The earlier a cavity is caught, the earlier you can receive treatment, and stop decay from spreading to more of your tooth. The stage of a cavity’s development can also change how your dentist approaches restoring your tooth. For instance, if a cavity has spread far enough to infect the nerves in your tooth’s pulp, a root canal will be necessary. You can ensure small cavities are caught with the help of laser dentistry. Your dentist can examine your teeth using laser technology, which will measure the fluorescence in your teeth. This can turn up cavities at their earliest stages of development, and is even capable of finding small cavities hidden in crevices, or between teeth.
Early cavity treatment means stopping decay’s spread and saving more of your tooth. What you need to know is that there is no way to save dental material that has been touched by a cavity’s spread. This means that all of the dental material must be removed, to put a stop to the infection. If you have a small cavity treated, you lose less of your tooth structure, and what is lost can be replaced with a tooth filling.
Regular dental checkups provide more than just early cavity detection, though that is an important service by itself. You can also have your teeth cleaned, with even tough tartar buildup being removed. Your dentist can also study your gums, in order to watch out for gum disease. Without treatment, gum disease can persist, and eventually do the sort of damage that can lead to tooth loss.