Prevention

Ever hear the old sports cliché that “the best defense is a good offense”? Well, a similar credo applies when it comes to maintaining good oral health.

Scotts Valley family dentists at Ebrahimian Integrative Dentistry know that prevention is your best defense against potential threats to your oral health and systemic health. As a result, we offer a wide variety of preventive care services, designed to identify oral health problems as early as possible, and ideally, stop them before they develop into bigger problems.

The Benefits of Preventive Care

At Ebrahimian Integrative Dentistry, we believe that early detection and early treatment of any problem regarding your health can save you from more complex or more intensive procedures in the future.

The Systemic Link

Preventive care in dentistry can protect your oral health but also serves as a safeguard for your overall health. Certain oral health problems can elevate your risk factor for chronic, systemic ailments.

Physicians and dentists alike now realize that the mouth is the missing piece to the puzzle for a lifetime of systemic health. The mouth matters.

Red swollen bleeding gums are a sign of periodontal disease, which is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the gum tissue and bone supporting the teeth. Patients with advanced, untreated gum disease run the risk of losing their teeth and may face as high as double the risk of cardiac disease because bacteria from the mouth filters into the bloodstream and accumulates in the arteries of the heart.

Gum disease or periodontal disease has also been linked to poor or declining brain health, and studies have shown there is a link to Alzheimer’s and even to some forms of cancer.

At Ebrahimian Integrative Dentistry, we take gum disease very seriously as it is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world, with half of Americans suffering from periodontal disease according to the CDC (Center for Disease Control) in 2012.

Losing teeth as a consequence of gum disease can lead to a host of problems including poor nutrition, bad breath, and embarrassment from dealing with tooth loss. Gum disease is also highly contagious, which means it can be transmitted through the sharing of food and drink and also through kissing.

Regular visits to your Scotts Valley dentists are important!

If you only go to your dentist when you experience a problem, such as tooth pain, you are compromising your oral health. In many instances, by the time an oral health problem starts to present noticeable symptoms, it already has progressed to a serious stage that results in irreversible damage.

The best way to maintain a good level of oral health is to visit your family dentist once every six months for a check-up. This appointment will involve a professional dental cleaning of your teeth, a procedure that is known as a prophylaxis, or a prophy. This procedure removes all tartar, plaque, and stains from your teeth.

For patients with signs of periodontal disease, such as bleeding gums or deep pockets where the tissue around your teeth becomes detached, a deeper cleaning is needed. This deep cleaning goes below the gums, which is therapeutic rather than prophylactic in nature.

These procedures are performed by the dental hygienist using professional teeth-cleaning instrumentation such as the ultra sonic scaler or laser. Receiving a dental cleaning often improves the aesthetics of your smile because stains on your teeth are removed during the procedure. A thorough cleaning can also improve bad breath.

At this appointment, your dentist also will examine your teeth and mouth, identifying any potential oral health issues that need to be addressed. Keeping a regular schedule of check-ups also allows your dentist to maintain a consistent record of your oral health, making it easier to identify changes as they occur.

These visits should occur once every six months, unless otherwise directed by the dentist, for patients of all ages.

Preventive Care Treatments in Scotts Valley

At Ebrahimian Integrative Dentistry, we offer a variety of treatments focused on preventing various dental health issues.

Below, you will find the list of services that we offer to both children and adults:

  • Fluoride: A standard treatment for decades in dentistry, fluoride is a mineral that has been proven safe and effective to protect teeth against cavities and tooth decay. Receiving fluoride treatments hardens and remineralizes the small imperfections that everyone develops naturally on tooth surfaces. We recommend fluoride treatments for children or patients who may have difficulty accessing regular dental care or have a non-fluoridated water supply where they live. We can administer a fluoride treatment during an appointment or send patients home with professional-grade concentrations of fluoride portioned out in fluoride trays.
  • Sealants: These are also recommended for children as an additional layer of defense against tooth decay. Sealants are applied to the tooth crevices on the chewing surfaces of the back teeth. Sealants can be especially effective for back teeth such as molars and bicuspids, which are often troublesome areas for children to keep clean and well-brushed on their own. Sealants only should be applied to permanent teeth.
  • X-rays: These images can help identify problems with your teeth or jaw bone that cannot be seen by visually examining your mouth. We use digital X-ray technology, which produces more precise images that expose patients to a small fraction of the radiation emitted by traditional X-ray machines.
  • Dental Cone Beam 3D CT Scan: This allows for more precise treatment diagnosing issues with various dental structures including soft tissues, nerves, and bones in the craniofacial region in a single scan.

Bring your family to Ebrahimian Integrative Dentistry for these valuable preventive services today!

General Dentist in Scotts Valley

Remember that no preventive care procedure is intended to be a substitute for a thorough regimen of oral hygiene that includes brushing and flossing daily in combination with regular visits to your dentist. To learn more about our program of preventive care, contact our office by calling (831) 438-4411 to schedule a consultation. A member of our staff will be happy to assist you!

Ebrahimian Integrative Dentistry is proud to provide top-quality oral health care for patients living in the areas of Los Gatos, Santa Cruz, and Scotts Valley.