In combination with yearly or bi-yearly dental exams and cleanings, maintaining a good at-home oral hygiene routine is important for keeping tartar, plaque, and stains away. A professional dental exam and teeth cleaning removes leftover food particles in the mouth and at the gum line. This reduces your risk of developing gum disease or tooth decay. Dentist Dr. Ty Eriks and team offer comprehensive dental exams that look for early signs of periodontal disease. He treats patients of all ages in Boynton Beach with the most superior dental care services.
What Are Some Common Symptoms of Gum Disease?
For many patients, periodontal disease can be silt, meaning that most symptoms don’t appear until your gum disease is more advanced.
Some early signs of periodontal disease include:
- Receding gums
- Bleeding, inflamed, swollen, tender, or red gums
- Mouth sores
- Bad breath
- Changes in your bite
- Loose or separating teeth
When you have any of these gum disease symptoms, schedule an appointment for a dental cleaning at Eriks Dental Group.
What Happens During a Teeth Cleaning?
At a dental cleaning, Dr. Eriks creates a customized treatment plan for every patient. This means that he looks closely at your concerns and addresses them during this important dental cleaning. Our dental practice provides preventive dentistry services to help treat or prevent periodontal disease.
There are many steps during a teeth cleaning, including:
Medical History
We will ask questions about your general health, any medications or supplements you take regularly, and any prior oral health conditions or surgeries you’ve had.
Dental Exam and X-rays
Dental examinations are done annually or at every other dental cleaning. These exams give our dental team the chance to evaluate your teeth, gums, bite, and your jaw. We take X-rays to look for issues that we can’t see with our eyes alone, including problems with the jaw, restorations, or deep tooth decay. An oral cancer screening looks for potential precancerous or cancerous tumors or lesions.
Prophylaxis
Most of your dental cleaning involves removing plaque and tartar. This plaque and tartar invite bacteria to produce acids in your mouth that can damage the teeth and gums. Our dental hygienists scale the teeth to help reduce your risk of oral diseases and periodontal disease.
Gum Disease Evaluation
During your visit, we also look for signs of gum disease. We record periodontal measures of the spaces between the teeth and gums to identify and treat gum disease before it worsens. We use these measurements to compare your progress at each cleaning to determine if you are improving or worsening.
Periodontal Disease Treatments
If we detect periodontal disease during your teeth cleaning, there are many treatments that can be used to resolve your gum disease symptoms. A deep dental cleaning is done more frequently for gum disease patients to prevent it from advancing to more detrimental stages. Scaling and root planing is a non-surgical procedure that is used on rough spots on a tooth to make it smooth. This helps deter bacteria from gathering there. It also helps the gums to reattach to teeth successfully. For more severe cases, flat surgery or bone grafts may be necessary to build up lost jawbone or to help the gums reattach well.
Preventing Gum Disease
Gum disease stems from poor oral hygiene. Establishing an efficient oral care routine of brushing at least twice a day and flossing daily helps ensure that plaque and tartar cannot gather on your teeth or at the gum line. However, teeth cleanings are necessary as some bacteria and plaque cannot be removed simply by brushing or flossing. This also helps to keep bad breath away as your body fights bacteria in your mouth and releases chemicals that cause it.
Schedule a Teeth Cleaning to Treat or Prevent Gum Disease
When you want to ensure your oral health is at its best, schedule a teeth cleaning to treat or prevent gum disease with Dr. Ty Eriks, DMD, at Eriks Dental Group. Keep your teeth and gums smiling! To schedule a dental cleaning with the best Boynton Beach dentist, call 561-733-4004 today.