Preventative Dentistry

At Cherrygum, we provide a comprehensive preventative program as our policy is “Prevention is Better than Cure”

1. Starting with the basics, we ask you to bring in your toothbrush and show us how you brush your teeth. We use a special red dye on the teeth so parent and child can see areas where a improvements are needed to ensure all areas are brushed adequately.

2. We demonstrate the different ways of flossing and decide on whats works best for you.

3. We show you how to and when to use mouthwash, the different types of mouthwash, and help you decide on a suitable one for your child.

4. Diet. We indicate and show you what foods and drinks are harmful to your teeth.

5. Regular examination of teeth and gums will detect small problems before they develop into large problems, we encourage checkups every 6 months. Any removal of plaque deposits is removed at these visits to ensure optimal gum health.

6. Fissure sealing of posterior teeth help in protecting the tooth from early decay in its most vulnerable part, the grooves of the teeth. Fissure seals are painless and very easy to apply.

7. We make mouthguards for patients playing contact sports.

8. It is so very important to have healthy saliva for optimal dental health. We test to ensure adequate saliva pH and flow rate. If the saliva pH is too low, it will not adequately buffer the acid produced by the oral bacteria, and dental decay will be more prevalent. If the flow rate is low, there will not be adequate saliva to wash the food or plaque away from the teeth.

9. Crowding. As your child grows, we closely monitor their changing dentition and growing jaws. Any sign of early crowding, we will advise early orthodontic assessment with possible treatment. This can greatly reduce treatment time and cost with fixed ‘braces’ in later years.

10. Our Games room and take-home bags, including treats and dental information, are provided as an incentive to show children that not all dental visits have to be a scary experience.