General dentistry in Milton Keynes Dental Clinic

Your teeth work hard. They break down hundreds of meals each year. So, given how much they do, taking care of them is important. Like any other body part, your teeth are susceptible to injury and infection. When dental problems arise, they can impact your overall health.

Maintaining your dental health takes effort; however, it is important. Routine checkups and general dental treatments like professional cleaning, fillings, and root canals all keep your teeth healthy and looking good.

At Milton Keynes Dental Clinic, we excel at providing general dental care. Led by Mr. Jay Joshi, our entire team takes a gentle and caring approach.

Made up of experienced and friendly private dentists, dedicated reception staff, and excellent dental hygienists, our whole team is committed to maintaining the health of your smile.

Your Annual Dental Health Checkup

We recommend visiting our dental practice at least once a year for a dental checkup— an invitation we’d like to extend to your whole family, from youngest to oldest.

As a leading private dentist in Milton Keynes, we provide quality dental care to nervous patients from our modern clinic in Bletchley. This ensures anyone with dental anxiety can feel calm and enjoy a pleasant experience of private dental treatment.

We understand it can be difficult to budget for private dental services like checkups. To help spread the cost, we offer monthly dental plans.

The Benefits Of Routine Dental Appointments

Dental issues can affect you at any stage of your life, and we’re here to help you manage them. Everyone has bacteria inside their mouths. Much of this bacteria is harmless; however, some erode enamel and cause cavities, gum disease, and dental infections.

A dental appointment helps you avoid these problems and maintain healthy teeth. If you’ve had previous dental treatments or have missing teeth, a checkup lets us monitor these areas for changes.

Additionally, regular checkups can also keep your smile looking and feeling fresh.

What To Expect During Your Checkup

During your checkup, we’ll look for the early signs of tooth decay, gum disease, dental infections, and mouth cancer. We may take X-rays to gain a deeper understanding of your oral health as well as physically examine your teeth, gums, and jaws.

A regular, thorough assessment helps us catch problems early before the symptoms worsen. And once we spot an issue, we can put a treatment plan into action to address it quickly.

Checkups are a vital element of your dental care. Call our private dental practice in Bletchley to book an appointment.

Dental Hygiene Treatments

Tooth decay and gum disease are both caused by bacteria. Bacteria mixed with saliva and food debris form plaque, a clear sticky substance that coats your teeth and gums.

As the bacteria feed on the sugar you consume, acid is produced. Without thorough oral hygiene standards, this acid will erode your teeth. The plaque will also harden to form tartar, a dark, solid substance that sticks firmly to your teeth.

Once it forms along the bottom of your teeth, it aggravates your gum tissue, causing gingivitis.

Unfortunately, tartar cannot be removed through brushing alone. Professional cleaning from a dental hygienist is the only safe way to fight tartar.

The Benefits of Professional Dental Cleaning

Regular hygiene appointments help remove plaque and tartar build-ups to prevent decay, gum disease, and infection.

Using simple techniques like scale and polish, a deep professional clean not only improves the health of your smile but also leaves your teeth feeling fresher and looking brighter.

A scale and polish uses fine, powerful water jets to lift away hardened stains and tartar.

Improve Your Smile for Life

Visiting our dental hygienist is also an opportunity to learn how to care for your smile better. During your hygiene appointment, we can discuss how to make valuable lifestyle changes like quitting smoking or reducing sugar intake.

During your appointment, we can also review your home oral health routine. We can help you improve your brushing techniques and advise you on the best dental products to use. It’s this holistic approach that helps you maintain a beautifully healthy smile.

Alongside our hygiene services, we also offer several discreet cosmetic dental treatments.

Call us today to schedule an appointment with our dental hygienist.

Fillings

When the acid from plaque bacteria erodes your dental enamel, it causes cavities and puts your tooth at risk of infection. Getting your tooth repaired is essential.

Understanding Cavities

The first sign of tooth decay is often sensitivity to hot or cold food and drink. Gradually, this may extend to pain while eating and even a constant feeling of discomfort. You may also notice damage on the surface of the tooth.

Repairing Your Tooth

Fillings fix areas of your tooth damaged by decay. We use high-quality silver or tooth-coloured fillings to mend cavities. Tooth-coloured fillings are ideal for the more prominent teeth while hard-wearing silver fillings can restore the chewing surfaces of the less visible molars at the back of the mouth.

We’ll provide an anaesthetic to reduce discomfort during your treatment. Following the brief procedure, you should avoid consuming food or hot drinks until you fully regain feeling in your mouth.

