiting the dentist more convenient and more accessible to ensure good oral health is maintained (Dentist Online, 2020).
Your dentist brings forth many years of training and specialized education in order to understand your oral health. Although some treatments are performed by the dental technicians rather than the dentist themselves, only dentists can examine your gums, teeth and mouth to recognize any problems that could affect your overall health (CDA, 2021).
CDA Position Statements [Internet]. Canadian Dental Association. 2021; Available from: https://www.cda-adc.ca/en/about/position_statements/.
CDA Oral health [Internet]. Canadian Dental Association. 2021; Available from: https://www.cda-adc.ca/en/oral_health/talk/complications/diseases/gum_diseases.asp
Dentist Online [Internet]. A New Teledentistry Platform Featuring over 215 Canadian Dentists – Dentist Online Launches Today. July, 2020; Available from: https://www.oralhealthgroup.com/news/a-new-teledentistry-platform-featuring-over-215-canadian-dentists-dentist-online-launches-today-1003953565/
Zangiabadi, S., Costanian, C. & Tamim, H. Dental care use in Ontario: the Canadian community health survey (CCHS). BMC Oral Health 17, 165 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12903-017-0453-7