Like every year, millions of Americans made new year’s resolutions for 2024, and the top two goals were to save more money and exercise more.
While we applaud these resolutions, the team here at Willow Glen Dental Specialists wants you to consider adding improving your dental health to the list. In fact, paying closer attention to your dental health may help boost your finances, as you may prevent some costly and uncomfortable dental issues down the road with these best practices.
Easy routines like brushing your teeth can become so automatic that you might veer off into bad habits without realizing it.
The fact is that tooth decay is still an enormous problem in the United States — 46% of kids ages 2 to 19 have dental caries, as well as 91% of adults between the ages of 20 and 64.
The best way to prevent cavities and tooth decay is to pay close attention to your daily dental routine, which should include:
If you’ve become lax about your daily dental care, we urge you to get back to a better routine that can preserve your teeth for years to come.
We also urge you to stay on top of your annual dental exams and biannual dental cleanings. These visits are so important in preventive care, as we can take X-rays, monitor for gum disease, and give your teeth a thorough cleaning that can hit the reset button.
Around 178 million Americans are missing at least one tooth and 40 million are missing all of their teeth. Much of this tooth loss is due to periodontal disease, which is highly preventable and treatable, especially in the early stages.
Gum disease starts out as gingivitis, which is inflammation and redness around your gumline. At this stage, we can stop the disease in its tracks with a cleaning. Even if the gum disease advances and bacteria get under your gums, we can still step in and preserve your teeth and gums.
So, the moment you see something amiss in your gums, please make an appointment with us.
Another road to tooth loss are infections in the roots of your teeth, which can lead to tooth pain. If you have a painful tooth, come see us right away. If we find that you have a root canal infection, we can perform a procedure to save your tooth.
Many people think that teeth straightening is purely cosmetic. From our standpoint, we feel that straight teeth are healthier teeth. When teeth are crooked, food can get trapped in hard-to-reach places, which sets the stage for tooth decay and gum disease.
So, if you’re unable to clean your teeth well because they’re crooked, it may be time to see us about your options in orthodontics, which include the Invisalign® and ClearCorrect ® systems.
There are plenty of other steps you can take to safeguard your teeth, and we’re happy to come up with a more detailed plan that best suits your needs.
To schedule your preventive dental exam, we invite you to contact our office in San Jose, California, by calling 408-478-9081 or you can request an appointment using our online form.
