Taking action to protect your health is one of the most important things a person can do. Whether you’re talking about dental health, physical health, or looking to get cosmetic procedures performed, it’s imperative to find the right help. For better health management, there are many sources and providers to consider. Use this guide to gain insight into the type of health management resources you can find, as well as why you need them.
Protecting Your Smile
Your smile is one of the first things people notice when they meet you. A beautiful smile can also help give you confidence and self-esteem. That’s why better health management can begin when you find the best local dentists possible. In addition to brushing and flossing twice daily, you need regular dental appointments to check for things that might be wrong.
Regular dental visits help you prevent a variety of oral health problems, such as gum disease. When gum disease goes untreated, it can result in loose teeth that may eventually fall out. If you’re one of the many people in the United States with a sweet tooth, you may have a cavity or two. According to Delta Dental, as many as 90% of adults over age 40 have at least one cavity. Regular dental treatments can treat dental decay in its early stages before it results in more expensive procedures such as root canals or loss
Dental care isn’t exactly cheap, so it’s important to understand the different ways to afford regular dental care. Only half of adults in the United States have dental insurance coverage, according to the CDC. Hope isn’t lost without dental coverage, as there are other ways to find affordable dental care.
Check dental schools in your area. Dental students must perform certain procedures to graduate, so you may be able to get a filling or root canal for free or for a reasonable fee. If you served your country in the military, you have access to programs through the VA. Contact your local VA hospital or provider to get approved for free or discounted dental work. If you’re over the age of 65, Medicaid coverage may also be available for relevant medical procedures.
Filling in the Gaps
As mentioned, bad oral hygiene and avoiding the dentist may eventually lead to losing your teeth. Of course, that’s not the only reason for having extra spaces or missing teeth. After all, accidents do happen, especially if you’re athletic and don’t wear a mouthguard. Some people naturally have big gaps between their teeth almost large enough to fit a tooth.
Plus, teeth may weaken as people age, which is why seniors often have dentures. However, you must remove your dentures at night. While it’s still a viable tooth placement option, it’s not a permanent one.
Thanks to advances in dental technology, you can now get permanent tooth implants. Before approval for dental implants, your dentist will check your jaw and mouth to see if it’s healthy enough to take on the implant. After all, it’s oral surgery and the process is long. Once this happens over a series of months, you can come back and your dentist can add custom caps on top of the implant. You could use this to fill in one tooth or your entire mouth.
The great thing about tooth implants for health management is they not only give you the smile that you once had, but they also help your nutrition. If you previously dealt with several missing teeth or spaces in your mouth, it may have been hard to chew your food properly and the digestion begins in the mouth. The same problem can happen with dentures, as they can move around and slide out of the mouth.
If you have dental insurance, check your policy to see if it will cover at least part of your dental implant fee. You have other options, such as a credit line from Care Credit. Use Care Credit to cover extra medical and dental costs you normally have to pay out of pocket.
So what kind of dentist handles dental implants? If you’re interested in replacing missing teeth, check with your general dentist first. They may offer this type of procedure at their office. More dentists are learning how to perform this procedure, so you may be able to get it right at your general dentist. Some dentists now only do dental implants since the demand has increased so much over the years.
Straightening Your Smile
Did you know consulting with your local orthodontist is a great way to have better health management? If you think crooked or misaligned teeth are merely an aesthetic issue that can’t affect your health, you couldn’t be more wrong. A severe overbite or underbite can cause issues, such as sleep apnea.
When your teeth or bite don’t completely align, it’s impossible for you to completely close your mouth at night, which can result in a dry mouth. Plus, jaw issues will affect the way you breathe at night and cause obstruction of your windpipe resulting in snoring or constantly waking up. Your orthodontist can recommend you to a specialist who can prescribe the use of a CAP machine to maintain a constant airflow to and from your lungs at night or recommend braces to correct the jaw or tooth alignment.
Don’t worry, you can receive orthodontic care from an early or older age. According to Byte, children as young as seven years old can begin orthodontic visits to ensure their permanent teeth are growing as they should. While it may be too early for them to get braces at seven, the orthodontist can monitor their teeth to see if braces will be needed once permanent teeth completely sprout.
While traditional braces are still available, less visible options have become popular with many adults. Lingual braces go behind the teeth and clear aligners, such as Invisalign, are in high demand. According to Forbes, with clear aligners such as Invisalign, you can see the results as long as you’re wearing your aligners 20 to 22 hours a day. As long as you follow instructions, your invisible tooth alignment may be complete in about a year.
