Oral Health
Clyde, NC
 Oral health essentially refers to the health of our teeth, gums, jawbone, and the entire oral-facial system that enables us to eat, speak, and smile. Maintaining oral health is of utmost importance as it helps you avoid tooth decay and cavities, periodontal disease, painful infections, and even oral cancer.
While you need to maintain appropriate oral hygiene practices to ensure optimal oral health, you must also visit Carolina Mountain Endodontics for regular checkups.
Our dentists, Dr. Ewing will perform a thorough dental exam, and if we find a cause of concern, we can provide you with a treatment plan to resolve all issues that might impact your oral health. We can also perform procedures such as root canals and tooth extractions to keep your teeth and gums in prime condition.
The Importance of a Dental Exam to Maintain Optimal Oral Health
A dental exam is essentially a checkup of your gums and teeth. Most adults and children should ideally get a dental evaluation every six months. These exams can keep us updated on your oral health and enable us to prevent serious and painful dental problems.
At Carolina Mountain Endodontics, a dental exam is performed by our dentist and dental hygienist. We will examine your oral health and hygiene to ensure everything is as it should be. We will also examine your face, neck, lower jaw, and lymph nodes to rule out potential problems. Our dental exam also includes scanning the gums for signs of gingivitis or periodontal disease and observing broken, loose, cracked, or chipped teeth.
Moreover, we inspect the insides of the mouth for signs of oral cancer and examine the condition of any existing dental fillings, root canals, and more. Lastly, we provide dental x-rays and perform other diagnostic procedures to assess the general condition of your teeth. We also inspect your jaw and bite to ensure everything is in order.
Root Canal Procedure
We also offer root canal treatment to relieve dental pain caused by an abscessed or infected tooth. During the process, we remove the inflamed tooth pulp and then clean and disinfect the surfaces inside the tooth. Lastly, we use a filling to seal the space. You need a root canal when oral bacteria invade your tooth pulp; it typically happens when you don’t get a cavity treated or your tooth gets damaged due to trauma.
Symptoms include persistent tooth pain, cold and heat sensitivity, swollen gums and jaw, gum boils, tooth discoloration, and loose or cracked teeth. You should optimize your oral health by choosing a root canal procedure as it will prevent the infection from spreading to your healthy teeth, ease your symptoms, decrease the risk of jawbone damage, and eliminate the need for a tooth extraction.
Tooth Extraction
At times, tooth extraction is the only way for you to maintain your oral health. It can become necessary when suffering from irreparable tooth damage or decay. It helps eliminate bacteria and boosts your overall oral health. Tooth extraction involves the removal of the tooth from its socket. Typically, we try to save our patients’ teeth by finding other treatment methods, such as using dental fillings and crowns.
However, tooth extraction becomes crucial in certain cases, such as a badly fractured tooth, crowded teeth, severe tooth decay, impacted tooth, severe gum disease, and tooth luxation. At Carolina Mountain Endodontics, our tooth extraction process involves administering a local anesthesia. Then, we use specialized instruments to loosen your tooth and lift it from its socket.
We might have to make incisions in your gum to make your tooth more accessible. Once we have removed the tooth, we disinfect and clean the socket. We place a dental bone graft in specific cases to prevent bone loss. Lastly, we place stitches to promote healing.
Contact us at Carolina Mountain Endodontics to schedule your next dental exam! Our dentists will assess your oral health and guide you through the next steps. (828) 627-1999. |
