Is It Time for Your Next Dental Cleaning?

As a general rule of thumb for good dental health, you should attend a preventive checkup and cleaning appointment with your dentist at least twice a year. For some patients, more frequent visits may be necessary, especially if a current issue (such as tooth decay or gum disease) threatens your oral health. Nevertheless, many people don’t stick to the biannual rule and wind up postponing, avoiding, or canceling their appointments, not realizing the potential dangers of neglecting dental care. If you haven’t attended an appointment in a while, then it may be time for you to schedule your next dental cleaning before one or more serious oral health issues develop.

Why Regular Visits Are Necessary
The reason why consistently good hygiene and regular dental visits are necessary is that threats to your smile, mainly harmful oral bacteria, are also consistent. Oral bacteria naturally inhabit your mouth, and every day, they continuously form plaque and stick to your teeth. If not removed quickly, plaque becomes tartar, which cannot be removed with home hygiene techniques. To protect your smile from harmful bacteria found in tartar, your dentist or hygienist will thoroughly clean away all traces of it from your teeth and gum line. Doing so regularly is the only way to stop bacteria from multiplying behind the protection of tartar and leading to potentially serious dental health conditions.

What Happens When You Wait
When you don’t visit your dentist regularly, the buildup of tartar marks the beginning of potentially several different oral health issues. For instance, tooth decay is caused by oral bacteria attacking your tooth structure, and if in the absence of regular preventive care, it can progress enough to compromise your tooth’s health and integrity. Similarly, gum disease forms when oral bacteria accumulate and attack your gums at the gum line. By neglecting preventive visits, you may wind up needing more extensive restorative treatment to fix problemsthat could have been avoided.

Schedule Your Next Checkup & Cleaning Today
If it’s been a while since you’ve visited your dentist, then schedule a checkup and cleaning soon to avoid or address serious dental health issues. To schedule a consultation, call Oxnard Dentistry in Oxnard, CA, today at (805) 604-9999. We also proudly serve patients from in and around Camarillo, Ventura, Thousand Oaks, Moore Park, and all surrounding communities.