As lockdown eases, you might be thinking about how your smile is going to look in public, whether it be in the workplace or in social environments. Your smile is arguably, the most important thing you’ll ever wear and taking pride in it can help you to feel great, as well as ensure your mouth remains healthy. With many people having missed their routine dental appointments over the past 18 months, making sure you keep your smile match fit has never been more important, and will help to avoid serious restorative intervention in the future.
With this in mind, here are a few ways you can give your smile a bit of TLC, now and in the future.
Repair cracked and worn teeth
As we age, it’s normal to develop small cracks and lines on our teeth. Whilst these aren’t usually a sign of something serious, these are aesthetic changes that can occupy your mind each time you look in the mirror, and cause you to become self-conscious around others. Tooth bonding and veneers treatment are both effective in repairing small cracks and chips and offered here at our Norwich dental practice.
Meanwhile, worn teeth can come about due to tooth grinding, which if left untreated, can result in jaw stress, headaches and difficulty eating certain foods. We may recommend tooth bonding, orthodontic treatment or crowns to repair a worn tooth, so that your chewing function is restored and your jaw pain ceases to inhibit your daily activities and concentration levels.
Don’t ignore dental pain
Tooth pain that goes on for longer than a couple of days should never be ignored, and having it seen to by a dentist as soon as possible may well save a tooth from being extracted. Here at Corner House Dental, we’ll always do whatever we can to avoid the need for extraction, performing a root canal wherever possible. However, the simplest way to stop tooth pain reaching this stage is to come along to routine appointments every 6 months. These appointments are essential in tracking the development of any concerning symptoms and when it comes to your teeth, prevention is always favourable to cure, as they’re a part of the body that do not possess regenerative qualities.
Our team are highly trained experts who will be able to swiftly identify the cause of your dental pain, and get to work to relieve this, so you can live your best life again! We may wish to keep a close eye on your smile in the months after resolving the pain (depending on the issue), so preventing any complications from re-manifesting.
Floss and brush everyday
This is the bread and butter of looking after your smile, and yet over lockdown so many brits failed to do this each day. Failing to brush and floss for the recommended time, and using the wrong techniques when doing so, could end up costing you a tooth in the long term.
Here at our Norwich dental practice, our team are always keen to help patients learn and develop better oral hygiene habits. We’ll always encourage you to ask any questions you have and spend time demonstrating how to use tools like floss and interdental brushes.
Seek orthodontic treatment for poorly aligned teeth
Gaps, spaces and alignment issues with your teeth can easily leave you feeling reluctant to smile, but more importantly, they put your oral health at risk in the long term. When your teeth overlap or there are unnatural gaps in your mouth, it can hinder your brushing and flossing, as you become unable to access all your tooth surface. As well as causing chronic bad breath, this can lead to dicolouration, cavities and gum disease. We offer two market-leading orthodontic treatment at Corner House Dental:
Six Month Smiles: suited to treating problems with teeth that are most visible when you smile. In as little 6-9 months, overlapping, crowding and spacing with your front top and bottom teeth can be resolved. We find Six Month Smiles treatment is particularly popular with patients who have a special occasion around the corner such as a wedding or birthday, and would like to address non-significant structural problems with their teeth – treatment isn’t suitable for more serious issues.
Invisalign: unlike Six Month Smiles, Invisalign can correct more complex orthodontic problems, and it’s an ideal treatment for remote monitoring – ideal if you’re still shielding because of Covid-19. If you’re in two minds about getting braces because of the restrictions to your diet and brushing routine, don’t fret. Invisalign aligners are removable, so you can still enjoy your food and you won’t need to make any special efforts to brush in a different way during the 12-18 month treatment period. Learn more about Invisalign in Norwich.
Once your teeth are newly-aligned, treatment like teeth whitening and veneers can help to address discolouration that may have developed because of your brushing become impaired.
As the world gets back to normal, organised contact sports are permitted again, including rugby, hockey and karate. Protruding teeth can make injuries during these sports highly likely and leave you open to the risk of needing serious and costly treatment in the future. We offer protective mouth guards to shield your teeth from injury during contact sports, but protruding teeth will not accommodate these appliances. Orthodontic treatment can also be a viable option for this reason.
If you would like to book a routine dentist or hygienist appointment at our Norwich dental practice, contact our friendly reception team, who can arrange this for you.