Dental health, in plain English

Six months is a reasonable default for most people, but it's a guideline, not a rule. If you've got healthy gums, no history of decay, and good habits at home, your dentist might stretch that to nine or even twelve months. On the other hand, if you've had gum disease, you're a smoker, you're pregnant, or you've got crowns, bridges or implants, more frequent visits — every three to four months — catch problems early, when they're cheap and painless to fix.

The real cost of skipping check-ups isn't the saved appointment — it's that small problems (a hairline crack, early decay between teeth, the start of gum recession) don't hurt until they're big problems. A filling costs a fraction of a root canal, and a root canal costs a fraction of an implant.

If it's been longer than you'd like to admit since your last visit, that's genuinely fine — we're not going to make you feel bad about it. Just get back in before the "I'll go eventually" turns into "it's throbbing and I can't sleep."

It's tempting to think baby teeth don't matter much since they're going to fall out anyway. In practice, they hold space for adult teeth, help with speech development, and let kids chew properly while their jaw grows. Untreated decay in baby teeth can also spread to the adult tooth developing underneath.

Start cleaning as soon as the first tooth appears — a soft, small brush and a smear of low-fluoride toothpaste is plenty for toddlers. Supervise brushing until kids can reliably do it themselves (usually around age 7–8), and try to get their first dental visit in around their first birthday, or whenever that first tooth shows up.

If your child is nervous, don't oversell it ("it won't hurt at all!") and don't catastrophise it either — matter-of-fact works best. We're used to apprehensive kids and we take it slow.

Professional whitening — whether in-chair or a take-home kit fitted by a dentist — uses a controlled concentration of peroxide gel and, critically, a custom tray or barrier that keeps it off your gums. That's the main safety difference between professional whitening and generic drugstore strips or kits: concentration control and fit.

Temporary sensitivity is common and normal — it usually settles within a day or two. Whitening doesn't work on crowns, veneers or fillings, so if you've got visible restorative work at the front of your mouth, it's worth discussing before you start, so you don't end up with a mismatched colour.

It's not permanent — coffee, tea, red wine and smoking will gradually bring the shade back over months to a couple of years, so most people top up occasionally rather than doing it once and being done forever.

Pick the tooth up by the crown — the white part — never the root. If it's dirty, rinse it gently with milk or saline, not tap water, and don't scrub or wrap it in anything dry. If you can manage it, pop it back into the socket facing the right way and bite down gently on a clean cloth to hold it there.

If re-inserting it isn't possible, the next best option is to keep it in a small container of milk (or, in a pinch, your own saliva) and get to a dentist within 30 minutes. The longer the tooth is out of the mouth and dry, the lower the chance it can be saved.

Call ahead if you can — it means we can have the right setup ready before you walk in the door.