We love meeting new patients and working with those who’ve entrusted us with their care for many years. However, we also understand that, aside from routine dental exams and cleaning visits, most people would prefer to spend their time anywhere besides the dental chair.
If you’ve sustained dental damage or decay, professional treatment is an absolute necessity. Allowing damage to go unchecked can make a bad situation worse. At Cheng H. Tai, DDS, in Midtown Manhattan, New York. Dr. Tai and our team urge you to schedule restorative dental care sooner rather than later.
In some cases, you can postpone restorative dental work for a short period of time. For example, if you’ve sustained a minor chip on the corner of a tooth and there’s no pain or significant tissue loss, you don’t have to rush in the next day to have it taken care of.
But it isn’t always easy to know which dental problems can wait, and which should be seen by a specialist right away. Another thing to consider is that your routine dental exams and cleanings are scheduled for a specific length of time.
There isn’t always room in the schedule to move ahead with restorative work. So, you could end up having to book another visit to have one or more teeth repaired.
When it comes to dental health issues, things can become complicated quickly. This is especially true when it comes to infection. Once bacteria takes hold within your teeth or gum tissue, it can accelerate quickly, and it doesn’t always happen at a steady pace.
This can mean you’re feeling fine one day, with minimal and manageable dental pain, and find yourself in severe pain just hours later. If this happens in the middle of the night, you may be looking at hours of pain that could have been prevented by coming in as soon as you noticed something was amiss.
A cracked or broken tooth can also become much more painful in a short period of time. Once the structural integrity of your tooth is compromised, bacteria has an entry point. The interior areas of your tooth offer the perfect breeding ground for bacteria, which can reproduce very quickly.
Human beings are incredibly resilient. Faced with change, we often find a way to adapt. If you have one or more damaged teeth, you’ll quickly find ways to work around that damage.
In many cases, this means altering your diet to avoid foods that could cause additional damage or trigger pain. However, many of the healthiest foods are those that require vigorous chewing, such as seeds, nuts, and fibrous fruit and vegetables. Leaving these out of your diet can have serious long-term health effects.
Damaged teeth can also change the way you speak, especially if you’ve lost teeth. Altered speech leads many people to avoid speaking with others and makes them uncomfortable in new social settings. But strong social connections are an integral part of a healthy, happy life.
There’s also the confidence factor to consider. Visibly damaged teeth can change the way you feel about your appearance. This can cause you to avoid social interactions at school, work, or with friends.
One of the biggest reasons people postpone restorative dental care is the belief that the experience will be painful or otherwise stressful. In reality, today’s dental tools and techniques are much more effective and comfortable than those of decades past.
There’s no need to feel stress or anxiety over restorative dental care. Dr. Tai and his team strive to make each visit as comfortable and enjoyable as possible. You’ll be in great hands, and your comfort level is always a consideration throughout the treatment process.
Postponing urgent dental matters will only make things worse. Once you’ve visited and had your dental issues resolved in a warm, welcoming setting, you’ll know where to turn the next time you need to repair or replace a damaged tooth.
If you have a damaged tooth that may need immediate attention, call our office at 845-640-3806 right away. We’re here to help, and providing high-quality emergency dental care is one of our areas of expertise. You can also check appointment availability through our online booking page.
