It is important to visit a dental clinic every so often because dental problems are not discriminatory. They affect the rich the same way they affect the poor, and the educated the same way they affect those not so much educated.
Moreover, you may have great oral hygiene today, but if your teeth were not taken care of when you were younger, you may still experience dental problems. In fact, if you were to be attended to in a dental clinic today, the dentist would most probably ask you to still make another visit in six months’ time.
What does that say to you? That there is more a dentist does than treat tooth cavities and fix dentures. A large number of people who visit a dental clinic intend to have their teeth checked as a matter of routine. Is this a waste of time or time well spent?
Visiting a dental clinic for a checkup is time well spent because, as they say, a stitch in time saves nine. It is during such checkups that the doctor gets to notice if you are taking care of your teeth as you should, and offers valuable advice to pre-empt potential dental problems.
Some people are pre-disposed to dental problems
Unless the place you live is sparsely populated, the doctor at your local dental clinic will tell you there are times patients come with problems that have nothing to do with oral hygiene. Some of those problems are hereditary.
Take the case of a person whose teeth do not fit well on the jawbone – the mouth looks overcrowded! In fact, a person like that can even have speech problems. Sometimes the person keeps biting the tongue when doing mundane oral activities; like eating or talking.
Having an overcrowded mouth is a hereditary problem. The person is born this way, and no matter his or her social or economic status, there is a need to visit a dental clinic to have the problem rectified.
Some of hereditary dental issues involve teeth being crooked. If you have such teeth, you may wish to have them realigned in a dental clinic for cosmetic and social reasons. This is not a vain move considering that many people with crooked teeth end up developing low self-esteem.
However, beyond wishing to look good, people whose teeth are crooked need to have them checked and corrected because the poor alignment of those teeth makes it difficult to properly clean them. As such, it is easy for bacteria to thrive in between the teeth and to become the cause of infection.
What Happens During Routine Dental Checkups?
The two major reasons you need to visit a dental clinic as a matter of routine are having your teeth checked for any problems, and having the teeth cleaned. The daily brushing and flossing you do are, of course, very important, but there is a bit only a qualified dentist can accomplish.
If you notice, the doctor at the dental clinic has a headlight on the forehead when checking your mouth. This dental headlight is not only very illuminating, but it also has the advantage of not having a shadow. This means the doctor can see every corner of your mouth and any crevice there may be in the teeth; something you cannot accomplish from a mirror reflection.
In short, by making regular visits to a dental clinic, you get to have existing oral problems addressed before they can escalate to dangerous levels. If there is any plaque on your teeth, the dentist removes it, and you leave the place with your teeth well polished.
At the same time, a dental checkup gives the doctor a chance to identify any potential teeth problems, and to deal with them in good time.
The takeaway here is that nobody is exempt from teeth problems, and it is important to make regular visits to the dentist as a matter of routine. Experts actually recommend visiting a dental clinic every six months. You could contact Smile Dental to have free check-up appointments.
Types of Hereditary Dental Problems
Just like people develop dental problems of different types in their lifetime, those who are born with dental issues do not necessarily suffer the same way. You may find patients in a dental clinic with hereditary complications that affect not only the teeth but also the gum, while other problems involve the lips as well.
In fact, you can define hereditary dental problems as those issues or dysfunctions that adversely affect the tissues within the patient’s mouth plus the alignment of teeth, owing to defects of a genetic nature.
Cleft Lip with Cleft Palate
One of the commonest dental problems of a hereditary nature is a cleft lip combined with a cleft palate.
A person is said to have a cleft lip if the lip and the palate are not properly fused, or if either of them is not individually completely fused. A common term used to mean a cleft lip is ‘harelip’.
In many cases, a cleft lip affects only one side of the person’s mouth, usually the left. However, there are rare instances where the person has a cleft on two sides; a condition also described as a bilateral cleft.
A patient may also visit a dental clinic with a hereditary problem of the cleft type, but with the cleft stopping very close to the nostril. This complication is described as an incomplete cleft.
Meanwhile, a hereditary problem where the cleft continues up to the nostril is described as a complete cleft.
One fundamental point to note is that whether a person’s cleft is the complete or incomplete type the person’s palate is always involved. As such, these cases need to be handled in clinics where the dentist is qualified to handle the complexities involved.
As you try to find a suitable dental clinic for a patient whose issues are genetic, note that typically an individual with a cleft on the palate or ridge not only has a defective mouth roof, but also his/her nasal cavity has an opening.