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If you don’t have any pain or sensitivity in your teeth, you may think it’s unnecessary to visit the dentist. We’re sorry to break it to you, but that’s not the case!
You’d be surprised at how often patients need a filling, root canal, or other procedure to address an issue they didn’t even know was there.
Regular Visits to the Dentist: It’s All About Prevention
Just like visits to your primary care doctor for annual exams, regular visits to the dentist are all about preventive care. Routine exams allow us to be proactive with your dental health and address minor issues before they have the chance to become a more serious—and expensive—problem. In some cases, addressing a cavity early on could actually save your tooth! And we all want to have happy, healthy, natural smiles, right?
If you wait to go to the dentist until you’re having pain, chances are the damage to your tooth will be greater than if you had been keeping up with your regular check-ups. Tooth decay and gum disease aren’t necessarily painful at first, and if we can treat them early, you won’t have to worry about more invasive or costly procedures in the future.
For example, a cavity is a hole in the tooth caused by bacteria that eats away at the enamel, which is the outer layer of the tooth. Patients rarely feel pain from cavities until they get worse, and the hole makes its way down to the tooth’s nerve. When this nerve is exposed, it’s painful—and it means you’ll need a