Proper dental care prevents many problems

Modern dentistry has come a long way since its beginnings in the early modern period of history in Europe, where dental treatment involved mainly removal or fillings of diseased teeth alone. Benjamin Franklin, the famous scientist and inventor, once remarked that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, this axiom is no more widely applied than in healthcare now, where the prevention of disease is equally important as its treatment. Preventive dentistry is the branch of modern dentistry that promotes the practice of keeping your teeth and mouth healthy, in order to help avoid irreversible damage from tooth decay and gum disease, the two main culprits that result in loss of teeth.Having a healthy dentition can save you from additional visits to the dentist in order to receive treatment needed to restore damaged and replace lost teeth. 

Common dental problems 

(1) Gum Disease

It has been shown in recent studies that poor oral health can negatively affect our general health; gum disease is a bacterial infection that starts in the gums but also causes subsequent bone destruction and result in loss of teeth. This disease may even be related to inflammatory damage in other parts of our body; recent studies report an association between gum disease and heart disease, diabetes, stroke, and in pregnant women, a possibly increased incidence of having premature, low birth- weight babies. Gum disease is a treatable and preventable condition which involves having the parts of your teeth below the gums, which is difficult to reach with routine tooth brushing alone, cleaned by a dentist at regular intervals so that bacterial accumulation in these critical regions are kept to a level that is manageable by our body’s natural defenses.

To be continued....

Written by: Dr Debbie Hong