Let’s Prioritize Dental Health: 7 Ways a Dentist Can Keep Your Teeth Healthy
Don’t skip those dentist visits – they’re worth it.
Researched, written by 
Amber & The Team
Updated on July 9, 2023
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Dental health matters, but not that long ago, one thing almost everyone was terrified of was the visit to the dentist.
Some people are still afraid of dentists as adults, but visiting a dentist is necessary to keep proper oral hygiene and maintain healthy teeth.
Dentists can help with various health and aesthetic treatments.
While they were limited in the past, today, every dentist can provide these common procedures that can improve your dental health significantly.
7 Dental Health Procedures That Are Important For Oral Health
1. Teeth cleaning
One of the most common reasons people visit the dentist today is to clean their teeth.
Of course, this type of cleaning is a bit different from what you can do at home with a toothbrush.
The dentist can deep-clean your teeth with more detail.
Specialized tools and products can help improve your dental health by removing plaque, tartar buildup, and polishing the teeth’ surface.
- Dentists can clean your teeth with much better tools than your toothbrush at home.
- Getting your teeth cleaned every six months or at least once a year is recommended.
2. Crowns
When it comes to repairing teeth, crowns are usually the most common type of repair (next to fillings, which we will discuss next).
You can easily find a bridge and crowns dentist in most cities, and it’s one of the most important things you can do for your dental health.
It’s essential to take care of decayed teeth as soon as they’re spotted.
What is a crown, you may wonder?
It is when a dentist takes a molding of your tooth and sends it to the lab.
In a lab, they can craft a crown that covers the top portion of your tooth, or the portion that succumbed to tooth decay.
- Getting a crown is usually a two-visit procedure, and it is not painful.
- The first visit is where the dentist takes the crown, and the second one is where they fit it onto your tooth.
3. Fillings
Fillings are a big contender for the most common practice performed by dentists, as they are a procedure that takes care of cavities.
For most people, cavities are going to happen a couple of times during their life, and the reason they happen is that the enamel is overexposed.
When this happens, the enamel breaks, putting your dental health at risk.
Filling a cavity is an easy procedure, but it can be a bit uncomfortable.
- Good dentists will usually clean out the cavity to prevent any additional tooth decay or breakage once the cavity has been filled out.
- If you have a cavity, you can expect your visit to the dentist to last up to an hour.
4. Tooth Extraction
Let’s be real.
Sometimes, to keep our dental health in top shape, we need to lose a tooth or two. Sigh.
While crowns and fillings might be easier to receive, one of the most painful-looking procedures has to be an extraction of the teeth.
However, extractions are not as bad as they first seem because they are usually performed under some form of anesthetic.
When the anesthetic is given, you will not feel pain in the area that the dentist is working on while doing the extraction.
In some cases, the patient can also be unconscious.
- If you are awake during the procedure, you should be ready for discomfort, but once it is over, you will definitely feel relief.
- Extraction is usually done only if a major health issue is involved.
5. Teeth Whitening
The image plays quite a significant role in the society that we live in, which is why a lot of people seem to be getting teeth whitening these days.
This procedure, just as the name suggests, aims to provide the patient with whiter teeth.
- A whiter smile is achieved by a dentist using whitening agents, such as bleach or hydrogen peroxide combined with a special light.
- Teeth whitening might not improve your dental health directly, but it can show that you are taking care of your teeth a lot.
6. Veneers
Another procedure that is related to aesthetics is veneers.
Many will say that this is a much better option than teeth whitening, as it will also take care of chips and cracks that you may have in your teeth.
There are also other aesthetical advantages to veneers, mostly because they look completely natural, compared to teeth whitening (which can sometimes look fake).
- Veneers can easily improve the aesthetic look of your teeth.
7. Root canals treatment
While a lot of people are afraid of extraction, something that is despised by an even bigger population is root canal treatment.
There is a good reason why people don’t like going under root canals treatment.
This is because this dental health treatment can be quite painful afterward.
- Unlike extractions, which get rid of teeth, root canal treatments go to painful lengths, but they can save your teeth.
- Of course, once the procedure is finished and the post-procedure pain is gone, it is completely worth it.
Final word
There are other dental health procedures that dentists can provide (such as braces, dentures, and regular checkups).
Dentistry overall is an important branch of medicine that can help you keep your dental health in check.
Most importantly, having healthy teeth often prevents serious conditions, so don’t skip those dentist visits.
They’re worth it.
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