Quality general dental care is essential for maintaining good oral health. Plus, your oral health directly impacts your overall general health. Our talented dental team at Downriver Smiles provides all the general dentistry services your family needs at our state-of-the-art dental clinic in Spokane, WA.
General dentistry includes all the basic services to keep your smile healthy and functional. From general cleanings, specialty cleanings, and oral cancer screenings to repairing cracked or broken teeth, our team cares for all the smile needs in your entire family. We can treat gum disease and painful teeth, create custom mouthguards for sports or sleep apnea, and help with bad breath or jaw pain. Our skilled team can even handle tooth extractions, including wisdom teeth, and perform pain-free root canals to save infected teeth.
Cleanings & Checkups
Dental cleanings and checkups are foundational to good oral health. Combined with routine home oral care, they keep your smile healthy and bright. Most patients are recommended to have at least two dental checkups and professional cleanings each year to eliminate plaque and tartar buildup and catch any dental issues before they can become worse. Downriver Smiles offers professional dental cleanings and checkups at our state-of-the-art dental clinic in Spokane.
Brushing and flossing your teeth at least twice each day is essential for keeping your smile healthy. But regardless of how often or thorough you are with your home oral care, it is easy to miss areas. The back teeth, especially, can be difficult to clean properly. Plus, if teeth are misaligned or close together, it may be almost impossible to clean them adequately with simple brushing and flossing.
This is why a bi-annual professional cleaning by our hygienist at Downriver Smiles is so essential. We can see and reach areas that are difficult to clean in your own mouth and use professional-grade equipment to clear away every vestige of plaque and tartar buildup. This keeps your teeth and gums healthy, preventing other oral health problems.
Oral Cancer Screening
Detecting oral cancers early is the key to effective treatment. In most cases, by the time a patient discovers a problem in their mouth and sees a doctor or dentist, oral cancer has already progressed quite far. A simple exam by your dentist at each bi-annual dental exam and cleaning appointment could save your life.
Our dentists and team at Downriver Smiles are dedicated to doing everything possible to help you maintain great oral and overall health. This includes oral cancer screenings for our patients. If you are at risk for any type of cancer due to family history or other factors, you should have an oral cancer screening at each routine dental appointment. If it has been a while since your last exam and cleaning or you have never had an oral cancer screening, call Downriver Smiles today and schedule it as soon as possible.
Halitosis Treatment
Occasional bad breath can be expected when you’ve eaten onions, garlic, or some other food with a strong aroma. Just rinse your mouth, and pop a breath mint until you can brush your teeth and use mouthwash. But, persistent bad breath, known as halitosis, that does not go away with routine home oral care is an embarrassing problem. Our dentists and team at Downriver Smiles can identify the problem and provide professional halitosis treatment for our dental family in Spokane, WA.
We understand that frequent, persistent bad breath can be embarrassing, causing you to avoid social situations and maybe even making you put off calling the dentist. The team at Downriver Smiles is committed to helping you maintain superior oral health, regardless of the issue, and we deal with halitosis and other problems all the time.
Night Guard For Bruxism (Teeth Grinding)
A number of patients need a mouthguard to prevent nocturnal teeth grinding. They grind or clench their teeth together at night while asleep. Whether it is from tension, stress, or some other cause, it does incredible damage to your teeth over time. A dental night guard is worn while sleeping to keep the teeth from meeting together. This prevents teeth grinding, or bruxism, while you are asleep and unable to control it.
While an over-the-counter mouthguard can be picked up at a local sports supply store, it is a poor substitute for a custom night guard. Our dentists use our 3D cone beam scanner to create a digital model of your teeth that is then sent to a dental lab. The lab creates a custom mouthguard or night guard just for you. This usually takes about a week. A custom night guard created by your dentist is far superior to the alternatives – especially doing damage to your teeth that makes expensive repairs necessary.
Custom Dental Mouth Guard
Our dentist is an experienced dentist in Spokane, and he has seen numerous patients needing emergency dentistry because of a sports injury. He recommends a custom mouthguard for any sport with a risk of damaging the teeth. It is also wise to get a new custom mouthguard every season, as growth or wear can make them less effective.
TMJ/TMD Treatment
The temporomandibular joint (TMJ) is your jaw joint that allows you to speak, chew food, and otherwise open and close your mouth. As such, it can endure incredible stress that places it at risk for pain and/or dysfunction. These problems are referred to generally as temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD). Our dentists and team at Downriver Smiles provide TMJ/TMD treatment at our modern dental clinic.
Many people do not realize the incredible pressure that the TMJ exerts when we chew. Any misalignment, trauma, or other factor that impacts this joint can cause problems. Some symptoms of TMJ/TMD can include:
- Jaw pain
- Facial pain
- Jaw inflammation
- Clicking or popping noise when opening or closing the mouth
- Earache
These are all signs of a TMD that requires an exam and customized treatment. Even teeth that become misaligned can affect the jaw joint over time, causing TMD.
Pediatric Dentistry
You would not take your motorcycle to a boat dealer for repairs, and you should not take your child to an adult dentist for care. Children’s dentistry deals with the specific concerns of new teeth development, building good oral habits from the start and monitoring your child’s dental development through the teen years. Our dentists and team at Downriver Smiles welcome families with small children, even newborns, to our dental family.
Children have different oral challenges and patterns of development than adults, which requires a specific type of skill. Our dentist can monitor your child’s oral development and care for their new teeth from the earliest age. Call Downriver Smiles when you need children’s dentistry in Spokane, WA.
Dental Sealants
Dental sealants are a plastic-like material that is completely biodegradable and safe for digestion. This substance is brushed onto the teeth surface and allowed to cure to form a strong barrier against cavities and bacterial infection. It is colorless, tasteless, and completely harmless, but can provide vital extra protection against dental caries.
Back teeth in particular can be at higher risk for cavities, due to all the nooks and crannies in their shape. Younger patients may not get these teeth as clean, allowing bacteria to cause cavities that put their oral health at risk. Some older adults or special needs patients who have trouble with home oral care can also benefit from dental sealants.
