While everyone looks in the mirror from time to time – and some of us quite often – we probably don’t spend much of that time looking at our teeth (unless something is wrong with one of them) and even less looking at our gums. Yet, oral health is crucially important to overall health because it has both direct and indirect impact on many aspects of wellbeing. The longer you leave dental problems untreated, the longer it will take and the harder it will be to restore them – and the more it will cost too.
Laser cavity detection from a San Diego Dentists Association member is one way to make sure your teeth get close attention during your dental visit. Tools like the DIAGNOdent laser can find problems the naked eye might miss so that measures can be taken to put things right. SDDA dentists use the DIAGNOdent laser to detect tooth decay when it is still small and easily treatable – for early intervention and maintaining the healthiest teeth throughout your life.
You May Not See Tooth Decay
There are many reasons that tooth decay may not be obvious even though it’s happening. One is that an area of decay may be too small to be easily noticed. Another is that fluoridated drinking water can make cavities harder to detect. That’s because fluoride protects the outside enamel surface of the tooth, but decay can develop inside. Before fluoride, cavities almost always developed from the outside and ate away toward the inside of the tooth. Now, cavities can form from the inside out.
Cavities may not be detected using ordinary, traditional means until there is enough decay that a large amount of the tooth is damaged. By increasing the ability of dental offices to detect small cavities, laser cavity detection allows problems to be detected earlier so that they can be treated before a large amount of tooth is lost.
The DIAGNOdent laser allows dentists to see a tooth in a new way that’s painless, simple and doesn’t involve any radiation. It involves light being reflected from the teeth in a special way. The scanner analyzes how the light is refracted. If there is a fluorescent reflection, there is tooth decay. The fluorescence is created naturally by the decay in the tooth with no need for chemicals, dyes or probing.
With laser cavity detection, your dentist can detect 3 specific types of decay:
- Fissure and pit decay. This is what first comes to mind when most people think of cavities: damage to the chewing surfaces of molars caused by enamel wear and excess sugars in the mouth.
- Root decay. Especially prevalent in people with receding gums from gum disease, root decay happens where the root meets the gums. Poor brushing and flossing can cause a buildup of plaque in the mouth that leads to gum disease and eventually root decay.
- Smooth surface decay. Plaque and the bacteria it contains can eat away smooth tooth surfaces and create cavities that can be just as painful and require treatment just as much as other types of decay.
Dentistry Tools Work Together For You
It’s no longer true that dentistry has to be painful, thanks to the range of tools available to dentists now. The DIAGNOdent laser is one way that today’s dental office visits can be simple, effective, and pain-free yet more informative than ever before. Laser cavity detection can diagnose tooth decay using light and only light without discomfort or hassles. It can assess precisely how much decay is in a tooth so your dentist can make a smart decision about what to do next.
Please understand, however, that San Diego dentists don’t rely totally on laser cavity detection and anything else. Today’s dental world is overflowing with painless oral and dental health diagnostic tools. X-rays, for example, are still used, now done digitally and requiring less radiation than ever. But they can miss small cavities. A cavity often needs to be at least one-third the size of a tooth to be picked up using even the best modern x-rays, but laser cavity detection can find the small areas of decay that radiographic imaging misses.
When San Diego dentists use several types of technology at once, it’s easier than ever for them to support patient needs and provide effective treatment for total dental and oral health. Small cavities discovered with laser cavity detection can often be filled with microabrasion that doesn’t require a drill and therefore doesn’t generate pain. That means numbing may not be necessary. Dentists today use tooth-colored composite fillings that are safe, effective, and biocompatible.
Research has shown that visual inspection allows for proper cavity detection in less than 60 percent of patients. But with laser cavity detection, more than 90 percent of cavities can be detected. When combined with other tools, the detection rate can be even higher. Turn to an SDDA dentist now for early detection and early treatment of tooth lesions and demineralized areas for safer, quicker, and easier treatment that preserves as much natural tooth as possible.
For laser-accurate diagnosis and better dental health, reach out to a San Diego Dentist Association member now. For total oral health, it’s the best decision possible.