Family Dentistry: How It Helps Families

Family dentistry is a dental field that encompasses many people. Although all dentists are educated in dental school and trained there as well, there are many different subspecialties that differentiate one from the other. Practitioners start out as high school or college graduates or any college level student who decides to apply to dental school. In most educational establishments that focus on this field, there are slots that need to be filled with the most promising students that apply. This means that not all applicants may be accepted because there essays were not satisfactory enough or they may not have passed their applications on time. Distinguished academic establishments are usually affiliated and accredited with the state which makes them qualified to educate and train prospective dental professionals. Graduates will need to pass the board exam for dentists before they can actually apply what they have learned on patients.

Role and Responsibilities

A practitioner of family dentistry has a similar role as other dentists with or without specialties. Basically, this kind of specialist is open to patients of any age. This means he can diagnose, assess and treat infants and the elderly of one communal unit and any other age in between. While this kind of professional may have the work of a general dental practitioner, he is more intertwined with his patients because he treats whole families and knows each member. His is a sort of application that he can focus on each member of the unit.

The assessment that this kind of dental professional does is based on checking on the state of the oral cavity and its members. This includes the teeth, the tongue, the jaws and the gums of the oral cavity as well as the bone on which the structure is based on. After an educated assessment the family dentistry professional will recommend a form of remedy or treatment for the problem. Cavities on the tooth can be remedied by the application of fillings and possibly sealing the tops of each tooth to discourage the formation of cavities in the niches that are found here. Broken or crooked teeth may be treated with the use of composite bonding or the use of veneers. Composite bonding can be structures in such a way as to fit in the overall composition of the bite, replacing the broken or chipped portion of the tooth. Veneers are thin coverings that can be attached to each tooth to correct their appearance. These work well for crooked, chipped, broken and discolored teeth.

Family dentistry also includes the extraction of the pearly whites when they have rotten away. This procedure may be unusual for this kind of dental practitioner especially if he has been attending to the teeth of most of the families in his clientele for years. New patients may have extraction recommendations. The removal of tartar or plaque buildup on the teeth is included in the cleaning service of the dentist. The presence of issues which need treatment from a specialist may prompt the family dentist to recommend his patient to an orthodontist, a cosmetic surgeon or any other professional in the dental field.