General dentistry focuses on preventative dental treatments that help keep your teeth and gums healthy. Keeping your mouth healthy carries over to the rest of your body because dental problems like gum disease and tooth decay can significantly impact your general health. General dentistry also includes preventative treatments that address issues like tooth decay and gum disease.
Let us take a look at a few of the ways that a dentist can help improve a patient's overall health with dental treatments.
Obstructive sleep apnea is a disorder that leads to a person’s breathing repeatedly stopping while they sleep. It is typically caused by the person’s airways being blocked by an obstruction, like their tongue or cartilage in their throat.
Sleep apnea makes it impossible to get meaningful sleep at night, and it can lead to severe physical and mental issues, like cardiovascular disease and depression. It also comes with many nasty symptoms, like chronic fatigue, irritability, and circulatory issues.
A dentist can help patients with mild to moderate sleep apnea by providing them with a custom mouthguard that helps keep their airways open while they sleep. These mouthguards are made in a dental lab from an impression of the patient’s teeth.
Oral issues like missing, decayed, damaged, or sensitive teeth can make it challenging to eat a balanced diet. Damage teeth often force people to stick to easy-to-eat soft foods, ruling out many healthy foods.
A dentist can help repair damage to teeth structures and replace missing teeth with oral prosthetics like dental implants. Restoring damaged or missing teeth returns their functionality so the person can enjoy a broader range of foods. This often leads to improved nutrition.
The American Dental Association recommends seeing a dentist at least twice a year for teeth cleanings and routine checkups. Oral cancer screens are often performed during these visits, and the importance of these screens cannot be overstated. When allowed to fester, oral cancer can be a life-threatening condition, yet the odds of a favorable prognosis are high when detected in its early stages.
Oral problems like periodontitis, the advanced stage of gum disease, have been linked to various respiratory issues. The bacteria that cause periodontitis can be inhaled into the lungs, causing respiratory problems, like pneumonia. Keeping teeth and gums healthy reduces the risk of respiratory problems due to oral bacteria being inhaled into the lungs.
Gum disease is linked to cardiovascular issues, and it increases the risk of a person suffering a significant event. People with advanced gum disease are three times more likely to suffer a major cardiac event.
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Regular dental visits help keep your teeth and gums healthy, which in turn, protects the rest of your body. Call or visit our Federal Way clinic to set up an appointment with our dentist.
Request an appointment or call Smile Center Dental Care at 253-336-0023 for an appointment in our Federal Way office.
General dentistry recommends brushing twice daily and flossing once per day to protect your teeth against common dental problems like gum disease and tooth decay. Bacteria in the mouth can cause both issues.Oral bacteria feast on sugars left in the mouth after meals, forming plaque and acids that damage teeth. Plaque is the film that…
If the dentist has discovered decay on the tooth, there are general dentistry treatments to repair it and prevent new ones from growing. A cavity or tooth decay is a hole in the tooth that develops over time. Cavities begin slowly and become more prominent if they are not addressed. Since you may not feel…
When patients visit the general dentistry office, the goal is to keep their oral health excellent. The appointment may be nothing more than a professional dental cleaning and getting instructions on proper oral health so long as there are no oral issues. If dental problems are to be addressed, the dentist will recommend the appropriate…