What is important about visiting the dentist ?
For the majority of people a healthy smile is taken for granted and whilst it is a daily chore to keep the teeth clean, it is often just a routine imprinted on their brains rather than people putting any thought behind it. This is why visiting the dental practice is highly important and a real necessity to keep on top of oral hygiene and maintain it at an excellent level of care.
During a dental appointment not only are the teeth and gums inspected, ensuring that any potential problems such as gingivitis are spotted quickly, but dental education is provided for the patient to use at home. This is highly important and beneficial, as the patient is the sole carer of their oral hygiene during their everyday life and therefore having an excellent daily hygiene routine requires a little knowledge which a dentist can provide. Regular check-ups combined with an effective daily routine ensure that the teeth and gums are provided with the best treatment possible, and any potential issues can quickly be eliminated rather than left to deteriorate further.
Anxious patients, what approach can be taken?
Although it may not be common knowledge, fears and phobias surrounding dentists abound and often stem from reduced or non-existent visits, or bad experiences within the dental practice as a child. Whilst there can be other contributing factors to these fears studies have shown that, through establishing a routine as a child with regular dental visits, it can effectively reduce the risk of fears in later life. However, whilst a dental practice can encourage patients to bring their children to regular appointments those who are already anxious need a little more than encouragement.
A dentist understands that anxiety is a potentially disabling health problem and therefore a friendly, knowledgeable dental team takes every case seriously and carries out extra measures where possible to ensure the patients are relaxed and comfortable throughout their entire visit. This can range from a detailed explanation of how the visit will enfold, to playing relaxing music whilst the patient visits. It is highly important that every patient feels relaxed and at ease during the entire visit and sets a positive experience encouraging future visits further down the line.
Regular appointments surely create an unnecessary expense?
It is understood that when nothing feels wrong with your teeth or gums it appears to be considered a waste of money to spend on appointments deemed unnecessary. Therefore in order to assist with the cost of appointments some dental practices provide free yearly check-ups to children within primary school. Patients who hold medical cards or are PRSI entitled are offered a competitive discounted pricing system at some practices. Most dental practices encourage regular appointments by providing reasonable, competitive costs rather than eliminating most of the patients due to financial costs and in turn having more appointments which are costly and fighting against dental problems which could have been avoided.
All patients are advised to seek further information on anything mentioned in this article from their local dental practice.
