When you take the time to care for your smile with preventive treatments and at-home dental care, you give your smile its best chance of staying strong and healthy for years to come. Today our Santa Monica dentist is talking about useful preventive treatments and tools that may help you achieve and maintain a healthy smile.
Your dentist-recommended daily oral hygiene routine is the foundation of your preventive dental routine. When you take the time to floss and brush your smile thoroughly, you minimize the amount of plaque that is able to sit on your teeth and oral tissues.
In order to effectively care for your smile, you need to combine at-home oral hygiene with professional dental cleanings. The American Dental Association recommends that dental patients of all ages complete professional cleanings every six months or so—certain people with ongoing oral health issues may need to schedule appointments more frequently. Professional cleanings are necessary because they allow our team to get rid of hard-to-reach plaque, as well as plaque that has calcified into tartar.
There are additional professional treatments that can help you prevent dental damage in the future. For example, dental sealants, which are applied over your tooth’s natural bite surface, can prevent plaque from colonizing on your enamel, and causing cavities. Also, some dental patients with compromised enamel may benefit from topical fluoride treatments, which help to fortify the outer layers of your teeth.
Finally, there are certain dietary decisions that you can make in order to help prevent oral health problems down the road. Minimizing sugary substances, for example, is good for your smile. As you pick your foods and drinks keep in mind that bacteria feed on sugars and carbohydrates.
Our Santa Monica dental team is here to help you make good decisions for your smile. Give us a call to get started!