Dental Check-ups: What a Sinkhole Can Teach Us About Looking After Our Teeth
Recently, a sinkhole appeared in a local Auckland road. The suburb shall remain nameless - mostly to protect the innocent, and possibly the council budget! By the time the problem was impossible to ignore, part of the road had to be closed, crews brought in and a considerable amount of manpower, womanpower, machinery and money devoted to putting everything right. The frustrating part? There had apparently been warning signs when the hole was considerably smaller. Had the problem been dealt with then, it might have required a relatively simple repair rather than a full-scale excavation. Teeth can be surprisingly similar. Small problems have an unfortunate habit of becoming much bigger - and more expensive - when given enough time.
That’s one of the reasons we encourage an annual dental check-up, particularly as we get older. Our teeth age along with the rest of us, and decades of eating, drinking, grinding, clenching and generally putting them to work eventually leave their mark. Enamel can become thinner, gums may recede and teeth gradually lose some of their internal moisture and flexibility, making them more susceptible to cracks and chips. Biting edges can flatten and wear, while dental work that has served you well for years can begin to show its age too. Older fillings may crack, wear or develop small gaps around their edges, potentially allowing bacteria underneath. Dental crowns, bridges and implants also benefit from regular checks so we can spot changes in wear, fit or function before they develop into something more complicated.
The good news is that dentistry is generally much simpler when we catch things early. A small area of decay may need only a straightforward composite filling rather than being allowed to progress to the point where a dental crown or root canal treatment is required. A tiny fracture can sometimes be protected with ceramic bonding, an inlay or another conservative restoration before a larger piece of tooth breaks away. We also check existing fillings, dental crowns, porcelain veneers and titanium dental implants for signs of wear or change, helping protect both the dental work you've may have already invested in and as much of your natural tooth structure as possible. Importantly, an annual dental check-up isn't only about your teeth: your dentist also examines the soft tissues in and around your mouth for changes that could be signs of oral cancer, something that becomes increasingly important as we age. Preventive care and early detection are usually far less involved — and considerably kinder to your wallet — than dealing with a problem once it has become established. Think of your annual check-up as checking the road while the warning signs are still small. We'd much rather help you fill a little pothole than wait until we need to bring in the dental equivalent of road cones, heavy machinery and an emergency council budget.