Aesthetic Care
Better health management for your emotional state can also involve looking better. You’ll be more confident and have good self-esteem with good teeth and body aesthetics. Cosmetic dentistry provides you with beautiful white teeth. These dental specialists can also reshape broken teeth that have chips or cracks.
The great thing about cosmetic dentistry is it doesn’t take very long. You can go to your local cosmetic dentist and get tooth whitening in as little as an hour. That’s right! The teeth can become as much as eight shades whiter than before while on a lunch break.
Dental bonding can reshape teeth that have been cracked or chipped. The dentist uses resin to fill in those areas. Be careful to not bite down on something too hard afterward. If you want permanent white teeth, consider veneers, which are porcelain shells adhered to your natural teeth. With proper care, your dental veneers can last for about a decade, according to Healthline.
Addressing Wisdom Teeth
Dental implants aren’t the only reason to visit an oral surgery practice. You may need to make a trip for wisdom teeth removal. What does wisdom tooth removal have to do with better health management? For one thing, incoming wisdom teeth may cause pain and discomfort if they become compacted. If they’re pushing in on your existing teeth, it can shift the rest of the teeth and cause misalignment.
If your wisdom teeth decay, it can cause even more discomfort. You can go to your general dentist to pull another tooth, but that’s not the case with wisdom teeth. Wisdom teeth or more complex to pull, so oral surgery is required.
Emergency Resources
Regardless of how healthy you and your family are, accidents and medical emergencies can happen at any time. So, what exactly qualifies as a medical emergency? When someone has a heart attack, stroke, continuous bleeding, burns, or allergic reactions, it’s time to make a trip to urgent care services. In other words, you’d go to urgent care for anything that needs immediate treatment as opposed to something that could wait for an appointment.
Urgent dental work may also be necessary. Emergency dentists handle dental trauma that can’t wait for an appointment. These emergencies include teeth being knocked loose or completely knocked out. If your gums or teeth begin bleeding profusely and nonstop, you need to seek the care of your emergency dentist. A dentist that provides emergency services will usually say so on their website.
Corrective Surgery
Good vision makes life easier. Unless you have a family history of eye problems, visiting the optometrist every year or two can aid in better health management. Healthy eyesight makes it easier to drive at night, see far distances, read books without straining your eyes, and more. However, some people need glasses from childhood or develop vision issues with age.
Luckily, you can get better health management for your vision with corrective laser eye surgery. Cancer, cataracts, diabetes-related retinopathy, and glaucoma are common reasons to seek this type of treatment. According to Healthline, as many as 94% of people who underwent laser surgery for vision correction avoided correction tools such as glasses and contacts even five years later.
Elective Surgery
As your friends look younger and refreshed, are you feeling the urge to find the fountain of youth again? While you can get dermal fillers, you may want something permanent such as face lift surgery. When you get a facelift, it can turn back the hands of time, and you avoid needing to have it retouched every six months like with fillers. Getting a facelift involves major surgery, so you don’t want to trust your face with just anyone. Find a plastic surgeon with the proper referrals and professional accreditation from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons(ASPS) or the American Board of Plastic Surgeons (ABPS).
Addressing Problems at Home
Sanitation is a must when it comes to better health management, so handle your residential waste properly. Whether you have a septic tank or an older cesspool, regular inspections and pumping will keep things functioning and prevent sewage backup. You need an expert cesspool service to clean the cesspool whenever it fills up. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), homeowners should call for professionals to service their septic tanks every three to five years for inspection and pumping. Otherwise, you may have an environmental hazard that can affect the rest of your property.
Be mindful of large trees when you have a traditional septic tank. If you have overgrown trees on your property, the roots can puncture your septic tank and cause waste matter to flood the soil. Having arborists care for your trees is another way to protect your waste tank.
Pet Health Resources
Owning a pet is a huge responsibility, especially when you have a puppy that needs vaccinations or an older dog that needs extra supplementation. That’s why you should find a reliable veterinarian for better health management of your pets. Dogs and cats deal with fleas, ticks, and other problems. Like a human, they can also get sick.
Canines easily get into and chew things they shouldn’t. Such destructive chewing is as bad for their intestines as it’s for your furniture and shoes. If they develop bowel obstruction from eating the inside of a tennis ball or something in the trash, dog surgeons can treat them as long as you take your pet in time. Vet visits check for ear infections common in certain dog breeds, monitor pregnancy, and provide advice about the best food to feed them.
These tips are some of the ways to provide better health management for you and your loved ones. Whether dealing with your dental or physical health, maintaining your home sanitation or keeping your furbaby vaccinated, you have many services to ensure a healthy and vibrant life. Take care of yourself and the people you love by using this list for guidance.
