Keep Your Smile on a Healthy Track with Comprehensive Dental Exams

The procedure takes about 90 minutes to ensure we assess every aspect of your oral health. Here’s what you can expect.

• Visual exam: A tooth-by-tooth exam checks each detail of your tooth—not just discoloration or shading, but also looks for chips, cracks, and other structural concerns. The dentist also inspects your gums to identify redness, swelling, recession, and other signs of periodontal disease. The dentist uses an intraoral camera to visualize even the trickiest corners of your mouth.
• Inspecting dental restorations: We’ll assess the health of your fillings, crowns, dentures, etc., and recommend necessary repairs to maintain optimal function and aesthetics. 
• Bite evaluation: Evaluating your jaw joints and bite can reveal the source of your headaches and jaw pain. We’ll assess how your teeth occlude when you open and close your teeth. The dentist also checks your jaw joint for limited movements, weird noises, etc., to rule out TMJ pain.
• Digital X-rays: Our visual screenings are detailed, but not all dental issues happen on the surface. Dental X-rays uncover impaction, interdental decay, tumors, bone loss, and other problems beneath the gum line. Our office uses the latest dental X-rays that capture high-resolution images of your teeth and bone with minimal radiation exposure.
• Oral cancer screening: A quick, non-invasive oral cancer exam can potentially save a life. Like most oral conditions, oral cancer shows symptoms when it’s advanced. Unfortunately, at this stage, treatments are complex and less effective. Routine oral screenings help detect cancer at its earliest, most treatable stage. When spotted and treated early, mouth cancer has a 5-year survival rate of above 80-90%.

A comprehensive oral exam creates a starting point for maintaining long-term oral health. It thoroughly evaluates your teeth, gums, and overall mouth, helping us establish a baseline for oral health. This detailed exam allows us to track changes over time, helping us detect problems before they become significant headaches.