3 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Skip Your Biannual Dental Checkup

You’ve got a lot of things that are on routine maintenance schedules, from your car to your hair. We want to make sure your family’s dental care is on this list because, just like your car, a little routine maintenance up front can save you from some large, time-consuming, and expensive work down the road.

To underscore the importance of your biannual dental exams with us, Dr. Juliet Ebrahimian and the team here at Silverlake Smiles pulled together 3 compelling reasons for these visits.

1. Fighting back against tooth decay

Let’s kick off this discussion with some eye-opening numbers about tooth decay and dental caries (cavities). To wit, 90% of adults aged 20 and older in the United States have at least one cavity. 

Among adolescents (ages 12-19), about 57% have at least one cavity in their new permanent teeth. Not to mention, 52% of kids between the ages of 6 and 8 have at least one cavity in their baby teeth.

During your dental exam with us, we thoroughly clean your teeth, removing tough plaque and tartar from hard-to-reach places, before the bacteria can eat away at the tooth and create a cavity. We also take quick X-rays to spot any issues that might be hiding from view. And, if we find a cavity, we can take swift action and halt the tooth decay with a filling.

As a preventive tool that can preserve your teeth against tooth decay, nothing is more important than your regular dental exams.

2. Keeping your gums healthy

The other major culprit behind poor dental health is periodontitis, or gum disease, which affects 46% of Americans aged 30 and older.

Gum disease is a condition in which bacteria-harboring plaque forms around and behind your gums, allowing the bacteria to eat away at the hard and soft tissue in your mouth.

During your twice-annual dental exams with us, which feature a professional cleaning, we clear away plaque from your gumline. In fact, we can even treat the earliest stage of gum disease — gingivitis — which is inflammation around the edges of your gums. During your visit, we remove bacteria from these inflamed areas to reverse the course of the disease.

3. A bright smile

While the thorough and professional cleaning that we provide during your routine visits go a long way toward preventing tooth decay and gum disease, they also leave your teeth white and bright. During this visit, we remove tough stains and then polish your teeth until they sparkle.

All in all, you have everything to gain and nothing to lose from making sure everyone in your family comes to see us twice a year.

To schedule your family’s dental exams, please contact our Los Angeles office, which serves the Silverlake and surrounding areas, including Los Feliz, Atwater Village, Frogtown, and Echo Park.