One of the biggest advancements in modern dentistry is the ability to minimize the need for restorative treatment. This is known as Preventive Dental Care.

Dentistry of old was all about just treating the problem, fixing the holes that the decay bacteria has created. With greater knowledge obtained from scientific research over recent years, we now know that dental disease (decay and gum disease) are the world’s greatest preventable disease. Rather than waiting for dental disease to simply worsen, there are lots of very simple steps towards helping dental disease to stabilize. The key benefit to patients is that this involve less fillings, less invasive treatment, avoiding extractions, healthier gums and teeth in the long term.

The Smile Team dentists and oral health therapists believe the modern Preventive Dental Care approach is the most ideal path of care we can guide our patients towards. The same philosophies of dental treatment that we see as the ideal standard for our closest loved one is exactly the same as what we extend to for patients of The Smile Team. This forms the cornerstone of how we approach your diagnosis and treatment. At the very core of this approach is the fact that we take the decision process of identifying an unhealthy tooth that requires treatment very seriously. Your treatment has to be absolutely necessary for it to be recommended at The Smile Team.

Here are some of the other ways Preventive Dental Care works at your visits to The Smile Team dentist;

The right amount of time

Appropriate time is provided to you by our treatment team for your appointments. The amount of time for your care allows us to be thorough in making the correct diagnosis and to be able to carefully discuss your treatment plan, and highlight risk factors. It’s through empowering patients to understand about their dental health that regular and long term decay can be prevented and avoided.

Regular examinations

Thorough regular dental examinations are carried out to identify any changes and to manage them before they become greater problems needing more complex solutions. While the frequency of regular dental examinations may vary between patients and can be personalised, we typically find that for the majority of our patients that a dental examination every 6 months is the optimal level of care we can provide.

Regular hygiene cleans

In recent years there have been strong links between oral dental health and the rest of the body. Heart disease risk, joint disease, and pregnancy are just some of the ways your general health can be influenced by the degree of gum disease.

Thorough hygiene cleans are carried out to minimize bacteria levels. The more bacteria there is around, the greater likelihood there is of dental disease. The frequency of hygiene cleans will also vary between patients and is ideally personalised, based upon both the current and past level of disease history. The Smile Team’s dentists and oral health therapists are skilled in identifying gum disease, and can keep you regularly advised of the level of gum disease we are seeing for you.

Furthermore, hygiene cleans creates a regular clean slate for the teeth, allow Fluoride treatments straight after the leans to work effectively to strengthen areas typically covered by decay causing plaque bacteria.

Personalised advice, oral hygiene product and medication recommendations

We will provide you with personalised advice to help you clean efficiently and effectively. This may include recommendations for cleaning devices, eating habits, specific medicated toothpastes and mouthrinses to prevent problems. We regularly see that dietary and cleaning habits at home can make the biggest long term impact on you dental health, halting decay changes, acid wear, and reducing gum disease inflammation significantly.

An example for patients at risk of decay we may recommend the Colgate Neutrafluor 5000ppm toothpaste that has 5 times more protective fluoride than standard toothpastes. Another of the most useful tooth creams for placing minerals into early decay changes is GC Tooth Mousse. There are also toothpastes and specific mouthrinses that are excellent at targeting gum disease.

Healing or stabilising decay where possible, treating only when necessary

Any changes towards decay that is identified will be professionally assessed for where or not it requires dental treatment. Very early decay in some instances may be able to be stabilsed for many years without dental treatment, saving you having to have filling treatment and filling replacements down the track. It’s ideal for patients to have digital dental x-rays every 2 years. For patients with elevated risks this may be more frequently.

The most pleasing feeling our entire team shares at The Smile Team is seeing our patients healthy with as little active treatment as possible.