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Dentistry is our passion, and your smile is our mission here at Pembroke Pines’ top dental clinic. Learn more about our preventive dental care services below!
With a straightforward approach to preventive dental care, our team exercises care with every routine exam. Your visit to Dr. Gonzalez will include:
- Full visual exam
- X-rays
- Personal consultation
- Oral cancer screening
- Basic cleaning
What is Preventive Dental Care?
If there’s one area of life that we want to be boring, it’s our oral health. No one wants gum disease or root canals or even a dental implant, if they can avoid them. That’s the goal of preventive dentistry — to prevent the onset, progress, and recurrence of dental diseases and conditions. Preventive dentistry simply involves you maintaining a diligent home hygiene routine and coming to see us at Gonzalez Dental Care for your twice-yearly professional cleanings and exams. As Benjamin Franklin was famous for saying, “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
What is Involved in a professional cleaning and exam at Gonzalez Dental Care?
There are two parts to these appointments. First is your professional cleaning. The goal is to completely clean your teeth, take x-rays, look for decay, and monitor a couple items such as your gums. In these cleanings, we break off tartar that has formed; you can’t do that at home.
This is what our hygienists will do:
This is what our hygienists will do:
- Remove the plaque from your teeth.
- Use a dental pick and to remove any built-up tartar.
- Polish your teeth with a special abrasive paste to remove stains.
- Look at the height of your gums to check for gum recession.
- Take x-rays, if you are due.
The second part of your appointment is the dental exam with Dr. Gonzalez, Dr. Colon, or Dr. Carmenate. The purpose of these exams is to diagnose and head off problems, such as tooth decay and gum disease, before they really take hold. For instance, catching tooth decay when it first invades the enamel of your tooth is dramatically different than finding it once it has entered the interior, the dentin, of the tooth. That’s the difference between only having to place a small filling or the tooth needing to have a root canal to save it from needing extraction. Our dentists will follow these steps:
- Visual examination for tooth decay
- Gum disease evaluation
- Evaluation of the health of existing restorations: fillings, crowns, bridges, etc.
- Oral cancer screening
- Examination of x-rays to look for problems — such as hidden decay, cysts, tumors, descending wisdom teeth, and the like — that cannot be seen with the naked eye
If decay or gum disease is spotted, those issues may then be addressed immediately, or you may return to have a filling placed or for procedures such as gum scaling and root planing.
Why are routine exams and cleanings important?
People can be lackadaisical about keeping up with their twice-yearly exams and professional cleanings. The American Dental Associations says only about half of adults see the dentist every six months, and about one fifth of people haven’t seen their dentist in five years!
Missing these appointments is a bad idea. The six-month figure isn’t an arbitrary one — six months is the time it takes tartar to start building on the teeth. It is unavoidable, no matter how diligent your home care. As tartar builds, it starts to push under the gumline; that’s the beginning of gum disease. You know where that’s headed: pain, horrible breath, and eventual tooth loss. Plus, if you come in every six months, we can catch problems such as gingivitis (gum irritation before gum disease) or oral cancer when they are just getting a foothold and are easy to treat.
How can I prevent tooth decay?
The thing about your dental health is that it is so easy to keep in good shape. All you need do is brush your teeth diligently twice daily for two minutes using an ADA approved toothpaste with fluoride and floss once a day; that covers the basics. Seeing Dr. Gonzalez and our team twice each year is the second part of the equation.
People assume they have to give up eating any sugar and the like to prevent tooth decay, but that’s not the case at all. You can eat what you like (yes, certain things, such as sugary sodas aren’t exactly beneficial for your teeth), as long as you do your brushing and flossing every day.
If you do just that, the odds are you’ll only need basic cleanings during most of your visits to our Pembroke Pines offices. At most, you’ll probably only need an occasional filling.
People assume they have to give up eating any sugar and the like to prevent tooth decay, but that’s not the case at all. You can eat what you like (yes, certain things, such as sugary sodas aren’t exactly beneficial for your teeth), as long as you do your brushing and flossing every day.
If you do just that, the odds are you’ll only need basic cleanings during most of your visits to our Pembroke Pines offices. At most, you’ll probably only need an occasional filling.
What are the benefits of preventive dentistry?
The goal of Preventive dentistry is to prevent anything major from happening with your mouth. And that’s the benefit, as well. If you practice good home hygiene, see us twice every year, and don’t go around chewing ice and opening bottles with your teeth, there’s a pretty good chance your dental future will consist mainly of professional cleanings, dental x-rays every other year, and our dentists checking your tongue and mouth for signs of oral cancer.
The benefit of preventive dentistry is that you can avoid needing procedures such as root scaling and planing, having to get a bridge or an implant, or needing a root canal to save a tooth from extraction.
Preventive dentistry not only saves you the headaches of involved procedures; it also saves you lots of money over the years.
The benefit of preventive dentistry is that you can avoid needing procedures such as root scaling and planing, having to get a bridge or an implant, or needing a root canal to save a tooth from extraction.
Preventive dentistry not only saves you the headaches of involved procedures; it also saves you lots of money over the years.
Top-of-the-line oral health care in Pembroke Pines, Fl
Never compromise your health or comfort, every member of the Gonzalez Dental Care team strives to always adhere to the guidelines of good oral health care, treating your family with the highest quality dental measures. As dedicated dental health professionals, we know that routine preventive care is the best guardian against painful issues and damaging diseases. Working to protect your teeth and gums, our Preventive care procedures dramatically reduce dental care costs. It’s what makes us one of the top family dental clinics in Miramar and Pembroke Pines.
A comfortable dental experience
Always accepting new patients, we make visiting the dentist a comfortable experience for all. Delivering so much more than just a clean and healthy feeling, your regularly scheduled dental exam gives you the opportunity to learn more about the state of your oral health and to protect your smile.
Schedule Your Free Consultation Today!
For more information or to schedule your appointment with Pembroke Pines’ leading dental clinic, call us today at (954) 432-4800.
