Pitfalls of Skipping Your Annual Cleanings

Dentistry is oral health and oral health is human health. Proper dental care is a key component of your overall health and wellness. Periodontal (gum) disease has known associations with cardiovascular disease, diabetes and poor outcomes for infants born to mothers with oral health problems. That’s why it’s so important to take care of your oral health.

In addition to being a clinical orthodontist, I am also an associate professor of Orthodontics and have been in academia for over 10 years. I truly value my role in educating the future generation of dental and orthodontist professionals.

We understand that it’s easy to neglect your dental health. You can shut your mouth and ignore what’s going on inside it and pretend everything is fine. Patients are often not as aware of the importance of dental care as they should be. That’s why we put so much emphasis on preventative care.

Prevention is always better than cure. It is essential to prioritize dental wellness and maintenance in order to avoid future damage and health concerns. As with any medical condition, prevention is the best case scenario, and failing that, we should try to reverse any initial damage that has occurred. However, if disease and infection are allowed to progress far enough, the damage can become irreversible.

If, for example, you sprain your ankle, you feel pain and go to the doctor to seek treatment. For the most part, the injury is reversible. You can return to your normal function if you follow the treatment instructions.

But when it comes to oral health, once you feel pain, the damage is often irreversible. That’s the big difference. There is no way to effectively restore tooth enamel if a cavity has already progressed far enough. If your pain leads to a root canal, there is no possible way that the pulp chamber can ever fully regenerate. So in dentistry, pain is a bad first indication that you need to see a dentist because, by the time you feel pain, it could mean that irreparable damage has already been done.

This is why, as with all medical disciplines, preventive care is so critical in oral health care.

This, however, became difficult during the COVID-19 pandemic when people chose not to go for their regular dental check-ups. In some states, they even suspended elective dental treatment for a short time.

There are several ways that these pandemic-related delays may have affected people’s overall oral health.

The first scenario is your classic example: someone who has skipped their regular dental checkup and cleaning. These visits may also include x-rays that help dental professionals identify potential risks, such as tooth decay. If you skip these screenings, something that could have been completely avoided, such as a small cavity that could have been easily treated with a small filling or sealant, now requires a large filling or maybe even a root canal and crown.

Another scenario might be a person who needs a dental implant because they have space in their mouth due to tooth loss. If this person postpones their appointment for a year, the teeth on either side of the space may drift during this time, resulting in insufficient room for the implant. You may need additional orthodontic treatment to regain space.

Even more concerning is the potential for bone loss. If the implant is not placed soon enough, the bone will dissolve over time. In just six months, you can lose up to half of the original bone. So now, in addition to orthodontic treatment, you may also need a bone graft. If the tooth space is close to the sinus, the bone can become so thin that you may even need a sinus lift to create more space.

The most extreme scenario is the lack of oral cancer. During exams, dental professionals always perform cancer screenings to look for possible signs of oral cancer. If a patient notices a small, white lump (possibly cauliflower-like in appearance) under their tongue, they may brush it off as something else.

They may think they bit or burned their tongue while eating. But then it persists and not only doesn’t go away but grows over time. When they finally go for a checkup, their dentist will notice the lump and order a biopsy to see if it’s cancer.

When oral cancer is caught early, there are effective treatment options, such as surgical resection and other cancer treatments. But if allowed to run its course, it can spread to the rest of the body. If this happens, the prognosis becomes much worse.

These are all very real examples of what could happen if you put off getting needed dental treatment. We are not trying to cause fear or scare anyone with these scenarios, but it is important for people to know what can happen if they neglect their oral health. It’s just as important as taking care of the rest of your body.

Unfortunately, many people have dental fear or anxiety. They may also fear the possibility of spreading COVID if they attend in-person visits. But the transmission rate in dental practice has been very low, and dentists are extremely careful in taking all necessary precautions to protect patients from COVID-19. We have masks and wear gloves long before the pandemic.

We understand that there is fear in visiting your dentist during the COVID-19 pandemic, but for the most part, the dental environment has proven to be safe. Remember that if you delay, ignore or refuse preventive oral care, then it can be much more costly down the line, both financially and biologically. Our main priority is to keep our patients safe and healthy.