Your City of London dentist and dental hygienist will properly instruct you on oral health care. These oral hygiene instructions and good practices should begin at a very early age. You will be taught how to brush and floss your teeth, and clean your gums and tongue. Dental plaque needs to be removed from your teeth properly every day, at least twice daily. Making this effort to keep your teeth and mouth healthy and clean will help you to prevent tooth decay, gingivitis, and other gum diseases. The dentist and dental hygienist can also advice you on your diet and nutrition in order to keep your mouth healthy.

Several pointers include: Using a soft/medium nylon toothbrush; holding your brush comfortably; using a pea-sized amount of toothpaste; angling your brush at a 45 degree angle along the gum line; using a vibrating circular motion when brushing, etc. Make sure that you brush for at least two minutes twice daily and floss. Visit your City of London Dental Clinic to get yourself on the right road to oral hygiene care!

An oral cancer screening examination is routinely performed when you visit your London Dental Clinic. Your prognosis from mouth cancer is a lot better the earlier it is discovered. While people have difficulty noticing intra-oral cancer lesions, your London dentist can find these at an early stage so that you can be diagnosed and receive the appropriate treatment(s) early in the disease process. Once you have been diagnosed with mouth cancer, and it has been treated, you have a twenty times greater chance of getting it again compared to people who never had mouth cancer. The majority of mouth cancer is known as squamous cell carcinomas, which occurs 90% of the time. Contact your London dentist immediately if your have: mouth sores that don’t heal for over 2 weeks; lumps and thickening of the cheek; red and/or white tissue patches found on your gums, mouth lining, tonsils and/or tongue; feel something stuck in your throat or constant throat soreness; difficulty swallowing; numbing of your mouth; and/or swelling of your jaw. These symptoms can be due to other problems, but they are also indicative of mouth cancer. If your dentist is suspicious that you may have mouth cancer, a biopsy will be performed and sent to a pathology laboratory to confirm the findings. Tobacco use, especially in combination of alcohol consumption, can greatly increase your risk of mouth cancer(s). Treatment usually entails surgery, radiation and/or chemotherapy.

There are currently many different ways available to straighten teeth. Depending on your needs, and the extent of misalignment of your teeth, some methods work better than others. Your City of London dentist will evaluate your teeth and perform a complete oral examination, dental X-rays, and study models, in order to determine how to go about straightening your teeth. Depending on which teeth are to be straightened and whether there is crowding or spaces, your dentist will either use orthodontic brackets and wires or perhaps offer you the Invisalign® system. If only your front teeth need to be straightened your City of London dentist may recommend the Inman® aligner. These braces and appliances take different amounts of time to achieve their goals. Your dentist will tell you all of the advantages and disadvantages of different teeth straightening procedures, along with their cost and approximate length of time to complete their goals. Following treatment, a retainer may need to be worn to stabilize your teeth in their new position. This will also allow the surrounding oral bone to remodel itself and tighten around your teeth.

When you bring your child or adolescent to the City of London Dental Clinic, your dentist will speak to you about tooth sealants. These are placed on the biting surfaces of your child’s and adolescent’s molars and premolars. Tooth sealants are white or clear plastic coatings that are placed on the tooth in order to help prevent dental decay. They fill the grooves on the biting surfaces of the teeth. These grooves usually retain bacteria, plaque, and food debris, thus leading to tooth decay. Also, these grooves are very narrow and your toothbrush can miss these areas. When tooth sealants are placed over minute amounts of dental caries, the dental caries usually do not progress any further.
Your City of London dentist will advise you to have sealant placed on your child’s permanent molars immediately when they erupt into the mouth; usually from the ages of 6 to 12 years. Tooth sealants are not placed on filled teeth. Tooth sealant are easy for dentist to place, and don’t require any numbing of the mouth or drilling. Tooth sealant last from 2 to 4 years, and at times even longer. Visit your City of London dentist to have your child’s tooth sealants placed.

Many Londoner’s have gum disease (gingivitis) and don’t even know that they have it until it becomes more severe and begins to cause problems for them. Gingivitis occurs as a result of bacteria, their end-products, and dental plaque; cause the gums to become inflamed. Several signs of gingivitis are; swollen and bleeding gums, gum redness, temperature, or visible pus oozing from around the If gingivitis is caught early enough it can be treated and reversed. However, if this is not the case, more severe problems will arise including, periodontal disease with oral bone loss, and even tooth loss.
When you visit your London dentist, they will perform a complete intra-oral examination of you, complete with x-Rays and periodontal charting to look for signs of gingivitis or periodontitis. Your dentist will review the results of the oral examination, and if it turns out that you do in fact have gingivitis, a treatment plan will be discussed with you on how to best proceed. First and foremost, if you are experiencing pain due to your symptoms, these will be addressed first. Prevention is first and foremost. Your London dentist and dental hygienist will teach you how to brush and floss your teeth properly, and you should have regular dental check-ups, and professional cleanings at least twice a year. You may also be referred to a periodontist (i.e., a gum specialist) for treatment of your gingivitis and periodontitis. Your gingivitis will be treated using; scaling and root planning, antibiotics, and possibly gum surgery.