If you’re concerned about tooth decay, call us today to book an appointment.

Root Canal Treatments

Dental infections don’t just cause severe discomfort; they also put your oral health at risk. If a tooth is damaged through decay or trauma, bacteria can enter.

Once inside, the bacteria will travel to the living tissues, cells, and nerve endings within the pulp chamber at the tooth’s core. As the bacteria infects the tooth, the tissue inside becomes inflamed, and the pressure causes pain.

Alongside toothache, you may also experience swelling in your gums and cheeks, and the tooth may darken. The infection will also cause bad breath, and pus may develop at the base of the tooth.

Why Root Canal Treatments Are Necessary

A root canal treatment is the best way to fight the infection. Without prompt dental treatments, infections spread. The affected tooth will become necrotic, abscesses will form at the root, and the infection will move on to harm neighbouring teeth as well as your gums and jaw.

If the infection enters your bloodstream, it could spread to organs like your heart.

How We Perform a Root Canal Treatment

A root canal treatment removes infected matter and bacteria inside the affected tooth. We use a clinically proven technique with a high success rate.

Under local anaesthetic, we carefully clean inside the tooth before filling it with a natural material called a gutta-percha. Next, we’ll repair the damaged surface of your tooth using a filling.

Root canals are routine, painless dental treatments. After removing the infection, any pain will usually subside immediately; however, you may experience mild sensitivity following the procedure.

To prevent reinfection, we often suggest strengthening the tooth with a dental crown.

Dental treatments are most effective when provided early. If you have any of the signs of infection, book an appointment at our private dental surgery in Milton Keynes today.

Extractions

There are several reasons to remove a tooth; however, we’ll only perform extractions when they are absolutely essential.

Losing a tooth under any circumstance can increase the risk of other complications like tooth decay, gum disease, dental drift, and jawbone loss.

Following an extraction, we’ll monitor for these potential issues and provide advice on how to avoid them.

Why Extractions Are Necessary

We may extract a tooth if:

Your teeth are severely crowded, and you require dental braces
You have an untreated infection, and the tooth cannot be saved
You have an impacted wisdom tooth
You have sustained trauma to the mouth
You have compromised teeth and are about to receive chemotherapy or an organ transplant

The Dental Extraction Process

Before the procedure, we’ll take X-rays of your teeth and jaws. This helps us plan the next steps.

We’ll provide you with a local anaesthetic to prevent pain and discomfort at the treatment site. Once your mouth is prepared, we remove the tooth using a tool called an elevator and dental forceps. This simple procedure is brief and painless.

In more complicated cases, a surgical extraction is necessary. This usually applies if the tooth has broken off below the gum line or hasn’t erupted.

Recovery Following Dental Extraction

Following the procedure, we recommend using antibacterial mouthwash and painkillers to manage any discomfort and reduce the chance of infection.

Because losing a tooth can lead to complications, you should consider replacing it with a dental implant or a dental bridge.

Dental implants restore the entire root from root to crown, while dental bridges replace the visible portion of a tooth, taking support from neighbouring teeth.

Call our Bletchley clinic to book your appointment.

Wisdom Tooth Removal

Permanent teeth emerge from around seven years old until the early teenage years. But several years later, a third and final set of molars may emerge at the back of your mouth. This can occur between the ages of 17 and 25.

In many cases, these molars emerge without an issue; however, their arrival can cause pain, discomfort, and potential cysts and infections for some.

Why Wisdom Teeth Become Impacted

Problems with wisdom teeth often stem from the size of your jaw. If you don’t have enough space along your jawline to accommodate your extra teeth, they may not have room to erupt fully and will become impacted.

When a tooth becomes impacted, it may grow at an angle beneath the surface of your gums. Sometimes, the additional molar grows toward the rear of your mouth, while at other times, it grows on its side or into your other teeth.

The Symptoms Of An Impacted Wisdom Tooth

The symptoms of an impacted wisdom tooth include:

Red, sore, swollen, or bleeding gums
Swelling and pain in your jaw
Bad breath
Unpleasant taste
Difficulty opening and closing your mouth

The Wisdom Tooth Extraction Process

How we perform your wisdom tooth extraction procedure will depend on its position. We’ll take X-rays of your teeth to determine the best course of action. Regardless of whether you need a simple or surgical extraction, we will provide anaesthetic to ensure you’re comfortable and feel calm throughout.

