66% of adults around the world have plaque, putting them at a higher risk of getting gum diseases and other fatal health issues. A percentage this high is a result of neglecting good dental care. Dental visits are important for maintaining a good oral hygiene and your overall well-being.
Even though teeth cleaning can be done simply by brushing and flossing your teeth, visiting a dentist will help you detect diseases and issues at an early stage. An important question that arises is; How often should you go to the dentist? In the following article we will have a deeper look into why dental visits are important and how often should you go to the dentist.
Benefits of regular dental visits
Oral diseases and issues affect 3.5 billion people worldwide, thus increasing the need and highlighting the importance of teeth cleaning and visiting a dentist regularly. There are many benefits of visiting a dentist regularly, 4 of them stated below:
- Teeth cleaning: teeth cleaning is as important as taking a bath to keep your body clean. Teeth cleaning is important if you want to stay healthy and protect yourself from diseases. It can be taken care of by visiting a dentist on a regular basis.
- Detection of problems: Visiting your dentist on a regular basis will help you detect various underlying issues and warning signs of various diseases such as oral cancer, cavities and tooth decay. Detecting these problems will help your dentist make a personalized treatment plan for you.
- Prevention of bad breath: Bad breath is a huge turn off for people and thus, is important to treat. Visiting your dentist regularly will help prevent bad breath. This is because your dentist does your teeth cleaning every once in a while, resulting in a fresh and pleasant breath.
- Maintaining your smile: Regularly visiting your dentist will help maintain your smile. Your dentists will deeply examine your oral anatomy and see what kind of treatment you need, for example dental implants, veneers, or teeth whitening.
Don’t simply neglect your dental visits because you are stressed about treatment expenses. Dental treatment insurance will help take care of your expenses. Many dentists and dental clinic provide and accept dental treatment insurance. So, make sure to stay aware of various dental issues by visiting your dentist regularly.
Consequences of not making regular visits
Neglecting your regular dental visits has major and long-term consequences that will greatly affect your lifestyle. It will not only affect your oral health, but also your overall well-being. Following are the consequences of not making regular dental visits:
- Risk of tooth decay: What is tooth decay? Tooth decay is when tartar and plaque start building on the inside of your mouth, leading to your teeth getting decayed over time. Furthermore, if not taken care of properly, you will notice cavities building up in your mouth and causing infections and diseases.
- Bad breath: since regular teeth cleaning helps prevent bad breath, neglecting regular cleaning will promote bad breath. Having a bad breath will affect your confidence and social circle.
- Tooth loss: Ignoring your dental visits will increase your chances of losing a tooth. Tooth loss can greatly affect your confidence and not in a good way. This will further lead to getting dental implants and extractions. So, make sure to visit your dentist regularly and stay safe from losing your teeth.
- Reduced well-being: Oral health is connected to your overall well-being in many ways, and can thus affect it too. Not taking good care of your teeth will affect your smile, your lifestyle, and eating habits.
- Increased costs: If you do not visit your dentist regularly, you may get affected by serious dental issues in the long run. This will lead to an intensive and expensive dental treatment plan that may not be properly covered by dental insurance. In order to prevent expensive treatment, you may need to start visiting your dentist regularly.
How often should you go to the dentist?
The big question is; How often should you go to the dentist? The frequency of your dental visits depends greatly on your treatment requirements and age. It is recommended to visit your dentist once or twice a year. But it cannot be applied to everyone as everyone has different problems and issues to be taken care of. Here is how you can know how many times you need to visit your dentist:
- Adults with no underlying issues: For adults with no dental problems and issue, two visits to your dentist in a year is fine. These visits are enough to detect any problems or issues early.
- Braces: In case you have braces, you may need to visit your orthodontist more frequently to adjust or remove braces. Consult your orthodontist regarding the frequency of your visits.
- Children: Children must first visit a dentist once their teeth start emerging. After this, they may continue normal bi-annual visits to their dentist if there are no underlying issues.
- Senior citizens: Senior citizens may also need to increase the frequency of their dental visits because of their age. With growing age, complications increase and different health issues arise, thus increasing the need for regular dental visits.
- Gum disease patients: Patients with gum diseases are expected to visits their doctor every 3 to 4 months. These visits will help monitor their current condition and help the doctor properly treat their teeth.
Conclusion
In coming to an end, it can be said that regular dental visits are important for your oral as well as your overall health. Taking care of your teeth properly will protect you from various gum and teeth diseases, protecting you from expensive treatment.
If you are looking for a good dental clinic for regular dental visits, go for none other than Lycian Dental Clinic. We at Lycian Dental Clinic offer affordable teeth cleaning services and dental treatment insurance for our patients. Get an appointment today and consult our experienced doctors.
