Dental Exams
Most dental problems are silent long before they hurt. The exam is the part of your visit where we go looking for those problems on purpose, using what we can see, what we can measure, and what only imaging can reveal.
Dental exams in Northridge, CA
An exam is a structured look at your whole mouth, not just your teeth. Some of what we check for causes obvious symptoms. Much of it does not, which is exactly why the exam exists.
Tooth decay
We look for decay on visible surfaces and between teeth, where it commonly starts out of sight. Caught early, a small cavity is a filling. Left alone, it can reach the nerve and become a root canal.
Gum and bone health
We measure the depth of the pockets around your teeth and check for inflammation, recession, and bone loss. These measurements are how gum disease gets identified before teeth start loosening.
Cracks, wear, and failing work
Cracked teeth, worn enamel from grinding, and old fillings or crowns that are breaking down often cause no pain until they fail. Spotting them early usually means a smaller repair.
Oral cancer screening
We examine the soft tissues of your mouth, tongue, and throat for anything unusual. This takes under a minute and is one of the more important things that happens during your visit.
Bite and jaw function
How your teeth meet affects wear patterns, jaw comfort, and headaches. Signs of grinding or a bite that is off can point to problems worth addressing before they cause damage.
What imaging reveals
Some things cannot be seen by looking: decay between teeth, infection at a root tip, bone loss, impacted teeth. Digital X-rays fill that gap when your history suggests they are warranted.
Whatever we find, we will explain it in plain language, tell you whether it needs treating now or watching, and give you the options rather than a single instruction. If treatment is needed, our restorative and specialist teams work in this same office, so your care does not get handed off elsewhere.
Not every exam is the same
What we do depends on whether we are meeting you for the first time, seeing you routinely, or responding to a problem.
Comprehensive exam
The most thorough version. We assess every tooth, take a full set of images, chart your gum measurements, screen the soft tissues, and review your medical history in detail. This becomes the baseline that every future visit gets compared against, which is what makes changes easy to spot later.
Periodic exam
Shorter, because we are comparing against records we already have. We look for what is new or different since last time: a spot that has grown, a pocket that has deepened, a filling that has started to fail. This is the exam most patients have twice a year as part of a check-up.
Problem-focused exam
When you come in with a specific complaint, we focus on that area first: what is causing it, how urgent it is, and what will resolve it. If it is an emergency, getting you out of pain comes before anything else.
Frequently asked questions about dental exams
That is most of what an exam is for. Decay between teeth, early gum disease, cracks, and infection at a root tip often cause no symptoms until they are advanced. Finding them early is usually the difference between a small repair and a large one.
Yes, as part of the exam. We check the soft tissues of your mouth, tongue, and throat for anything that looks or feels unusual. It takes well under a minute, and early detection matters a great deal with oral cancer.
Pocket depth, the space between your tooth and the gum tissue around it. Healthy pockets are shallow. Deeper ones indicate the gum has pulled away and bone may be affected, which is how periodontal disease gets identified and staged.
We will tell you what we found, but we also prioritize it. What is urgent, what can wait, and what is worth simply monitoring are three different categories, and we would rather you understand the difference than feel handed an overwhelming list.
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