What Do You Cover in Your Comprehensive Examination

At Plaza Dental we feel the comprehensive examination is an extremely important appointment to allow us to evaluate your overall oral health, as well as to address any specific problems or concerns that you may have.

If it is the first time we have seen you then there are usually some additional steps that we will go through to get to know you, to understand your background, any issues you may have had with dental care in the past, as well as any concerns, be they pain, broken teeth, or medic concerns such as difficulties in eating et cetera.

Before we look in your mouth at all, we will spend some time getting to know you. If you have any problems that you need to address straight away, such as if you are in severe pain for something please let the dentist know straight away.

This is because this appointment has been booked not to provide you with treatment, but to evaluate all your concerns, and for us to have a good look at everything, and to start to prepare a comprehensive plan to help you maintain the best possible oral health moving forward.

Here are some example of questions your dentist here at Plaza Dental will generally cover during your comprehensive examination:

1. Any immediate urgent concerns that you need addressed straight away
2. How long it has been since your last dental appointment
3. Whether you have been regular dental attender in the past
4. If you have any concerns about eating
5. If you have any pain
6. If you have any issues around the way you teeth look or your smile that you would like us to address
7. What your long-term hopes and concerns are for your teeth and your oral health
8. If you have any specific expectations around your dental treatment
9. If you have any fears or if you have had any bad experiences at the dentist in the past
10. What your homecare routine is i.e. how often you brush your teeth whether you floss or use mouth rinse
11. Any other issues you have that you would like us to look at and address

Once we have had this conversation, it will give us a better idea of what we need are looking for so that we can help you achieve the best possible dental health in the future.

Examination

Once we have finished talking to you about your past dental experiences and your future dental hopes, then we will start the physical examination. This is done in a systematic way so as to make sure we do not miss anything.

• Extraoral

  Here we are looking at the smile, checking your lips for signs of sun damage, or other issues and looking at the general shape of the chewing muscles of your jaw.

• Oral Cancer Screening

  Here we check all the soft tissues in your mouth and the top of your throat to make sure there are no unusual lumps, bumps or sores there. This is done at all subsequent examinations as well to help keep you safe.

• Orthodontic Assessment

  Here we are looking at any crowding or rotated teeth and gaps between your teeth, as well as the way your jaws fit together. Whether you have a large or small overbite or a crossbite.
  
  Orthodontics concerns not only cosmetic, but people with crowded teeth and crossbite can find that they cause issues with eating some foods, as well as cleaning the teeth and maintaining good oral health.

• Occlusion

  This is the way your teeth fit together. People with worn teeth or missing teeth can find that their occlusion changes over time. This can cause problems not only with their ability to eat some foods but also in their jaw joints and chewing muscles.

• Temporo Mandibular Joint

  These are your jaw joints. The jaw joint is a complex joint because it is two joints that work together one on either side, and it is both a rotating and a sliding joint. Here we are evaluating your range of movement where you have any funny noises or any pain. These things can be signs of issues within your mouth as a whole or of degeneration of the joint.

• Periodontal Check

  Your periodontium or the gums and ligaments that hold the teeth in place, and other foundations which support your teeth. Maintaining good health here is vital for the long-term stability and health of your mouth.
  
  Periodontal disease leads to shrinking of the gums and loss of the ligament and bone around the teeth; this makes the teeth harder to clean and eventually can lead to loose teeth or teeth that need to be removed. A common way of thinking about this is that you are periodontal is the foundation upon which everything is built. If this is not strong and healthy then long term your teeth will struggle to remain strong and healthy.
  
  The health of your gums is very strongly related to how well you keep your teeth clean as at this stage we are looking very closely to see whether or not there is any plaque or food caught on your teeth, in between the teeth and around the gums.

• Teeth

  Finally we do a full assessment of all of your teeth, we are looking at signs of decay, signs of wear, assessing the quality of any restorations in your teeth, looking for cracks and other problems with the teeth. At this stage we will also do a full charting of all of your teeth noting any missing teeth, any restorative restorations, such as fillings, crowns, bridges, implants, and if you have had any root canals.

• Dental x-rays
• 3D scans of your teeth
• Intra and Extra Oral Photography

Whether or not these are required depends on what we discover earlier in the appointment.Again depending on our findings during this comprehensive examination appointment, we may be able to provide you with a plan for treatment moving forward at the appointment.

However, for people with more complex issues, commonly what we will do is use this appointment together all the information, refer you for any further tests that are required, and then rebook a complimentary consultation, where we can discuss the best treatment options for you moving forward.

This is done to allow us to firstly make sure we gather all the information before we make a definitive diagnosis, and secondly to allow the dentist to properly evaluate all the information and come up with a well thought out plan to help you achieve your best health and your best smile.Please call our reception team on 07 4942 3272 to book in with one of our dentists for your comprehensive examination