Refresh Your Smile for Spring With a Dental Exam and Cleaning

As spring flowers bloom and winter fades away, you start dreaming of warmer days and enjoying time outdoors. The changing season is also the perfect reminder that spring cleaning should include your teeth.

If spring’s arrival means it’s been six months or longer since your last dental visit, now is the time to schedule an exam and cleaning at Dentistry With a Smile in Livingston, New Jersey.

Maria Victoria Sebastian, DDS, and our caring team specialize in gentle dentistry, revitalizing your smile, and preventing dental problems through routine checkups.

The value of routine dental exams

When you feel great, you may be tempted to skip routine dental exams. But there’s a problem with that approach because your lack of symptoms doesn’t mean your teeth are healthy.

Tooth decay occurs over time and can cause extensive damage long before you feel pain. The longer decay goes untreated, the higher the chance that bacteria responsible for decay can infiltrate your gums, causing inflammation (gingivitis) and gum disease.

Routine dental exams allow us to find and repair problems at an early stage, preventing sudden toothache and gum disease and avoiding more costly restorations required by advanced dental problems.

Routine dental cleaning vs. deep cleaning

Routine dental exams always include cleaning and polishing. In some cases, you may need a deep cleaning. Here’s the difference:

Routine dental cleaning

Routine dental cleanings include brushing and polishing your teeth. But first, we remove plaque and tartar. Eliminating plaque and tartar is one of the most crucial reasons for scheduling regular dental exams (beyond checking for cavities and other dental problems).

Plaque is a colorless film that sticks to your teeth. Regular brushing at home removes most plaque. However, any remnants that stay on your teeth harden into tartar.

Once tartar develops, you can’t get rid of it by brushing and it continues to accumulate. Tartar holds bacteria against your teeth, giving them plenty of time to erode your enamel and invade your gums. We remove tartar during your routine exam, using a specialized scaler to scrape it away.

Deep cleaning

We recommend a deep cleaning if you have tartar under your gums or gum disease. Deep cleaning involves tooth scaling and root planing.

Tooth scaling is similar to your routine cleaning except we remove tartar below your gum line. Root planing removes tartar on your tooth root.

Level up with teeth whitening

Cleaning and polishing may be all you need to restore your beautiful, glowing teeth. Or, your smile may be marred by stains. If so, the best time for teeth whitening is after a dental exam.

We can’t use powerful whitening agents if you have cracks, cavities, or dental problems. Your dental exam either gives you a clean bill of health or allows us to find and restore problems, and that means you’re ready to lighten your teeth by up to eight shades with the Philips Zoom!® system.

Contact Dentistry With a Smile today to schedule your dental exam and get ready to enjoy spring with a healthy mouth and bright smile. Call our office or book an appointment online today.