There Is No "One Key" To Great Dental Health

Dental Services To Improve Your Health And Overall Quality Of Life

A big part of remaining healthy includes healthy eating, regular exercise, and regular checkups by your family doctor and your dentist. Your oral health is directly tied to many areas of your life: mental, physical, and social. And your dentist is a great resource for recommending improvements and treatments to improve areas, such as your self-esteem and heart health. The following are some services your dentist can provide you with to improve your health and your quality of life.

Inquire About Oral Appliance Therapy

When you think of your dentist and their professional treatments, you may not immediately think about receiving help with a snoring problem. However, your dentist can be a great resource to help you reduce and eliminate sleep-related breathing and snoring issues. 

According to statistics, 30 percent of adults over the age of 30 snore on a regular basis. Snoring can be a problem even if you are not overweight, will usually affect your energy and alertness during the day, and can cause heart problems. But your dentist can fit you with an oral appliance that is similar to a sports mouthguard to wear when you sleep. The guard fits over your teeth to adjust your lower jaw forward slightly, which opens your airway to reduce and eliminate snoring.

Ask your dentist about an oral appliance to help you with your sleep and to prevent snoring. They will evaluate your jaw, teeth, tongue, and how your airway may become blocked by your oral soft tissues and tonsils. You might need to have an x-ray completed for the evaluation, and your dentist will need to take a mold of your teeth to get a proper fit to make your new oral appliance.

Look Into Dental Implants

Another area your dentist can help you with is to help you prevent bone loss to your facial structure. Your dentist can complete this service for your health with the use of dental implants. When you have tooth loss, as a result, the bones in your jaw are not stimulated through chewing. This leads to bone shrinkage and will affect your facial bones and your physical appearance.

But once you have your teeth restored with dental implants, this restores not only your appearance but also your ability to eat, chew, and talk to others. Ask your dentist about your options for dental implants and how it can improve your health and your life.

Utilize Preventative Treatments

When you have remedied any dental issues with the appropriate professional treatments from your dentist, it is important to not forget about regular checkups with your dentist. If you have dental insurance through your job or other provider be sure to take advantage of the dental insurance coverage, which traditionally covers all of your preventative dental care. For example, most dental plans cover 100 percent of two dental cleanings and checkups each calendar year, which can also pay for dental x-rays to check your teeth below the surface and look for any decay or other problems that are not visible during your dentist's surface inspection.

You can use your insurance and have your teeth cleaned of any plaque and tartar, which, if left untreated, can lead to dental decay, inflammation, and infection within your gums. Although you may brush and floss your teeth regularly, it can be common to miss some areas of plaque on your teeth. Plaque can harden into tartar in just a few days, after which the only way you can remove it is by scraping it from your teeth with a sharp instrument, which is best left for your dental professional to do.

If you are not sure of your specific dental coverage, review your dental insurance plan or ask your dentist's insurance specialist to check your specific plan coverage. 


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