Is your breath bad or terrible? As silly as it sounds, this makes a difference. Bad breath due to last night's nachos can be corrected by brushing your teeth, flossing, and rinsing with mouthwash. If, however, you have terrible breath that doesn't get better with brushing, it may be due to a tooth infection. Therefore, pay attention to how your breath really smells and give us a call if you notice that it is getting worse.
During your dental exam, we will look for signs of an infection that needs to be removed. If this is the case, we will remove it immediately prior to restoring the structure and appearance of the tooth itself. The procedure that we most often complete on an infected tooth is a root canal. This proven method involves creating a small hole in order to remove the infected area. Once the infection is removed, the tooth will be restored in size, shape, and functionality so that you can go back to eating like normal while having better-smelling breath. We can perform this procedure while keeping you comfortable in our family dentist office.
If you don't have an infection but have gum disease instead, this can also lead to bad breath. Gum disease is typically caused by a buildup of plaque and tartar on the portion of the tooth that is underneath the gums. Since there is no way to clean this area at home, the only way that you can treat the condition is to have the gums deep cleaned in a dentist office. This involves getting in between the gums and tooth structure to break up and remove the plaque and tartar that is causing the irritation. Once this is done, the gums tend to heal themselves and return to good health.
As a family dentist, we prefer to identify and treat conditions like gum disease in their earliest of stages so that you (our patient) doesn't have to experience the discomfort that can be caused by the advanced stages of infection. Simultaneously, treating a condition like gum disease early is far less invasive than if the gums have started to recede and a gum graft is needed to restore them. This is one reason it is important to pay attention to how your breath is smelling. If you are otherwise healthy and have brushed your teeth, but your breath still smells, we want to see you as soon as possible in order to ensure that there are no underlying oral health conditions needing to be addressed.
