Family Dentistry - Lubbock, TX

When you have a family, ensuring that they are healthy and well cared for is a top priority for you, and dental care is no different. Yellow House Dental & Implant Center provides top-tier family dental services to residents of Lubbock and the surrounding communities. Our dental team apply their skills and experience to deliver personalized care for every member of your family.

Ready to receive the great dental care your family deserves? Contact our Lubbock family dentist and make your appointment today!

What's At Risk?

The most obvious risk of neglecting preventative dental care is decay. And while decay is a big deal, the silent killer here is Gum Disease.

Gum Disease has several different levels of severity and affects around 80% of American adults in one way or another. However, only 60 % are even aware that they have it because it is usually painless in the earlier stages. Gum Disease occurs when plaque begins to build up on your teeth and over time begins to harden from the calcium in our saliva. This substance is referred to as tartar or calculus. The specific germs that live in the tartar or calculus can be damaging to our gum tissue if left there, causing inflammation in the gum tissue. Bleeding when you brush and/or floss can be the early stages of Gingivitis.

If left untreated, that infection will then begin to infect the bone surrounding the teeth. Once it gets to this point, it is called Periodontitis. You’ll still experience the bleeding that occurs in the Gingivitis stages, but you’ll also experience bad breath, gum recession, bite issues and even pus pockets, loose teeth or even painful chewing. No two patients are the same though, so it’s also possible to have advanced Gum Disease and not experience any discomfort or noticeable symptoms at all.

Gum Disease can cause tooth loss, which in turn can negatively impact your quality of life, but even more alarming is that Gum Disease has been linked to issues such as Diabetes, Heart Disease, Respiratory Disease, Alzheimer’s, Osteoporosis, Cancer, Herpes, HIV, Autoimmune disorders as well as pregnancy complications.

Risk Factors For Gum Disease

• Smokers are four times more likely to develop advanced periodontal disease. “Secondhand smokers” have a 50-60% greater incidence of gum disease.
• More than half of adults aged 35-69 show signs surrounding three or four teeth.
• If your parents had gum disease, you are 12x more likely to have gum disease issues
• Women account for nearly 75% of periodontal office visits. Often due to the hormonal changes that women go through throughout their lives.
• Gum Disease appears in greater numbers amongst the poor, particularly in the elderly and children as well as racial minorities. Those with fewer financial resources for dental visits show the greatest amounts of oral bacteria.

Cleaning (Prophylaxis)

Getting your teeth cleaned by a professional hygienist is critically important to your overall dental health. Our hygienists and doctors are equipped with special magnifying glasses called loupes that allow them to see the nitty-gritty of what’s going on in your mouth. The hygienists are specially trained to be able to clean your teeth below the gum line and get all of the places that are harder to reach for you on your own. They are also able to keep an eye on the results you are achieving with your dental care at home. This allows you to have peace of mind that you are taking the best care of your teeth at home or gives the hygienist the opportunity to offer tips and tricks to help you improve your home care. We typically recommend that adults get their teeth cleaned twice a year, but some adults might need to get their teeth cleaned every 3-4 months. The frequency of needed cleanings can be impacted by factors such as genetics, dental history, at-home care habits, and medical conditions.

Dental Exams

Getting your teeth cleaned by a hygienist isn’t all that is needed for excellent dental care, though. That’s right, you need to see the actual dentist at least once a year. At the end of the day, they’re the only ones that can tell you if you have decay or infection so it’s important for them to actively track your dental health through exams at least once a year. There are three different kinds of dental exams that happen in our office, depending on your specific needs. Our administrative team will let you know their recommendation based on your circumstances when you contact us to schedule your appointment.

X-Rays

X-rays are necessary tools that the doctor uses to diagnose things that can’t be seen with the eye alone and yes, they ARE necessary. Think of the tooth as an iceberg. From the surface, you can only see the top of the iceberg. It might even look like it’s not a big deal just from the surface alone, but you don’t know how big it might be or the exact shape of it without looking beneath the surface. Teeth are the same way. Did you know that you can only see ⅓ of your tooth with the naked eye? That remaining ⅔ can only be examined with an x-ray. There’s a lot that can happen beneath the surface of the gums and we need an xray in order to be able to give the patient an accurate diagnosis. Not allowing a doctor to take x-rays, is like sending a fighter pilot in blind. They have all of the tools and equipment to fight the enemy, but they have to have a way to know where the enemy is and which enemy they’re fighting.

