
Dental Hub
Your Dentistry Questions Answered
Welcome to the Smiles Centre dental hub, this is our dedicated page for sharing our news and answering all your questions. You can post questions to us by commenting on an existing post or by getting in touch by email, Facebook or by phone. We are always looking to answer as many questions as possible so please don't be shy, get involved and, if you find something you like then share it with your friends.
What is a Dental OPG
Smiles Centre Swindon has just had a dental OPG machine installed
What is an OPG machine?
A dental OPG is a panoramic wide view x-ray of the mouth which displays all the teeth on a single image. Part of the machine then rotates around your head as the images are being taken. During a cephalogram procedure, you will be asked to stand or sit in front of the x-ray machine and small pegs will be placed in your ears to help align your head. The scan typically takes less than 30 seconds to complete.

The practice can use the image to evaluate and diagnose treatments, they are often taken prior to oral surgery such as implants or complicated extractions.
Smiles Centre charges £75 to patients of the practice for an OPG but this is reduced for those patients that are currently on a Smiles Centre payment plan. You can find out more about our Smile Plans here.
What are the radiation risks?
What are the benefits vs. risks?
Benefits
- No radiation remains in a patient’s body after an x-ray examination.
- X-rays usually have no side effects in the typical diagnostic range for this exam.
- Panoramic x-rays can be used for very young children since the film does not have to be placed inside the mouth.
Risks
- Women should always inform their dentist or oral surgeon if there is any possibility that they are pregnant.
What are the limitations of dental opg Panoramic X-ray?
A panoramic x-ray does not provide precise and detailed information about each individual tooth or soft tissues, such as the muscles. It is generally used as an initial evaluation of the bones and teeth. Because your mouth is curved, the panoramic x-ray can sometimes create a slightly blurry image where accurate measurements of your teeth and jaw are not possible. If your dentist or surgeon needs more information, a computed tomography (CT) scan or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be ordered. This may include Dental Cone Beam CT, an imaging exam developed specifically for this part of the body.
Best Practices for Your Daily Oral Care Routine
There are few things as important as your dental care, and while we all know how important our teeth are, we’ve all made the mistake of overlooking their hygiene. In this article, we’re going to show you the best practices to keep your dental care on track every single day.
First of all, visit a dentist like Smiles Centre Swindon! Yes, it can feel like a chore, but it’s what makes the most sense when you don’t know where to start. We can advise you on what to do on a daily basis and if there’s any product that could help you achieve your dental care goals.
After you’ve done that, here’s what you should do to keep on track.
Keep a Healthy Schedule
Once you’re confident you’ve found the solution to apply, make sure you keep a healthy schedule every single day. This can be hard if you love going out late or if you have flexible hours at work, but having a routine is what makes the process of dental care that much easier to handle.
Smiles Centre Swindon can provide you with a family dentistry service to improve everyone in your homes dental care habits.
The reason why electrical toothbrushes are circular is that they are made specifically to brush each and every single tooth, one-by-one. In fact, one of the best ways to improve your dental care habits is to get one of these. They are easy to operate, and they do most of the work on their own.
Stay Consistent with Your Dental Care
Staying consistent is the key to achieving a smile that will shock your co-workers and friends. If you don’t know where to start, Smiles Centre Swindon provides general dentistry services that allow you to focus on what truly matters – your teeth.
In order to stay consistent with your dental care, you have to find a rhythm. It’s hard to keep track of everything in our hectic world, but your teeth should always be your top priority.
Even then, if you’re still having trouble and you want to find a quicker solution, Smiles Centre Swindon is at your disposal. Contact us now and get your very own personalised plan created by a professional to stay on track with your daily dental care!
Why You Should Visit a Dentist
Dental care is essential to a healthy lifestyle. Brushing your teeth regularly is always a great way to prevent them from staining or losing their natural bright white colour, but even when your brushing routine is impeccable, dental care still requires a lot of minute attention.
That’s why you should always visit a dentist like Smiles Centre Swindon every six to twelve months. Using professional tools and leveraging the expertise of our dentists, our dental sessions will provide a refreshing way to tackle everyday life.
You should visit your Dentist every 6 months, it’s a great way to check that nothing is wrong with your teeth and that there’s nothing to worry about in your daily dental care routine.
Most problems with our clients’ teeth are found during these checkups. Things like tooth decay, bleeding gums, and other problems are common in day-to-day life and they can be fixed early. This is the main reason why going to the dentist is so important for your dental care.
If you have problems with your teeth and you don’t believe they look nice, or maybe they’ve lost their natural white colour, a cosmetic dentist will be able to advise you on what’s best, and if it makes sense to undergo a dental whitening procedure.
You could be great at brushing your teeth, but you still wouldn’t be able to reach all the hard to reach areas that a professional dentists can. And even if you could, you wouldn’t be able to clean them as deeply and as properly as a dentist can.
This is because dentists have access to specific tools that they can use to improve your overall dental care by applying paste and scraping the areas in between the teeth. Yes, you can do that with dental floss, but not to the same degree that a dentist with professional tools would.
This means that dental care at the dentist guarantees absolute cleanliness once completed. If you had any bad bacteria in your mouth before you go in, then you’d definitely have none when you come out.
For older people, teeth cleaning can mean care of dentures and dental implants. In fact, these implants are often hard to clean on your own. Smiles Centre Swindon will take care of everything. Be it a simple checkup or a dental implant, we have the solution for you.
Call us for a quick roundup of our services!
Common Dental Mistakes You Should Stop Doing
Dental health is simple, right? You brush, floss and repeat. Well actually no. Your oral health is an essential part of your overall health and ignoring it will come with very devastating consequences. Even if you think you’re doing everything right, there are still some problems with the daily brushing of your teeth that you don’t easily notice. These common mistakes may seem small, but they can put your dental health at risk. If you only want to visit your dentist for your 6 monthly appointments, you must know the importance of dental care and most importantly, you should stop doing the following mistakes immediately.
Not cleaning and replacing your toothbrush
Replacing your toothbrush once every three months or if the bristles of it begin to bend is highly recommended by dentists. Still, many people never replace their toothbrush until all the bristles have died out. They also don’t know how to properly clean their toothbrushes. If you’re not cleaning it, sooner or later it will turn into a breeding ground for germs which will eventually end up damaging your teeth.
Using alcohol-based mouthwash
Millions of people don’t know that using mouthwash is not healthy, especially the alcohol-based ones which can do more harm. Using mouthwash will disturb the natural flora inside your mouth and can cause dryness which then encourages the growth of bacteria. So it’s better to switch to natural mouthwashes.
Brushing after drinking coffee
Drinking coffee leaves stains on our teeth that may be stubborn to remove thereafter. So what a lot of people do is brush their teeth immediately after drinking coffee. But doing this is a huge mistake because you’ll be subjecting your teeth to more danger. Why? because coffee is acidic and if you brush your teeth right away you’ll be doing a lot of damage to the enamel. It’s better and also recommended that you wait for at least thirty minutes before brushing your teeth after drinking a cup of coffee, so the acidity in your mouth can neutralise. Furthermore, if you feel you have to clean your teeth after drinking a coffee, then you just have to rinse it with clean water or use a fluoride mouth rinse.
Schedule an appointment at Smiles Dentist Swindon we are here to help you avoid these dental brushing mistakes. Call us on 01793 200036 for more enquiries.