Maintaining a healthy mouth and a beautiful smile is a lifelong commitment requiring twice-daily toothbrushing for two minutes each, daily flossing, a healthy diet with plenty of water, and routine visits to your dentist. Seeing your dentist every six months is an essential preventative measure that along with proper home care keeps your teeth and gums healthy and strong. Learn why preventative dentistry is part of any comprehensive, long-term dental health plan:

Why Preventative Dentistry Is So Necessary To Your Dental Health

Identifies Problems Early

Preventative dentistry identifies dental issues before they worsen. Your dentist looks for signs of cavities, a type of tooth decay, before they enlarge to reach the tooth nerves. Once decay infects the nerve, it creates the risk of abscess formation among other serious problems. Getting a cavity checked and filled before it gets too big avoids pain and a costly root canal or extraction.

Seeing your dentist on a semi-annual basis is as much about gum as it is tooth health. The dental health professional looks for signs of gingivitis, such as red, swollen, and or bleeding gums--the reversible precursor to gum disease. This disease causes the gums to recede, exposing the tooth roots to decay and infection. It also causes gum and eventually bone tissue to break down unless it is treated early.

Preventative dentistry looks for cavities, gingivitis and gum disease signs, and any other problems that could affect your oral health, such as tooth crowding from wisdom teeth.

Provides The Deep Cleaning Teeth Need

Deep teeth cleaning services from a dental professional are another preventative dentistry benefit that keeps your teeth and gums healthy. Plaque, or that sticky, colorless biofilm made from mouth bacteria, food particles, and acids, eventually hardens into tartar without regular brushing and flossing. Only your dentist or dental hygienist can remove tartar because it forms under the gumline, causing irritation and increasing the risk for infection. Twice-yearly professional teeth cleanings keep your gums pink and healthy instead of red and irritated.

Making routine visits to your dentist also provides the opportunity to ask any questions and receive professional home care tips. If you had a lot of tartar buildup at your last teeth cleaning, for example, your dentist may suggest an anti-tartar mouth rinse.

Maintain a dazzlingly-healthy smile through regular preventative dentistry appointments with Dr. Richard A. Brunmeier, DDS, the family dentist serving Lancaster County, NE residents for nearly 30 years. A full-service dentist, Dr. Brunmeier offers general and cosmetic dentistry services and strives to make patients feel as comfortable as possible. Call (402) 484-6644 to schedule your next checkup or visit the website for more information. Like the dentist on Facebook for professional home care tips.