To keep you smiling, a dental check-up every six months is the way to go. You can have it done at the same time as your hygiene therapy appointment and it should only take ten minutes.
If you’re new to the hood, a first-time patient at Keys Dental (congrats!) or haven’t seen us for some time, we’ll suggest an extended examination. This will help us get to know your dental needs and history and give you time to get to know us.
In an extended examination, we do a thorough examination of your teeth and the surrounding soft and hard tissues. We document each tooth in a personal clinical chart. We do an oral cancer screening and assess your jaw joint (TMJ).
Next, we take a deeper look at your smile. We like to take radiographs every 18 to 24 months, unless of course we feel there is reason to do so earlier. Radiographs enable us to examine the surfaces between your teeth and below the gum line which we can’t see with the naked eye.
We get a lot of good information from radiographs. Not only do they help us detect early signs of decay, but they also reveal bone levels around the teeth, helping us detect early stages of periodontal disease. Without a radiograph, this might only be identified at more advanced stages. The long and short of it is, radiographs help us keep you in tip-top dental shape.