Frequently Asked Questions

Every 6 months. How often you go for an oral exams depends on your oral health needs. The goal is to catch problems early.

• Usually, bleeding gums are caused by plaque which contains germs that attack the healthy tissue around the teeth.
• The gum will become reddish and inflamed, it will bleeds easily.
• This is called gingivitis. Some other signs may include: Pain, bad breath or taste & teeth that are loose.

At this stage, the problem can be completely reversed. So it is important not to ignore your bleeding gums and see a dentist as soon as possible.

Gum disease may occur in pregnant women. Redness, swelling and bleeding of gum tissue are the noticeable effects.

Poor oral hygiene and hormonal changes during pregnancy.

It may lead to periodontal disease is a gum infection that destroys attachment fibers and supporting bone that hold teeth in the mouth. It may affect the health of your baby.

• Maintain your oral hygiene by brushing twice daily and flossing daily during your pregnancy.
• Avoid high sugary content food such as ice cream, carbonated drinks etc
• Have a balanced and healthy diet with high nutrition.
• Schedule your dental visit before pregnancy and best during the 2nd trimester of your pregnancy.

Scaling is a procedure to remove the hard stone and certain stains on your teeth. Polishing is to make your tooth surface smooth after scaling. Deeper form of scaling is called root planning which cleans the root surface of your teeth under local anesthetic.

Hard stone is formed from dental plaque which consists of bacteria and food particles. When plaque get calcified then hard stone is formed. Dental plaque can be removed by normal tooth brushing but hard stone can be only removed by scaling.

It will cause gum diseases which your gums appear reddish, swollen and bleeds easily.

Twice a year. Regular dental scaling and polishing will ensure you a healthy teeth and gum.

Filling is to fill the hole of your decay tooth with tooth colored material to It can also reduce sensitivity caused by the hole.

Plaque is the culprit. Plaque bacteria reacts with food (such as sugar, rice, noodles etc) to produce acid which demineralize the tooth causing cavity on tooth.

C&P Dental Clinics never use mercury (silver colour filling) in our practices. That means our fillings are made of composite, tooth-colored material and we are not exposing your body to mercury (controversial material in a lots of countries).

It depends on the size of the cavity. Usually it takes 30mins to 1 hour per cavity.

It depends on the patient's oral health & general health and the size & location of cavity.

Denture is a removable appliances with artificial teeth to replace your missing teeth.

• Acrylic resin (plastic)
• Acrylic resin + Cobalt chromium (plastic+ metal)
• Flexible denture

• 1st visit: Take an impression of your mouth
• 2nd visit: Record of your bite
• 3rd visit: Try- in of your denture
• 4th visit: Issue of denture

Denture is an artificial plastic appliance. It is not real teeth. It is unable to perfectly restore your speech and chewing ability. You will need some time to get used to it. However, it is much cheaper than an implant.

It is the last upper and lower molar. As revolution goes by, human's jaw becomes smaller due to the change or lifestyle and diet habit. We no longer need our last molar to chew food. Smaller jaw causing lack of space for the last molar to grow and impaction occurs.

It is the last tooth to grow in our oral cavity. Around the age of 17-25.

• 'Coming in sideways' or becoming impacted (buried in the jaw bone)
• Difficult to clean and Trapped food which causes decay of wisdom tooth itself and neighboring tooth
• Swollen and painful gums around it
• Bad breath

When the first tooth appears or no later than his/her first birthday.

• Early decay of milk tooth/ Baby bottle tooth decay and
• Decay which leads to early loss of milk tooth

It can starts as soon as the first tooth grows in mouth.

Baby tooth contacts with the sugary milk/baby food such as fruit juice, sweetened milk, even breast milk over a long period of time.

• Affect the eruption of the permanent tooth causing abnormal position of the permanent tooth to grow.
• Affects the chewing efficiency of a child.
• Affects their speech development.

• Do not share saliva with the baby through a feeding spoon and don't lick the pacifier before giving it to the baby. This reduces the number of bacteria being transferred to the baby.
• After each feeding, wipe the baby's gums with a clean, damp gauze pad or washcloth.
• Avoid using milk bottle as pacifiers.
• Do not leave the milk bottle in baby's mouth overnight after feeding.
• Brush baby tooth gently twice a day using child's size toothbrush with water.
• Encourage the child to use a cup when they turn 1 year old.
• When child turns 3 years old, use pea's size fluoride toothpaste. Supervise them to avoid swallowing of toothpaste.
• Schedule your child's first dentist visit by the age of one.

It is a natural reflex for children to make them feel more secure and happy. Young children may also suck to soothe themselves and help them fall asleep.

Long period of sucking may cause problems with the proper growth of the mouth and alignment of the teeth.

Children usually stop sucking between the ages of two and four years old, or by the time the permanent front teeth are ready to erupt.

• Children usually suck their thumbs when they feel insecure. Comfort them you're your presence.
• Encourage them or praise them for not sucking their thumb.
• Apply some vinegar or pastes on their thumb to discourage them to suck their thumb.

• Usually, it is associated with stressful lifestyle. Emotion such as stress, tension, anxiety or anger.
• Malocclusion(misalign of teeth) is also known as one of the causes.

• Excessive wear to the teeth.
• Damage to the dental work such as fillings, veneers, crowns and bridges.
• Sore around the ear area (TMJ) due to continuous use of chewing muscles.

• Do exercise regularly to relax your mind
• Restore your wear teeth or damaged dental works.
• Wear bruxism appliance to avoid grinding at night

• Only when,
• Grossly decay tooth beyond saving
• Very mobile tooth
• Problematic wisdom tooth
• For braces purpose
• Etc.

• If you are under certain types of medication such as Aspirin, you need to consult your medical doctor before tooth extraction.
• After extraction, you are required to:
• Swallow your saliva to stop bleeding
• Eat only after the local anesthetic gone (when you do not feel the numbness)
• Avoid hot beverage and food on the first 24 hours
• Avoid rinsing on the first 24 hours
• Avoid talking too much
• Maintain normal brushing but avoid brushing on the site of extraction
• Have a good rest of the day
• Take painkiller if you are in pain