You are the frontline when it comes to maintaining a healthy and strong smile. As you care for your smile every day, you have the opportunity to identify, and then promptly address, any changes to your oral health.
Our O’Fallon dentists are here with some oral health red flags to look out for:
- Spots or discoloration on your tooth surface
Sometimes dental discoloration is a purely aesthetic or surface issue. In other cases, however, visible spots can indicate cavities. It’s best to have these spots examined by a dentist. When it comes to cavities, it always easiest, fastest, and least expensive to deal with them in their earliest stages.
- Inflamed or swollen gum tissue
If your gums begin to look particularly red or irritated, this could be due to gum disease. Likewise, infected gum tissue is prone to be bleeding, and may be sensitive to the touch.
- Changes in bite alignment
Shifting teeth can indicate periodontal disease, as the supportive structures that hold your teeth in place begin to weaken. Bite changes may also occur due to chronic bruxism, and enamel deterioration.
- Chronic bad breath
If you can’t seem to freshen your breath no matter what you do, you may have an oral infection that requires treatment. Oral bacteria produce unpleasant odors when they feed on sugars and grow. Consequently, hard-to-treat-bad breath often indicates an entrenched infection in the teeth or gums. In order to treat this type of halitosis, you really need to address the core infection first.
Our O’Fallon dentists are here to help you treat any existing oral health problems, so that you can enjoy a healthy and beautiful smile for years to come. The best way to get started is to give our office a call, or use the Contact Us page on site to submit a question. We look forward to speaking with you!