Dental Health Checklist for the New Year
It’s that time of the year when most people take stock of their health. However, some forget to take stock of their dental health. According to Chittenden Dental, your oral health is just as important as your overall health.
When you brush, floss, eat right and see your dentist in Burlington you are well on your way to a healthy mouth and a healthy body.
Healthy Mouth = Healthy Body
Research shows a connection between overall and oral health. In other words if you are healthy overall, your dental health is probably healthy as well.
Bacteria Can and Can’t be Your Friend
Your mouth opens you up, no pun intended, to all sorts of things, including bacteria. Healthy mouths have thousands of bacteria and while sometimes the bad stuff gets in the way healthy habits such as brushing twice and flossing once a day keep it under control.
In addition, seeing your dentist for regular dental checkups and professional cleanings keeps the bacteria from building up. Bacteria buildup eventually causes gum disease and tooth decay.
Gum Disease and Tooth Decay
According to your dentist in Burlington, gum disease and tooth decay is preventable. Moreover, some people go their entire lives without a single cavity.
You can be sure that all of those people are diligent about brushing, flossing, diet and regular dental checkups.
Dental Health and Gum Disease
People with gum disease have gums that swell and bleed. Those with severe gum disease nearly always have pockets of pus between the roots of the teeth and gums. This seriously affects dental health.
This is caused from bad bacteria infecting the gums. People who don’t floss are setting themselves up for gingivitis and the more serious periodontal disease.
Periodontal disease is not curable, but can be controlled. Regular dental checkups help prevent gingivitis from advancing to periodontal disease.
Plaque Tartar and Dental Health
Dental health can be plagued by plaque and tartar. Tartar is easy to control at home with diligent brushing and flossing. However, people who aren’t habitual about brushing and flossing will eventually have tartar on the teeth.
Tartar is that hard stuff on your teeth that comes from plaque. If you have tartar the only way to remove it is to see Chittenden Dental for a deep cleaning.
In some cases a root scaling and planing is required to successfully scale and plane the roots of the teeth for tartar removal. This helps prevent gum disease in the future as well.
If you would like to learn more about dental health, call, send a text or a direct message and schedule a dental checkup with Chittenden Dental today.
