Prevention is always better than treatment. By actively preventing disease and decay through regular home care, professional dental cleanings and regular exams, you will maintain a healthy, beautiful smile.

In addition, effective prevention can help you avoid costly treatments in the future to remove decay, restore teeth and treat gum disease. Regular prevention is truly your best investment.

For more information:

• Professional Cleanings
• Dental Examinations
• X-Ray
• Sealants

Professional Cleanings

Professional cleanings are performed by a certified dental hygienist at Ainley Family Dental Care to form the foundation for preventing gum disease and tooth decay. In a professional cleaning, your hygienist will:

• Remove plaque from the teeth -- Plaque is a sticky substance that forms in the mouth from food, saliva and bacteria. Plaque sticks to teeth and causes tooth decay and gum disease.
• Remove calculus (tarter) above the gum line -- Calculus is plaque that has hardened on the tooth surface and is difficult to remove. (Calculus below the gum line indicates gum disease and requires a different procedure to remove it.)
• Polish and remove stains from teeth

Dental Examinations

Dental examinations help to diagnose disease before it becomes hazardous to your health. In addition, regular examinations can save you money by alleviating problems while they are small and before they become expensive to repair, or in some cases, impossible to repair. Your dental examinations generally include the following:

• Oral cancer screening
• Gum disease evaluation
• Saliva culturing detects risk of disease (tooth decay)
• Laser detection and visual examination of tooth decay and fracture
• Examination of diagnostic x-rays to see cysts, tumors, invisible decay and other problems that can't be seen by the naked eye
• Evaluation of status of current restorations (fillings and others)
• Treatment plan for restoration of dental health

We cannot express enough how important it is to see your dentist regularly. Remember, preventing disease is always better than treating disease.

X-Rays

At World Dental Care Centre, we use only digital x-ray technology. Digital dental x-rays or radiographs are very important. They allow the dentist to see things about your oral health that cannot be seen by the naked eye. These items include cysts (sacks of fluid that form on the roots of teeth), cancerous and non-cancerous tumors, invisible decay that occurs between teeth, and the location of teeth that haven't grown all the way in. By using digital radiography to diagnose these problems, we can help save you money in the long run from surgeries or other treatments that might become necessary if we didn't find the problem. In some cases, where dental x-rays show the location of tumorous growths, x-rays can be responsible for saving your life.

Are Dental X-Rays Safe?

Digital dental x-ray equipment is the very safest. We use only state-of-the-art, low radiation machines. By using digital technology, patients are exposed to much lower levels of radiation (80-90% less compared to traditional radiography.) Contrast this minimal exposure with the risk of not finding an illness until it is too late, and you can see why we prescribe regular diagnostic x-rays. Digital technology is safe not only for our patients, but also for our community because there are no chemicals or lead wrapper waste to dispose of into the environment.

Sealants

Sealants protect the chewing surface of teeth from decay. Normal pits and grooves on the chewing surfaces of back teeth can trap food that can't be removed by brushing or washed out by water or saliva. A sealant is a tough, plastic material designed to bond (stick) to tooth enamel. These clear or tooth colored sealants are painted onto the tooth surface to "seal" the pits and grooves and protect against decay. They are generally applied to children's first permanent back teeth. They can also be useful for adults in certain situations. Advantages of Sealants

Sealants are an excellent way to protect chewing surfaces of teeth from decay. They are a much better financial investment than treating decay after it has started.

Disadvantages of Sealants

Sealants are not permanent. They generally last about five years with normal wear, but can wear off or chip off earlier in certain instances. Also, sealants do not prevent decay between teeth or the onset of gum disease, so regular home care and dental visits are important.

Alternatives to Sealants

There are no appropriate alternatives to sealants. If a tooth has decay, it will need a filling or other restoration.