Oral Cancer Screenings

Oral cancer screenings happen at all new patient or comprehensive exams and any routine or periodic exams. It is recommended that patients get this done once a year, even if they don’t have any teeth at all. Oral cancer can show up in any tissue that is in your mouth, including your tongue, gums, and the insides of your cheeks. Early detection of oral cancer is crucial to your long-term health. Even if you no longer have any natural teeth, it is still important to have routine dental exams so that the health of the tissue in your mouth can be assessed. According to the Oral Cancer Foundation, 132 people are diagnosed with oral cancer in the US every day. Patients with oral cancer may experience no symptoms or they may experience symptoms that they do not recognize as symptoms. It is a common misconception that only tobacco users need to be concerned about oral cancer when in reality the largest growing group of oral cancer patients are young, seemingly healthy non-smoking individuals who have been exposed to HPV. It also isn’t uncommon for oral cancer to be symptom and pain-free until it has rapidly progressed. Because of this, frequent and consistent dental exams that include oral cancer screenings are vital to early detection and treatment.

Our doctors use a special light called Oral ID to help them identify any potential cancer risks that cannot be identified with the naked eye. Oral cancer screenings are part of most of our exams and are provided to you at no additional cost.

Sealants

Move over mom and dad, this one is for the kids! Sealants are something that is ALMOST exclusively done on children. One of the greatest things you can do for your children regarding their dental health, outside of getting their teeth cleaned regularly, is to get sealants. Cleaning your teeth at home can be a cumbersome task for adults, but it is even trickier for kids that struggle with the dexterity to maneuver around the mouth and maybe even the motivation to do so correctly and thoroughly.

The back teeth or molars, are some of the hardest to clean and treat because of their location in the mouth. Kids also tend to have deeper grooves on the biting surfaces of these teeth. A sealant is a thin, protective coating that either the doctor or hygienist places on the grooves of those back teeth. This helps to prevent any kind of food debris from settling there that could lead to decay.

According to the ADA, “sealants have been shown to reduce the risk of decay by nearly 80% in molars. This is especially important when it comes to your child's dental health. In October 2016, the Centers for Disease Control released a report on the importance of sealants for school-aged children, which only 43% of children ages 6-11 have. According to the CDC, ‘school-age children without sealants have almost three times more cavities than children with sealants.’” (Source)

Fluoride

Fluoride is proven to be a natural cavity fighter for both kids and adults. It helps to keep your enamel strong and can even fight off early signs of decay. (source 1, source 2)  

While fluoride does occur naturally in a lot of our food and water, we also recommend fluoride varnishes be applied at regular dental cleanings for kids and even some adults. Fluoride isn’t just for the kiddos though, it’s also good for expectant mothers. Many expectant mothers experience morning sickness that can badly damage their teeth. For these mothers, we will often recommend fluoride trays. Fluoride trays are also commonly used for cancer patients and other patients that experience issues with dry mouth.

Implant/Implant Retained Preventative Care

It’s a common misconception that if you have an implant or an implant-retained denture, they don’t need to be taken care of the same way as natural teeth. The truth, however, is that in most respects they need the same basic care. Bacteria and plaque can still adhere to an implant and, even more importantly, bacteria can collect around the gum line of an implant just as it can a natural tooth. When this happens, if it is not taken care of properly, it can cause damage to the tissue around the implant and the implant can ultimately fail. To prevent this, it is very important that any implant patient keeps up with excellent home care as well as frequent appointments with their dental hygienist.

Preventative Care While In Orthodontic Care

If you’ve ever had braces, you know how easy it is for food to get trapped in your brackets and wires. Great home care is crucial for keeping your mouth healthy while in braces, but did you know that regular visits to your dental hygienist are just as important? It can be really difficult to clean your brackets and the tooth surfaces around the brackets with just your toothbrush, but your dental hygienist can help you keep clean, fresh, and (mostly) bacteria-free between visits. We have had patients assume that because they are in braces, they don’t need to get their teeth cleaned. The truth is that while in orthodontic care, frequent dental visits are more important than ever. With all of the added hardware you now have, it’s going to be even more difficult to keep your teeth clean, and keeping them clean will not only help to minimize risks for decay but also keep teeth from becoming discolored. Oftentimes, we will recommend our ortho patients, no matter how great their home care is, to increase how often they get their teeth cleaned while in active orthodontic treatment to every 3 or 4 months instead of every 6 months.

Our hygienists and doctors will also work in close collaboration with your orthodontist to keep your teeth as healthy as possible while in braces. Ask them for recommendations of techniques and at-home aids specific for more complicated maintenance so you are empowered to up your home care game while transforming your smile.

Denture Care

If you or a loved one has a full denture, you might be thinking that you don’t have to deal with any routine dental care, but you actually do. Our doctors recommend that patients with full dentures still come in for a yearly exam to be sure that the dentures are still fitting and performing as expected, but also to have that oral cancer screening that we mentioned earlier. Even if a patient doesn’t have teeth, they’re still at risk of developing oral cancer and like many cancers, oral cancer has a higher survival rate the earlier it is caught.

Contact Our Lubbock Family Dentist

At Yellow House Dental & Implant Center, we believe that everyone deserves exceptional dental care, no matter their age or circumstance. For personalized, high quality dental care, contact our experienced family dentist in Lubbock and make your appointment today.