More about Dentistry

What Is Dentistry?

The advancements in the world of dentistry over the past few decades has tremendously increased the number of people living their lives without the need for dentures and replacement teeth. As much as these ratios have increased, a significant portion of our nation's population still believes dental work is cosmetic rather than medically necessary. Visiting the dentist when feeling discomfort or pain remains a popular reason for scheduling a dental appointment. In attempts to increase annual checkups and decrease problematic visits, dental professionals around the country are striving to educate the public on the benefits of good dental hygiene and the purpose of well-rounded care.

Dental Teams

When visiting your dentist, it is rare to only interact with one dental professional during your appointment. To ensure each patient receives exceptional oral care, dental professionals work in small teams to diagnose, treat, and educate individuals on how to maintain a healthy mouth. Most dental teams are led by either a DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine) or a DDS (Doctor of Dental Surgery). Comprising the rest of the dental team are dental assistants, dental hygienists, and administration. Each team member plays a critical role in your dental treatment while supervised by the lead dentist.

Comprehensive Oral Treatment

A broad misconception about oral treatment is that the focus is only on the teeth. On the contrary, to provide the best quality oral care, dentists must focus on multiple areas of the patient's neck and head to look for abnormalities or swelling that may indicate more serious health concerns. Dentists thoroughly exam teeth, gums, bones, jaw, salivary glands, throats, and tongues. Treating the individual as a whole helps dentists to ensure they are promoting overall healthy lifestyles rather than providing temporary pain management solutions.

Primary Role of Dentist

In comprehensive dentistry, your dentist will not be present for every procedure at your annual appointments. However, there are several roles the DMD or DDS plays specifically regarding your teeth, bones, soft tissues, and overall maintenance of the oral cavity during treatment:

• Ongoing treatment planning for optimal patient health, including following growth
• patterns of teeth and jaws.
• Surgical procedures, and review of scans and diagnostic testing.
• Providing diagnosis for oral conditions and disease.
• Monitoring and administrating anesthetics for procedures.
• Educating patients on prevention of oral disease to promote healthy dental hygiene habits.

Dentists oversee treatments for all patients in their practice to ensure effective and healthy results. Safety is a critical priority, and even the smallest of procedures can cause infection or pain if completed incorrectly.

Changing Oral Health Nationally

Across the nation, the benefits of quality dentistry continue to be devalued. Policies on both state and federal levels dedicate minimal funding to oral health care, even though 164 million work hours are lost annually as a result of oral disease and dental conditions. Comprehensive dental care can prevent several medical issues and requires more action from insurance companies and state officials to increase awareness of the benefits of positive oral health.