When is the Right Time to Visit the Dentist

I truly think one of the neatest things about the human body is its ability to camouflage problems. In dentistry it’s no different, particularly with gum disease. (Sometimes it’s called periodontal disease.) This is when you have inflamed or bleeding gums associated with some bone loss, and we can see that on the x ray, but you can’t see it in your mouth. 

It’s a dangerous and painless disease that is so pervasive in society. We really focus on making sure we identify that. Like I like to tell my patients, there’s really only two dental diseases that dentists treat. Our physician friends may have hundreds of  different diagnoses that they have to make. We have to determine is it a cavity or is it gum disease? Essentially, that’s really all we do, and all the treatments are determined and come out of that idea. So, it’s very important that you have regular dental visits, so that a dentist can take a look at these painless issues that you may be having, especially gum disease issues that don’t show up anywhere in your daily life. 

You wouldn’t know if you had gum disease unless you are really conscientious about understanding the signs and symptoms and also having regular visits. So we encourage everybody, healthy or not, to make sure you’re coming in regularly. Don’t wait for something to hurt or something to get loose, or something to feel funny. Often times if you do that, it’s too late.