For a simple extraction, we’ll use an elevator to loosen the tooth before removing using forceps. Surgical extractions require a more complicated procedure, which may involve breaking the tooth apart.

Recovery Following Wisdom Tooth Extraction

After your procedure, you may experience some soreness around the treatment site. You can manage this easily with painkillers. Rinsing your mouth regularly using antibacterial mouthwash will also help reduce the risk of infection.

If you’re experiencing the symptoms of an impacted third molar, we must determine the best dental treatment for your needs. Call to book your appointment at our Milton Keynes dental practice today.

Denture Repairs

If your dentures become worn or damaged, it can greatly impact your life. Visible cracks or chips can leave you feeling self-conscious about your smile, and the damage may also affect your ability to bite or chew.

Dentures should last for many years. But if you’re not ready to replace them, a repair is still often an option.

At Milton Keynes Dental Clinic, we offer high-quality repair services to restore your dentures as quickly as possible.

Our skilled and experienced technicians can make your broken dentures feel new again. We can fix full and partial dentures and provide adjustments

Get in touch today to learn more.

Frequently Asked Questions

Get answers to our most frequently asked questions below.

How often should I visit the dentist?

We advise making an appointment to see us at least once a year. In some cases, we may suggest coming more often if you’re at an increased risk of dental issues. Dental patients with ongoing oral and general health issues or those who have received extensive dental work may benefit from more frequent appointments.

Why do I need regular dental checkups?

A dental checkup lets us spot the early signs of tooth decay, gum disease, dental infection, and mouth cancer. Early detection means we can start treatment sooner. This often reduces the complexity of the treatment and improves the potential outcome.

What are the signs of tooth decay?

The first indications of decay are often sensitivity, toothache, and dark areas forming on your teeth.
If you’re experiencing these symptoms, call our Bletchley dental practice to schedule an appointment or book online.

What are the symptoms of gum disease?

Gum disease starts with slight bleeding while brushing your teeth or eating. You may also notice your gum tissue becoming darker, sore, and inflamed. You may also have bad breath and a sour taste in your mouth.
As gingivitis progresses to periodontitis, pockets form under your gums, and your teeth become loose. Following this, your jaw will deteriorate, and your teeth will fall out.
If you’re concerned about your gum health, call the practice and book a checkup today.

Do you screen for mouth cancer?

Yes. During your routine dental checkup, we look for the early signs of mouth cancer. The symptoms of mouth cancer include persistent ulcers, a chronic sore throat, difficulty swallowing, a swollen neck, a numb tongue, and red or white patches on any soft tissue.
Early detection is essential when treating mouth cancer. In addition to regular dental checkups, quitting smoking can help minimise the risk of it developing.

What are the signs of a dental infection?

A dental infection occurs when bacteria enter a damaged tooth. The most noticeable symptom is often a throbbing pain in and around the infected tooth. You may also experience swelling in the gums and cheek nearby. As infections progress, the tooth may become darker, and pus can ooze from the gums.
Early dental treatments to fight infections have a higher success rate. If you have any of these symptoms, get in touch to book an appointment with the leading dentist in Milton Keynes.

Does a root canal treatment hurt?

Although a dental infection is very painful, a root canal treatment to remedy it is painless. Before the procedure, we’ll provide you with a local anaesthetic so you won’t feel a thing.

What are the reasons for extracting teeth?

We only remove teeth when it’s clinically necessary. Losing a tooth can impact your overall oral health, create gaps in your smile, and affect your ability to bite and chew.
The most common reasons for extractions include infection and injury. We may also extract impacted wisdom teeth or remove teeth before orthodontic treatment.
Extractions are sometimes required when you face severe health problems.
If you have concerns, book an appointment to discuss them with our dental team.

When does a wisdom tooth need extraction?

Wisdom teeth emerge later than your other permanent teeth. They typically emerge between the ages of 17 and 25. They don’t always need extracting.
If there’s insufficient space along your jawline to accommodate the new teeth, they may become impacted, causing pain, swelling, and infection. In this instance, extraction becomes essential.
Call us to book an appointment if you have any of the symptoms of an impacted wisdom tooth.

How can I overcome dental anxiety?

We see many nervous patients at our dental practice, so we understand how anxiety can put you off receiving essential dental treatments.
Whether you’re here for a checkup or receiving any dental treatment, talk to us about your dental anxiety during your initial consultation. If we know, our highly skilled and friendly team will ensure you get the best treatment at a pace that suits you.
We can also suggest strategies to help you manage your anxiety during dental treatments.