Lumineers are being offered as a cosmetic solution in London. Lumineers are extremely thin porcelain veneers that require little to no tooth preparation. They are composed of patented Cerinate, an ultra-thin porcelain material. Lumineers can be are used to reshape and whiten your smile, and can cover your worn out or discoloured teeth, making them much more attractive. Lumineers can also be used to close gaps that exist between your teeth. Because there is no or very little tooth preparation necessary, Lumineers placement is considered to be a reversible procedure. If you don’t like them, your dentist can remove them and re-polish your natural teeth. Lumineers are an excellent choice for slightly chipped, damaged, and/or stained teeth, or mal-positioned teeth. They can also be used over dental crowns/bridges that are already present in your mouth to achieve a good colour match. So, visit your London dentist for a consultation for Lumineers!

Tooth sensitivity can be caused by temperature changes in your mouth, acidic foods and beverages, sweets, and touching the exposed dentin of your tooth if there is any, allowing a connection between the outer part of your tooth and its pulp. When you visit your City of London dentists, they can help you to resolve this problem. Receding gums can result in tooth sensitivity, along with hard bristle brush overuse that can wear away tooth structure, especially if gritty toothpastes are used. Overuse of teeth whiteners can also result in tooth sensitivity, as well as acidic mouthwashes. Some routine dental procedures can also leave your tooth/teeth sensitive, but this usually doesn’t last too long. Your City of London dentists will tell you to use proper oral hygiene, a soft toothbrush, fluoride-based toothpastes and other products, and to consume a proper non-acidic diet. Your City of London dentist also has several procedures available to reduce your tooth sensitivity, or eliminate it altogether.

The London Dental Clinic offers the Invisalign® system to straighten your teeth. This is achieved using a sequential series of clear plastic teeth aligners fabricated using a special computer, Invisalign® is successful, as well as being almost unnoticeable. The Invisalign® system offers comfortable tooth movement more quickly than full traditional orthodontics. It usually takes a year to complete versus 2-3 years for normal braces. Invisalign® should not be used on very crowded teeth and partially formed teeth, and shouldn’t be considered a substitution for ordinary braces if and when they are required. Consult your London dentist for a consultation and to see if Invisalign® is right for your dental needs.

Dental emergencies are an occurrence that sometimes cannot be helped. A tooth injury, damage, or avulsion, are considered dental emergencies in this category. Your London emergency dentists will provide immediate dental services in order to try to save your natural teeth. Sometimes the tooth injury or damage only requires smoothing or a small filling or crown. Other times, if a tooth is knocked out, your London dentist will try to reinsert the tooth if not too much time has gone by, and then splints it in place. Your tooth may also require root canal therapy, and this can be performed in one to two dental visits, depending on the cause and whether an infection exists in the pulp of the tooth. If your tooth gets knocked out, bring it with you to the dentist in milk, making sure not to touch the root surface of the tooth. Dental caries can also create an emergency situation, depending upon the extent of the decay. A filling may be the only procedure required. Tooth sensitivity can turn into on emergency depending on the cause. Broken orthodontic wires and loose brackets can also require one to seek emergency dental treatment, as well as gum infections and abscesses. Infected wisdom teeth and other teeth are also cause for alarm, and dental help should be sought immediately. Broken partial and full dentures can also be treated at your London emergency dentist’s clinic.

Laser dentistry is now being offered at your London Dental Clinic. There are many advantages to using laser dentistry. These include: treatment precision; quicker treatment; pain reduction; and time it take to recover from a dental procedure, compared to conventional methods. Laser dentistry is very comfortable and safe, and helps the dentist’s precision when performing dental procedures. Only about 5 percent of dentists have lasers in their offices for some dental procedures, sutures and anaesthesia may not be required. Dental lasers also help with blood clotting and reduce bacterial infections. The oral tissues heal a lot quicker with laser dentistry because there is less adjacent tissue damage. Lasers are not used for replacing amalgams, onlays, dental crowns, or bridges. They have been used with great success in detecting dental caries and preparing a tooth for a filling, and many soft tissue procedures. So, visit your London dentist for a dental appointment and see how laser dentistry can help you, and be a comfortable dental procedure!