Brushing and flossing is only part of the process of ensuring your dental health. Like when taking care of your body’s medical wellbeing, it’s imperative that you go visit the dentist regularly for dental checkups the same way you’d visit the doctor regularly for appointments and tests. Don’t do it like Santa Claus would and only get a checkup once a year or once every five years!
A Look Back in Dental Health History
The ideal period of time between dentist visits is one every half a year or six months (the same when you’re undergoing a health checkup). It’s at this point where you should avail of prophylaxis or professional teeth cleaning (that’s even more thorough and long-lasting than regular brushing).
50 years ago, dental examinations in the military showed that people’s teeth were in terrible shape. Few people bothered taking care of their teeth, thinking that straightening them out is a pursuit in vanity. Back in the day, there was a lack of guidelines when it comes to how often you should see a dentist.
Steps to Be Taken for Dental Health Maintenance
Most people only visited this professional when their teeth were already aching due to dental caries or the need to have an endodontic or root canal procedure. Many dentists were more concerned about fixing problems instead of issue prevention. This all changed when health and dental organizations started implementing standards of preventive dentistry.
To ensure your dental health, you should first find a dentist with whom you feel comfortable. From there, schedule an appointment with him. Preventive dentistry was originally established with “best guess” recommendations since dentists didn’t have data or evidence to work with when it came to taking care of teeth.
Taking Things a Step Further
Many people used to go to the dentist twice a year for cleaning and checkups since gum disease and cavities are preventable. Some allege that the first use of the twice-a-year advice came from ads from toothpaste (to sell more toothpaste). Regardless of its origins, this has served as the rule of thumb for many patients.
However, like with cars and their mileage, your mileage may vary from the twice a year rule of thumb. Scheduling your dentist visits should be based on your medical condition, dental habits, and oral hygiene. If your teeth are in bad shape, then you might need more than just a checkup and a cleanup every six months.
The People Who Require More Checkups
Even if you dependably take care of your gums and teeth at home by brushing your teeth three times a day after every meal, gargling with mouthwash, and flossing, those are not enough. You should still see your dentist regularly. Your dentist can check for problems you’re unaware of and those you can’t prevent, like the emergence of wisdom teeth or removal of an old amalgam filling.
High-risk groups such as people who tend to get cavities or build up plaque, people with a weak immune response to bacterial infection, patients with current gum disease, diabetics, smokers, and pregnant women should visit the dentist more often than once every six months. This is because they’re more prone to various dental diseases than others. Dental professionals can quickly spot – as well as treat – problems that laypeople often do cannot see with their naked eye.
Thantakit International Dental Center is Thailand’s longest established dental center. Situated in Bangkok, our clinic is renowned across the world as a destination for world-class dentistry, with most of our patients flying to us from Australia.
Please contact us today and get a FREE dental consultation.
