Offering Hygiene and Preventive Care

We offer our patients comprehensive preventive dental care with our complete dental exam, cleaning and follow up care.

Our office believes that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We pride ourselves in providing the most thorough, comprehensive dental examination around. During your first visit for your New Patient Exam (as well as routinely as an existing patient) we will be checking the following areas to keep you healthy:

• Head & Neck Examination (Checking the face and neck, lymph nodes for lumps and bumps as well as evaluating for TMJD)
• Occlussal Analysis (Evaluating the way you bite and the interaction between your upper and lower teeth)
• Evaluation of Existing Restorations & Conditions (Examination of current restorations (I.e. fillings, crowns, broken teeth, loose teeth, and visual decay)
• Full mouth X-rays
• Photographs of you and your smile
• Video tour of your mouth
• Periodontal Charting & Gum Evaluation

Our Hygiene Department

Your gums and the bone that supports your teeth are the foundation of your mouth. We offer the most comprehensive hygiene department around! Together, Dr. Pawl and our hygienist April have developed and implemented a wonderful program to get your gums healthy and to keep them that way! Knowledge is power and we are here to help guide you to a lifetime of healthy, happy teeth and gums!

Everyone’s dental hygiene needs are different. We re-evaluate the health of our patient’s gums at every visit so that we can maintain a personalized standard of care for you and your oral health. A staggering 2/3 of the population have some form of periodontal disease. More frightening, we’ve found that many patients who come to our office for care have never even had a periodontal screening. After you’ve been evaluated, a program will be recommended to best suit your periodontal needs.

Prophylaxis (Cleaning): A prophylaxis/prophy or commonly referred to as a general cleaning, is the type of cleaning most patients are familiar with. A prophy is a cleaning for someone who has, for the most part, healthy gums. During a prophylaxis, plaque and tartar build-up and deposits are removed from the teeth. Depending on your particular needs, a recare interval will be recommended by our hygienist and Dr. Pawl. Usually, a recare interval will be recommended at either 3, 4, or 6 months. To be as proactive as we can with your health, we will always re-evaluate your re-care interval at every visit!

Scaling & Root Planing (Deep Cleaning): While a prophylaxis (mentioned above) removes plaque and tartar found above the gum line in overall healthy mouths, scaling and root planing focuses on unhealthy areas below the gums. These areas are called “periodontal pockets”. A periodontal pocket is formed when debris is trapped between the root surface of a tooth and the gum tissue. When this occurs, the gum tissue becomes inflamed and pulls away from the tooth. If left untreated, these unhealthy areas can lead to bone loss and eventually, tooth loss. During scaling and root planing, the debris is removed from under the gums in order to help those areas begin to heal. Once scaling and root planing has be performed, a “perio maintenance recare” interval will be recommended for either 3 or 4 months. These recare visits are crucial to maintaining the success of your oral health and your investment made in the initial treatment.

In addition to the hygiene services described above, we offer two types laser therapy to further your periodontal success. To learn more please refer to the links below about Laser Bacterial Reduction/“LBR” & Laser Assisted Periodontal Therapy/”LAP