Why these appointments play an important role in your dental care.

Initial consultations at our Wickford dental practice are widely used when a patient is considering a new type of treatment. These are not usually necessary for routine dental care, but they are a critical part of some procedures to ensure the most appropriate treatment and the best outcome for the patient.

Many of our patients lead busy lives and are understandably keen to get started on the treatment straight away. For them, it may seem that an initial consultation is a drain on their already limited time; so today’s blog tries to explain why we consider consultations to be such an important part of the treatment process.

What happens at an initial consultation?

Unlike an examination where a thorough inspection may be made of your overall oral health, a consultation will also include a broader discussion between patient and dentist. There may well be an examination in a clinical consultation, but also an introduction to a treatment such as dental implants for example. This helps to make sure that there is a thorough understanding both of the patient’s desires and circumstances, and, on the patient’s part, what the treatment entails. For a procedure such as implants for example, a patient may have a number of concerns about the treatment, perhaps from reading some unreliable information on the internet. So the initial consultation serves as an excellent opportunity to fully explain the procedure, answer the patient’s questions and assess suitability.

Amongst the questions you are likely to be asked, are the following:

What do you want to achieve from the treatment?

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Dr Harminder Sehmi explains why it is important to maintain regular visits.

Whether you are young or old, you should always try to see your local dentist for an examination every six months or so. Those in a high risk group, such as diabetics (1), may need to keep these appointments more frequently to be able to keep their teeth and gums in good health.

For most people though, once every six months should be sufficient unless any problems arise in between. If this does happen, you should not wait until your next check up date, but call our Wickford practice to make an appointment to be seen by a dentist as soon as possible.

Visiting us once every six months is a small price to pay for having a healthy mouth. Anyone who has neglected to do this for a lengthy period of time will almost certainly have problems such as sore gums or toothache, and burying your head in the sand is not a good idea when it comes to your oral health!

What happens at your examination?

Whatever your appointment time is, please try to arrive at least ten minutes or so beforehand. This will give our reception team sufficient time for any paperwork (though much of this is now done digitally). Making sure that you are on time allows our dentists to see patients at their allocated times and helps to reduce any delays.

Once the ‘paperwork’ has been done, you will be called in to see one of the clinical team. Once seated in our comfortable dental chairs, we will first of all make sure that your medical records are up to date. Please do be honest with us when we ask you questions about your general health. Neglecting to tell us about a medical condition could, potentially, put you at risk if you need certain treatments. The same applies to any medications that you are on. Blood thinning medication, for example, may mean that you need to receive treatment in hospital in certain instances.

During the examination itself, we look for a number of things. Most obviously, we look for any signs that you may have tooth decay. This can be quite minor at first, but will require treatment even if this is the case. Small cavities will not ‘heal’, and, if left alone, will almost certainly become larger and may even result in a very painful tooth. If we detect any small cavities, we will ask you to arrange a treatment appointment where we can complete a small filling for you. In some cases, very minor work might be completed on the same day.

It is not just your teeth that we inspect though. Your gum health is important and we will look for any signs of gum disease which is often straightforward to reverse if detected early enough. Symptoms such as inflamed or receding gums, means that a thorough clean by one of our hygienist team is necessary to clear the teeth and gum line of any hardened bacterial deposits known as tartar. If the issues have progressed, additional treatment may be required, possibly with a dental specialist.

Finally, we will look for any possible signs of oral cancers. This is a growing problem in the UK, and especially in smokers or heavy drinkers. Signs of possible oral cancers may include the likes of lesions or red or white patches on the tongue. These can be caused by other things too, but if we do detect anything, we will refer you to your GP for further investigation. It is important to have a an additional medical check quickly so that you can receive rapid treatment should anything untoward be uncovered.

X-rays

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If you are planning to stop smoking in October, why not now? Says Dr Suky Ghuman of Cygnet Dental.

Traditionally, October is the month for the anti smoking campaign, ‘Stoptober’, run by Public Health England. Throughout the country, there are exhibitions and roadshows, along with general publicity to help people stop smoking.

Although we are a month away from the start of this campaign; if you are thinking of stopping anyway, or are a smoker who hasn’t yet taken action to do so, why not take the step a few weeks earlier?

There are many good reasons to stop smoking. The effect on your pocket is certainly one that deters some people, with a dramatic rise in the price of tobacco products over recent years. Whilst you will obviously benefit financially if you stop smoking, there are other reasons, from a health perspective, why you should do so.

Cancer

Let’s start with the big one. Most people now understand cancer to be very serious, and potentially fatal. Lung cancer is the one most associated with smoking, but other cancers may be caused by the habit too. One type of cancer which certainly is, is of particular concern to the dentists at the Cygnet Dental Practice in Wickford i.e. mouth cancer.

Oral cancer

Smoking is considered to be the most significant risk factor for oral, or mouth, cancers. Whilst others, such as alcohol, may also contribute, stopping smoking is the biggest thing that you can do to prevent this problem which has seen a rise of just under 70% (1) in the past twenty years.

Oral cancer can prove fatal or life changing (2) and should not be ignored. As part of your regular six monthly check up at our practice, we make sure to check for any potential symptoms that may indicate oral cancers If we do find any, we will refer you to your GP for further investigation. If we do this, please remember that our role is a front line role to detect any changes in your mouth. We are not able to diagnose cancer directly, which is why we refer you to your GP. It may well be that there are other reasons for the signs that we have noted, so please don’t panic if we refer you.

Gum disease

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