At Tyler Family Dental, we want to do everything possible to keep your teeth and gums healthy. The primary way in which we do this is through regular dental hygiene appointments, checkups, and preventative programs twice per year. At your regular dental appointment, we’ll provide patient education to ensure you properly care for your teeth at home.
The Importance of Preventative Care
Preventative care involves maintaining oral health at home and in the dental office. It must be done in both arenas to ensure you’re doing what’s best for your smile. You should brush your teeth at home at least once and floss at least twice daily. This prevents bacteria and food debris from lingering and forming plaque on the teeth’s surface between dental appointments.
But brushing and flossing your teeth at home alone isn’t enough. You also need regular dental visits. We provide a thorough dental cleaning at each bi-annual appointment. Dentists have specialized tools to reach places you can’t with an ordinary toothbrush. If you’re not visiting the dentist, these areas aren’t getting cleaned properly, and you can still be at high risk for tooth decay and gum disease.
We also perform a thorough dental exam at bi-annual appointments. Serious health conditions develop in your mouth without big warning signs. Many adult patients have gingivitis but don’t know it because the warning signs aren’t painful, so patients dismiss the problems. We have extensive training in identifying these conditions in their early stages. Our office also has advanced diagnostic technology to catch problems before they’re visible to the naked eye.
When you visit the dentist regularly, we track how your mouth grows and changes. This is especially important for children and adolescents. Their mouths are changing rapidly as they develop for adulthood. We can identify problems early when they have regular dental appointments. For instance, we may recommend orthodontic care when the permanent teeth grow to ensure a balanced bite.
General Dentistry Services in Tyler, TX
Our office provides a complete suite of general dental services to meet all your needs. With family scheduling, we can see both adults and children in your family simultaneously.
Family Dentistry
Our office is open to patients of all ages. We can treat your entire family in a single day. Family dentistry focuses on cleaning and exams and providing patient education so that you understand everything about your oral health. You should visit the dentist at least every six months for proper oral care.
Custom Mouthguards
A custom mouthguard makes a huge difference in protecting your teeth. Store-bought mouthguards are ill-fitting and can fall out of your mouth. When you get a custom guard, we create one to fit your smile perfectly. Sports mouthguards protect your teeth against trauma and hits while playing a game, while TMJ nightguards prevent your teeth from grinding together while you sleep.
Emergency Dentistry
Dental emergencies can happen to anyone, so it’s important to be prepared in case one does. Emergencies include tooth pain, a large break in a tooth, or a tooth getting knocked out of your mouth. Call our office immediately if you’re experiencing a dental emergency.
Sedation Dentistry
We offer multiple types of dental sedation to ensure patients are relaxed and comfortable throughout their entire office visit. Patients with dental anxiety have trouble coming into the office to receive proper treatment. Sedation is ideal for patients with dental fear, requiring multiple procedures, or needing intensive care.
Tooth Extraction
The most common tooth extraction is for patients who require their wisdom teeth removed. Often, our mouths are too small to fit this set of molars, which causes problems with tooth alignment. However, other patients need tooth extraction to save their oral health. If a tooth has severe decay or damage, it can compromise the health of your entire mouth.
Diet and Oral Health
What you eat and drink plays a big part in your oral health. Your teeth and gums need certain nutrients to stay healthy and work optimally. However, there are also foods you should avoid for your oral health.
What Your Smile Needs
Calcium and Vitamin D are the most important nutrients for teeth. Calcium strengthens the strong enamel layer outside teeth, which protects the inner layers. It also keeps your jawbone strong. Vitamin D helps your body absorb calcium better so that it’s more effective. Dairy products are the main sources of calcium, and many of them are fortified with Vitamin D. Vitamin D can also be obtained with exposure to sunlight.
Vitamin C is crucial for gums. It contributes to collagen production, keeping gums full and healthy. It also has properties that fight infection and reduce inflammation, which are prominent in gum disease. Foods like citrus fruits, strawberries, and broccoli all have higher levels of Vitamin C.
Fresh fibrous fruits and vegetables act like natural toothbrushes for your smile. When you chew them, they can get in between and around your teeth, dislodging food particles from your smile. They also require a lot of chewing to break them down, increasing saliva production. Saliva is essential for your oral health. It washes away food particles and bacteria while neutralizing harmful acids that can cause tooth decay.
Things to Avoid
Sugar and acid are two of the worst things for your smile. Harmful bacteria love to feed on sugar, releasing an acidic byproduct. That byproduct eats through your tooth enamel, causing cavities. If it reaches the root inside your tooth, it can cause a painful infection. Sugar isn’t just in sweets, either. Carbs and starches break down into sugar, so things like crackers and potato chips expose your teeth to sugar.
Acid increases the rate of erosion of tooth enamel. Combining sugar and acid is one of the worst things you can do to your smile, as it causes the most erosion. With acid, you have to be careful about brushing your teeth. While we usually recommend brushing your teeth right after a meal, you should wait at least 30 minutes if the food is highly acidic. Brushing during this time can wear down your teeth even faster.
You should also be wary of eating acidic and sugary foods. If you’re snacking all day, you constantly expose your teeth to acids instead of only eating at certain times. When you do eat these things, be sure to drink water afterward to lessen the harmful effects.
Schedule an Appointment
Assure your family’s entire oral health is on track. Call us or schedule an appointment online.