Health Maintenance
At Bite Family Dental our goal is to work with you to achieve a healthy smile. We want to support your ongoing health by providing therapy and advice that keeps you smiling for a lifetime.
Health is routine
Let us help you establish great home care routines that maintain your oral health. That way most of your visits to the office are only to provide supportive therapy and assess and modify your risk for disease. Everyone expects a conversation about cavities at the dentist but we’d rather talk about the Vees, your new puppy, or how your kids are doing in school. Of course our job is to talk about oral health so part of the conversation must be about cavities. Our goal is to have that conversation early on in your relationship with the office and then infrequently afterwards. Let’s work together to mitigate risk factors for oral disease and support ongoing health so that we can all live happy, healthy, and hopeful lives.
Let’s get on the right track and stay on the right track.
Every spring in the Okanagan we hope that it rains. The rain helps trees, flowers, and other plants grow; healthy flourishing plants don’t catch on fire or burn as easily as dry and dying ones. Consider this analogy for your teeth. How can we work together to maintain a healthy smile so that fires and smoke are a lot less likely?
Supportive periodontal therapy
More than just a cleaning
Following initial periodontal therapy a certain level of health is achieved. Subsequent maintenance of the periodontal, gingival, and/or peri-implant tissues is aimed at continued reduction in inflammation and progress toward greater health. The frequency and intensity of therapy depends on the severity of disease as well as the associated risk factors
Implant maintenance
Titanium isn’t immune from disease
Maintaining the health of the tissues around teeth is crucial but it is more important to mitigate any inflammation around implants as disease progression around implants is more significant than it is around teeth. Inflammation around implants will have greater consequences than the same inflammation around teeth. The primary risk is bone loss – the surrounding bone is the foundation that holds the teeth and implants in place. If you lose enough bone you will lose teeth or implants. Any periodontal therapy will include implant care but it is important to understand the additional risks of inflammation around implants. It’s often unfortunate to lose a tooth, it would be a tragedy to also lose the implant that you’ve invested in to replace that missing tooth. Let us help keep you healthy.
Caries management
Let’s be cavity free!
The process that causes a cavity is known as caries and it is one of the most prevalent diseases in the world. It’s also very preventable. Sometimes we can medically manage caries. We can give your body and your tooth the upper hand and shift the balance toward rebuilding tooth structure instead of losing it. There are various ways to do that but typically this involves improving oral hygiene (brushing and flossing), using a mineral adjunct like fluoride, and limiting how often the teeth are exposed to food sitting on them. Let’s talk about ways that will work for you. We would like your visits to our office to be focused on maintaining health not on how many cavities you have. So, let’s decrease your caries risk together and stay cavity free.
Cancer Screening
It could save your life
Did you know we also check your mouth for signs of oral cancer? Primarily something that has been associated with smoking in the past there are now more and more oral cancer cases linked to HPV (human papillomavirus). It’s important to evaluate any new or unusual lumps, bumps, rough spots, and/or colour changes in the mouth. Sometimes a biopsy is necessary to rule out dysplasia (cancerous change to tissue growth). All or a portion of the suspicious area is removed and sent to a medical lab for a diagnosis. Any area that is abnormal, even if previously diagnosed as not being cancer, could still be cancer. Please let us have a look and catch problems early. It could save your life.
Schedule an Appointment
If you’d like to take your smile to the next level we’re here for you; wherever you are in the journey.