What Is the Importance of Patient Education During Dental Exams and Cleanings?

Your overall health is dependent on the state of your oral health. That’s why our dentist in Columbia, MD, takes time during cleanings and exams to educate our patients on how to care for their teeth.

Your time at our dental office might be short, but it is crucial to relay. Here is the information you need to care for your teeth properly. You might visit our dentist twice or thrice yearly for a routine checkup, cleaning, or exam. However, you must know how to care for oral health between visits.

Patient education is as crucial as dental procedures to protect teeth and gums from oral health issues. In any case, you have come to the right place to discover the importance of patient education during dental exams and cleanings.

What’s Patient Education?

Before we explore the importance of patient education, let’s unpack what patient education is all about. It is the process where our dentist influences your oral habits and produces the necessary changes in knowledge, attitude, and skills to improve and maintain your oral health by providing relevant information.

Patient education starts as early as possible. Therefore, your little ones can receive much-needed information. Learn how to take care of your oral health.

Even though dentists differ and delivery methods will differ, the whole point of patient education is to increase patient engagement and involvement to improve oral health.

What Are the Main Discussion Points During Patient Education?

When you think of patient education, what comes to mind? Let’s hope that your mind doesn’t picture a dentistry class! Patient education is not a complex, boring class in dental health but a practical and engaging conversation that helps you understand more about your oral health.

Some of the fundamental information that our dentist will be keen to discuss with you when deep cleaning teeth will be:

• How to identify potential dental problems such as gingivitis and cavities
• How to deal with teeth grinding
• How to care for dentures, braces, or any other dental restoration
• How to floss and its importance in your oral health routine
• How to properly brush your teeth
• How to pick out the best dental equipment
• Foods to be avoided in case your teeth need extra care

Without further ado, let’s peer into the importance of patient education.

Importance of Patient Education

Besides performing dental procedures such as teeth cleaning near you, our dentist is also responsible for informing you about your oral health and best practices. The importance of sharing this vital information with our patients can be:

Improving Our Patient’s Quality of Life

Almost 90% of oral health issues are preventable. However, these issues plague a host of people across the board. Children, teenagers, adults, and senior citizens experience dental issues such as cavities and periodontitis.

However, dental hygiene patient education can equip almost anyone of any age to make the necessary changes to prevent oral health diseases. Avoiding these dental health issues will increase your comfort, happiness, and health.

Improving Oral Health Literacy

The beauty of living in this era is that we have more than enough information available at the click of a button or the palm of our hands. However, the information must be explained in a way most patients can understand.

Oral health literacy is vital since this is your ability to obtain, process, and understand basic oral health information and use the knowledge to make the proper decisions about your oral health.

With proper oral health literacy, you will have increased oral health knowledge comprehension, better oral health stewardship, and minimized risk of miscommunication.

Increased Patient Trust

The patient is a vital asset in all medical professions, including dentistry. A great deal of success in dentistry is dependent on the patient. Most of the treatments we offer are patient-driven, so if you need better oral hygiene, then fighting disease will be a daunting task.

However, when the proper information is relayed to you in a manner you can understand, you can tell that our dentist cares. Therefore, you will be motivated to listen and implement what our dentist recommends.

We Are Here For You

Your oral health matters to us. That’s why we will not hesitate to offer the necessary information our patients need. We offer patient education and dental services, including new patient exams, dental cleanings, etc. Contact us at Model Dental Clinic to schedule an appointment.