You may have noticed that your dentist will usually blow air on your teeth while they're doing the oral examination during the dental checkup. They do it using an air water syringe.
The two reasons why we blow air on your teeth is to remove saliva and to check for sensitivity. Yes, those are legitimate reasons and we're not doing it to dry out your mouth!
Remove saliva from teeth
The first reason we blow air on your teeth is to remove the saliva so that we can accurate visualize the tooth.
What happens when saliva is left on the tooth:
It obscures our vision and we can't accurately see what is underneath.
Saliva can potentially hide a cavity and we may miss the decay if we're not careful!
Below is a photo of a crown that has saliva covering the tooth. As you can see it doesn't look very clear.
The photo below is the same crown as the one above except the saliva has been blown away. Clearly you can see the tooth a LOT better without saliva obscuring the view.
That is one of the reasons why dentists blow air on your teeth, so that they can see clearly.
Check for teeth sensitivity
The second reason we blow air on your teeth is to test it for sensitivity.
If you tell your dentist that your tooth feels sensitive when you drink cold beverages or eat certain foods, the way that they verify it is by blowing air at it.
If the air feels uncomfortable then your dentist knows that the tooth is indeed sensitive.
However, if the air does not feel uncomfortable, perhaps the sensitivity isn't that bad.
Depending on the severity, your dentist can then give recommendations as for what to do. A sensitive toothpaste may suffice if it isn't that severe but moderate-severe sensitivity will often require some bonding or even gum grafting.
Most of the time, the sensitivity is from receding gums like the photo below.
Ultimately it is one of the ways that your dentist uses to check for sensitivity to see if it is symptomatic or asymptomatic.
Takeaway
Our dentists in Long Island City will always blow air on your teeth during a dental checkup so that we can remove saliva and test for sensitivity. You should expect to have it done if you come see us.
