There have been a growing number of reports that say the annual checkup is out the window. Getting an annual physical checkup with your doctor can lead to unnecessary tests and be counterproductive. The annual dental visit, on the other hand, still has several benefits. If you're not in the habit of visiting your dentist on a yearly basis, consider these things that can happen without yearly dental services.

Teeth Stains

You may not realize that regular teeth cleanings can be an important part of white teeth. Daily dental hygiene is great, but plaque can still inevitably start to erode the surfaces of your teeth and find a home in the hard-to-reach grooves of your teeth. A regular deep cleaning helps to remove this hardened plaque and prevent it from staining or corrupting your teeth.

Early Gum Disease

Gum disease can also be hurried along by a lack of dental checkups. Your dentist is likely to use a scaler to remove plaque from your gum line at the base of your teeth, an area that's hard to reach with general brushing and flossing. This service helps to make sure that buried plaque doesn't silently erode your gums and pave the way for periodontal diseases.

Root Canals

Of course you may visit the dentist if you have a honking cavity that appears as a giant black hole on one of your teeth. And if you are in a lot of pain, you'll certainly notice that something is off and seek dental treatment. But cavities aren't always that obvious-- they can start as an innocuous infection in a spot that's hidden from view.

A cavity won't necessarily lead to a root canal, but the earlier you can catch it, the better chance you will have at saving your tooth from a visit to the endodontist. If you wait until there's a big cavity, you stand a much higher chance of needing a root canal. You may also get away with a filling for now and then need to go back for a root canal if the filling erodes later. Save yourself the trouble and get regular dental services to detect cavities early.

Hopefully these points will help reinforce the value of the annual dental checkup. If it's been a while since your last checkup, don't worry, there are additional deep cleanings and exams that your dentist can do to get you back on the right track to healthy teeth.

For more information, talk with a local dentist, such as Barberio Frank DMD PC.

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