Keeping up with your dental appointments and your home oral hygiene routine of brushing and flossing won’t just keep your smile looking good, it will also protect your oral health and your general health. If you think that dental care is too expensive, rest assured that investing in routine preventive care will reduce the risk of expensive interventions in the future. Here are five reasons that you can’t afford to neglect your oral health.
- Oral diseases respond better to more conservative (and less expensive) interventions when diagnosed in their earliest stages. It’s easier for your dentist to treat a small cavity with a conservative filling, while larger areas of decay might require a porcelain or ceramic crown in order to restore the tooth.
- Advanced decay or gum disease can result in tooth loss.
- Research suggests a correlation between poor oral health and systemic conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, as well as a number of pregnancy-related problems. You may not realize it, but your dentist is an important member of your health care team. When your smile is in good shape, your risk of these other conditions may be lowered.
- Cavities and gum disease can jeopardize your ability to get a variety of nutrients from your diet. If your smile is incomplete, you may not be able to chew important foods, such as fresh fruits and vegetables, preventing you from getting a full complement of vitamins and minerals.
- Your dentist looks for signs of oral cancer at your semi-annual checkups, and oral cancer has the best prognosis when it is diagnosed early before it metastasizes to surrounding tissues. This care can literally be life-saving.
Have you postponed your next exam or cleaning? Doing so may put you at risk for a cavity or gum disease that could end up costing both financially and in consequences for your health. Call Withers Dentistry at 940-293-2635 and schedule a check-up today to get back on track.