Daily dental hygiene practices are extremely important, but following up with your dentist and getting regular dental checkups are essential for maintaining your overall oral health. Most people know the age-old recommendation of brushing your teeth twice daily and flossing regularly. For those who fail to adhere to these established recommendations, routine visits to the dentist are particularly important, as a myriad of medical issues can arise, ranging from mild and moderate to severe and potentially fatal.
However, even for those with the best practices, skipping out on dental checkups can be extremely risky. In other words, don’t just wait until you have a problem before calling your dentist.
Overall, oral health has been slowly improving, particularly in the United States. Despite this, millions of Americans suffer from tooth decay, gum disease, and other issues, oftentimes unaware they have any diagnosable conditions. Scheduling visits with your dentist is the only way to ensure you are not allowing these conditions to go untreated.
The standard recommendation for dental checkups is every six months. However, despite this manageable recommendation, many people simply wait until a problem arises before seeing the dentist.
For example, after years of skipping appointments, a patient may present to the clinic complaining of tooth pain. The source of that tooth pain could be for any number of reasons. It could simply be due to a blunt force injury or trauma. It could also be due to tooth decay or the development of disease in the teeth or gums. These underlying issues are largely preventable. However, failing to see the dentist for such a long time often allows these treatable conditions to go unchecked and cause more and more damage.
Visiting your dentist amounts to much more than a simple cleaning. During the examination, they will evaluate several things, including the state of your teeth, tongue, cheeks, and gums. Your dentist will often check for lesions or other abnormalities in the mouth. These abnormalities are typically not of concern but occasionally can be a sign of something more severe, such as cancer.
Surprisingly, issues with your oral health can also impact other medical issues in your life. If you haven’t seen the dentist in years, you may have untreated issues, increasing your chance of infection. This can impact your non-oral health in several ways. For example, the infection can delay surgery—any surgery. Some procedures, including cardiac procedures, may require both medical and dental clearance.
If you have a longstanding infection, your surgery may be delayed. That is because whenever an infection is present, bacteria is present. Infectious bacteria in the mouth can travel throughout the body (via the bloodstream) towards a surgical site somewhere else. In simple terms, the infection in your mouth can spread bacteria all over your body. If a surgical site gets infected, that can lead to many issues, including the need for subsequent surgeries, failed or delayed recovery, organ failure, sepsis, and even death.
Regular visits to your dentist, as recommended, will help you maintain your oral health and ensure that you are not living with untreated infectious agents in your system.
Request an appointment here: https://www.medfordsfavoritedentist.com or call Medfords Favorite Dentist at (541) 622-0099 for an appointment in our Medford office.
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