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frequently asked questions

Here's some answers to some commonly asked questions at Annandale Village Dentistry. 

WHAT SHOULD I DO IF I'M COMING FROM ANOTHER PRACTICE?                

Please let our receptionist know at the time of booking. Your previous dental history may be very useful for us to understand your mouth better. You can give us permission to request copies of your previous records on your behalf. Just complete the Records Request Form and send it to us. We'll do the rest.

If you feel uncomfortable contacting your current practice or want to try us out first, that's OK. We are happy to meet you either way..

WHAT IS A DIAGNOcam AND WHY DO YOU USE IT?

Our Kavo Diagnocam is an advanced camera that uses near infra-red laser light to look inside your teeth without using x-rays. This type of light does no harm to your teeth, gums or any other body cells. Basically it’s a completely non-invasive way of looking inside your teeth.

Diagnocam can pick up early decay and cracks before we can see them with a visual inspection of even on x-ray images. If we can find this decay early, we can try to teach you how to reverse it so that hopefully you won’t need any fillings.

At Annandale Village Dentistry we want to help you to have the healthiest teeth you can. And we really don’t want to do any invasive dentistry on you if we can avoid it. That is why we use the Diagnocam. To help you prevent problems before they need intervention.

We include a Diagnocam examination as a standard part of our Initial Examination and Review Examination. You will be able to watch with us on our monitor as we give you a tour through your mouth. We will usually take an image of most of your back teeth. These images will form part of your dental records so that we can compare them with future images. The Diagnocam is most useful and picking up changes over time. These changes can show improvement or degradation of your dental health.

Diagnocam is completely safe to use during pregnancy and for kids.

Diagnocam can’t look quite as deep inside your teeth as x-rays can. For this reason, in some instances, we will still recommend x-rays.

How much radiation am i getting from x-rays?

The dosage from a single dental x-ray is miniscule. The radiographs that we take at Annandale Village Dentistry are digital and expose you to only about 1 tenth the X-rays of a standard film radiograph. The approximate dose from a single digital dental radiograph is about 1 microsievert (uSv). This is not a whole-body exposure. The exposure is essentially limited to the area around your head and upper body.

To give you an idea of how small this is, 1uSv is about 0.067% of a year's standard background radiation in Australia. 

Remember, background radiation is to your whole body.

• Flying in an aeroplane exposes you to about 1uSv every 20 mins

• Living in Katoomba as opposed to Sydney increases your background radiation by about 1uSv every 2 days

Rest assured we will only recommend taking radiographs when they are advisable to ensure your medical and dental health.

 do i need fluoride?

Well, that depends…

We recommend that children with newly erupted or developing teeth have a fluoride treatment every six months. This application of soluble fluoride ions helps by:

• speeding up the maturation process of the enamel, replacing impurities with strong fluorapatite crystals that are more resistant to decay.

• reacting with free calcium ions in your saliva to form a protective coating of calcium fluoride over the surface of the teeth. Calcium fluoride is the same form of fluoride found in nature and is insoluble in water. This layer has been shown by researchers to protect teeth against acid attack for months after a fluoride treatment.

• acting to reverse early decay by remineralising areas of enamel that have lost their mineral.

If you are an adult with early decay or lots of fillings and high decay risk then you will probably gain benefit from having a fluoride treatment. Fluoride can soak into early decay sites and start the process of remineralising them. Even cavities can benefit from fluoride by slowing down the decay process.

If you are an adult with healthy teeth, you may not gain a lot by having a fluoride treatment. However some adults have always had fluoride at the dentist. If this is the case, we will be unlikely to recommend a change to this scheme as it may be part of what is keeping your teeth healthy.

We will let you know if we think you will benefit from fluoride and discuss it with you during your visit.

but isn’t fluoride toxic?

In really high doses anything is toxic including water and oxygen.

In the correct dose, fluoride is not toxic at all. It’s safe and beneficial for your health.

Unfortunately misinformed people can often run scare campaigns that try to make people afraid of things that are beneficial and healthy. Sometimes these actions are well-intentioned and sometimes they are done for sinister reasons or for financial gain.

The best scientists from around the world have formed the view that fluoride is safe. The Australia Dental Association has a really good section about fluoride on their website. Click HERE to see it.

HERE is a link to the fact sheet produced by ADA in NSW.

If you have concerns about fluoride please discuss it with us. You will never find us judgemental at all. We would love to have a chat with you, listen to your concerns and work with you. We would be happy to provide you with access to some of the best research papers. Give us a call.

does it hurt to have a clean with you?

We aim to clean your teeth really thoroughly and really carefully. We don’t want to hurt you at all. We have a gentle and careful technique. Our high tech machinery even warms the water to make it more comfortable for you.

Some people have really sensitive teeth. If you are unlucky enough to be one of these people we will do everything we can to make your experience a comfortable and positive one.

We can apply desensitising creams, use topical numbing gels or even nitrous oxide laughing gas to help you not feel pain. We can clean sensitive areas by hand if you need us to. If your teeth are really sensitive we can carefully give you local anaesthetic so that it’s numb and help you through it. We encourage you to let us know how it’s going so that we can optimise our technique for your needs.