Dentists: When to Make an Appointment

Dentists see patients for a variety of concerns. But when is it time for you to make the call? You might not have been to the office in a while and wonder when the last appointment was. You may have just been in last week, but something just doesn't feel right. The best rule to keep in mind is that it is always better to go sooner, rather than later.

Regular Cleanings

It is important that individuals see dentists at least twice a year for cleanings. At these appointments x-rays are taken and all teeth are cleaned and examined to see if there are any problems that need to be addressed. While you may be tempted to skip over these “maintenance” visits, keeping up with your oral health is important.

If there is a problem, you want to have someone look at it and help you decide on the best course of action. Some issues can be resolved or handled immediately and you won't have to worry about it or keep an eye on it. Others may turn out to be something that is just preventative and nothing to really be concerned with. Either way, you are keeping up to date with the condition of your teeth and making sure that you are doing all you can to keep them healthy and clean.

Painful and Uncomfortable

If a tooth or area of you mouth is feeling uncomfortable, it might be time to call the dentists, but it can be hard to tell. You have several options. You can just ignore it and see if it goes away. If it does, it will feel better, but it still might be something that is going to turn into a larger problem. If you do call, you may be able to prevent the situation from getting worse.

Whenever you start to feel pain, you want to go ahead and give the dentists a call. Typically these things are a sign of something going wrong. Someone needs to look into the area of your mouth and see just what happened and find a solution. While uncomfortable and painful are subjective feelings and can be different from person to person, it still might be something that needs to be addressed.

Loss of a Tooth

When children lose teeth, you don't need to make sure that they are taken to the dentists office right away. This is something normal and natural. When it happens to an adult, it means that something is wrong. Many times this is accompanied by pain and it is important to get in for an appointment as soon as possible. Many offices have an after hours number that patients can call to seek out dental advice in the evenings or weekends. If this is something that you have, be sure to call as you may need to get into a dental emergency office to have it taken care of right away. Because there will be an open area that teeth will attempt to fill, you don't want to just leave it alone.