Dental Exam
Just like a regular physical exam, a regular dental exam helps keep your entire body healthy. It helps you to maximize good oral hygiene and minimize future dental problems. Regular exams also identify any existing dental issues and diseases early on, preventing bigger problems in the future.
A dental exam can help detect gum disease and oral cancer, and diagnose the need for fillings, crowns, root canals, orthodontic, and other treatments. To be most effective, though, an oral exam typically needs the additional information supplied by dental x-rays.
Often time during the exam, and even the treatment part of your dental visit, it can be very difficult to see certain areas of your mouth. Some areas of the mouth need a substantial amount of light in order to observe and see as much as possible. Most of the time the dental lights at most offices are not bright enough, or does not give enough light in certain areas of the mouth, especially in the back. Here at Marsh Lane Dental, the dentist and hygienist use state of the art dental loupes with an LED light system attachment. This provides substantial lighting in all areas of the mouth, even the most difficult to see. So you can rest assure that we will be able to provide the most accurate diagnosis possible.
X-rays are an integral part of dental exams because they help detect any problems not visible during a visual examination. They can show how deep and large a cavity is, if the root of a tooth is infected, and whether there is any bone loss.
Not all people need x-rays during every dental exam. Dental history, age, and general oral health all determine the frequency. Children typically need x-rays often, since their mouths and teeth change so rapidly.
Although x-rays use radiation, their occasional use is not dangerous, and the valuable information they provide helps the dentist address the source of your main concern. However, some people are still nervous about radiation from x-rays. Here at Marsh Lane Dental, we use state of the art digital x-ray sensors that minimize the exposure of radiation to the least absolute amount.
During your visit with us at Marsh Lane Dental, it is very important for us to provide you with the most professional and comfortable experience possible. We will do everything possible to:
- Keep you comfortable
- Attend to any immediate issues you may have
- Educate you on how to keep your mouth healthy
- Answer all your questions
- Explain any procedures
Education is very important to us. Not only do we want to help fix or address the problems you may have in your mouth, but we want to teach you what you can do to keep your mouth healthy for a long time. We are also very honest and will not do any work which is not necessary. We have a state of the art intraoral camera which allows us to take pictures inside your mouth! This way you can see exactly what the dentist sees. We can also use this camera to show patients areas of concern in their mouth and educate them on how to improve their oral health in those areas. Please feel free to ask us any questions. We will be more than happy to answer them all.