Family Dentistry
While the dental team at Gardner Family Dentistry offers a range of dental services, it’s family dentistry that stands as our core service. We love coming alongside your family to support good oral health from infancy through senior years. By connecting with one dentist for your entire life, your family can support better hygiene habits and overall wellness. If you’re looking for family dentistry in Huntsville, AL, then you want the friendly, caring team at Gardner Family Dentistry.
What Is Family Dentistry?
Family dentistry is a type of dentistry service that provides general dental care to patients of all ages. In a family dentistry practice, like Gardner Family Dentistry, families can receive excellent pediatric dental services while also seeing the same dentist or practice for their adult needs. Working with a family dentist means you can continue seeing the same dentist even as you get older and face the types of oral health concerns that affect seniors.
Family Dentistry vs. General Dentistry
While family dentistry has many things in common with general dentistry, they are not the same type of service. Most general dentistry practices focus on one age group, and that’s typically young and middle-aged adults. Children will get referred to a pediatric dentist, while seniors are sent to a dentist who specializes in senior care. Switching dental practices like this can open the door for oral health concerns to get overlooked. It also means the need to explain your health history in full each time you switch. At Gardner Family Dentistry, we prefer being able to see our patients throughout their lifetimes.
Do You Need a Family Dentist?
If you’re looking for a new dentist, you may be wondering if you need a family dentist or if a general dentist is sufficient. The answer depends on your current and future needs. Here are some considerations to make.
- Children: If you currently have children, we recommend a family dentist for the whole family. If you think you will have children in the future, choosing a family dentist now means they can see the same dentist you already have a relationship with.
- Age: If you’re nearing the age of 60, choosing a family dentist means you’ll be working with a dentist who is trained in senior care needs.
- Services: Family dentists may offer more services than general dentists, so always look at service offerings.
Benefits of Choosing a Family Dentist
When you choose a family dentist in Huntsville, AL, instead of an age-specific dentist, you benefit in several ways. These include:
- Relationships: We build relationships with your family. We know when your child starts college, starts babbling, or loses that first baby tooth. We understand the unique family situations that may impact your oral health needs.
- Convenience: You can make appointments for yourself and your kids all in the same day to have just one visit to the dentist every six months.
- Knowledge: Family dentists aren’t just dentists who see people of all ages. Our team has training to care for the teeth of children, teens, adults, and seniors. You’ll get age-specific knowledge throughout your entire life.
- Continuity of Care: You can see the same dentist in Huntsville, AL, throughout your life, which means less risk that oral health concerns are inadvertently overlooked.
- Family Connection: Sometimes, oral health concerns have a genetic component, or your family’s habits may contribute to them. When you work with a family dentist who sees the entire family, we can more easily catch these types of issues and provide the appropriate care.
If you want to enjoy these benefits, including the convenience of having one dental office for all of your needs, then reach out to Gardner Family Dentistry. Schedule an appointment to discuss family dentistry, or reach out to schedule a screening and cleaning appointment.
Our Family Dentistry Services
As a family dentist in Huntsville, AL, Gardner Family Dentistry offers a wide range of services to patients of all ages. Here are some of them:
Preventive Care
Preventive dental care starts the moment a child’s first tooth erupts. We will teach you and your children how to brush and floss properly to take care of your teeth and keep them safe in your mouth for a lifetime. Preventive care also means routine screenings for common oral health concerns, including X-rays. For children, these oral health concerns often include cavities and problems with crowding. For adults, they often include bone loss and gum disease. Our family dentistry training means we know how to find all of these potential issues.
Routine Cleanings
Routine cleanings are a vital part of keeping your teeth healthy. Our practice makes these visits fun for young patients so that they can keep up with them throughout life. We also use these cleanings as a time to check growth and development in young patients or screen for adult issues in parents and grandparents.
Cavity Treatment
No matter your age, you can get a cavity. A family dentist knows well how to treat cavities to stop the decay from spreading. If we see signs of a cavity at your routine checkup, we will provide recommendations for treatment.
The most common way we treat cavities is with a filling. For young patients, we may just wait for the tooth to fall out while watching it carefully for signs that the infection is spreading. Once the cavity has been treated, we will work with our patients or their parents to help prevent future cavities from forming.
Oral Cancer Screenings
Every preventive appointment we offer includes a thorough examination of the soft tissue of the mouth. This allows us to screen for early warning signs of oral cancer. If we suspect an issue, we’ll ensure you get connected to the best specialists. Early detection is often the key to effective treatment, and we’re here to help.
Restorative Dentistry
Whether a child gets a tooth knocked out while playing sports or an adult loses a tooth because of bone loss, restoring the tooth is essential to protecting the bite and function of the mouth. We offer restorative dentistry services that are appropriate for all ages. From bridges to crowns to implants, we can ensure that you or your child retains full use of your mouth and teeth, even after tooth loss occurs.
Extractions
Sometimes teeth need to come out. For kids, this may be because of crowding issues or because an adult tooth is impacted. For adults, this may be due to infection or a painful crack. We offer basic extractions to ensure you can get that tooth out quickly to protect your oral health. We can also refer to oral surgeons for more complex extractions, like wisdom teeth.
Keep Your Whole Family’s Smile Healthy with Gardner Family Dentistry
Your entire family deserves a healthy mouth. At Gardner Family Dentistry, we make it easy for you to support good oral health with a robust family dentistry practice. From the moment your child’s first tooth comes in to the day they walk out the door, you can see the same dental practice and have the peace of mind that comes with knowing your dentist understands oral health for life.
Schedule a Family Dentistry Appointment Today
Take charge of your family’s oral health. Book an appointment with Gardner Family Dentistry today to see if family dentistry is right for your needs.
