General Dentistry

Your dentist is interested in the quality of your bite and is likely to ask about nighttime grinding or teeth clenching while assessing your jaw movement and alignment. If there are signs of concern, such as pain when eating, clicking or popping of the jaw, overdevelopment of the jaw muscles or signs of wear on the teeth your dentist may recommend a nightguard to mitigate the damage being done unconsciously while you sleep. Similarly, if you are active in contact sports your general dentist can customize a sport guard to protect your teeth while you play!

General dentists routinely conduct oral checkups on their clients prior to dental cleaning. The dentist checks for any signs of concern including X-rays to provide insight into the health of the inner teeth. Next, your mouth will be visually assessed to identify signs of inflammation, recession and signs of oral cancers (like small wounds in the mouth that don’t heal).

Your dentist is interested in the quality of your bite and is likely to ask about nighttime grinding or teeth clenching while assessing your jaw movement and alignment. If there are signs of concern, such as pain when eating, clicking or popping of the jaw, overdevelopment of the jaw muscles or signs of wear on the teeth your dentist may recommend a nightguard to mitigate the damage being done unconsciously while you sleep. Similarly, if you are active in contact sports your general dentist can customize a sport guard to protect your teeth while you play!

If your dentist sees signs of concerns such as evidence of oral cancer, he or she may refer you to your medical practitioner or an oral oncologist, as the circumstances dictate. If your dentist sees signs of gum irritation and/or decay, they will counsel you on next steps. Signs of gum disease may require increased hygiene rigour, and decay may need to be removed and filled.

Other procedures routinely provided by your general dentist also includes root canals. Root canals allow a diseased tooth to avoid extraction by removing the inner nerve and pulp tissue. A special product called gutta percha is applied to fill the inner tooth. If a tooth breaks, or if a root canal has jeopardized the strength of the natural tooth, a crown may be installed over the tooth to provide added protection. When a false tooth is required to fill the space left behind by a lost tooth, your general dentist can customize a false tooth and anchor it to its adjacent tooth or teeth. This is referred to as a bridge, and it has the added benefit of maintaining appropriate space between teeth to reduce drifting. If you are in need of more than one artificial tooth, your general dentist can offer a variety of denture options.