August is here, which means that if you’re a student you’re probably gearing up to be back in an exam mindset. However, there’s more than just your grades to think about. If you want to be able to feel your best and perform at school, you may want to think a little bit about acing your next dental exam as well.

Thankfully, doing that should be much easier than doing well on the SATs. Here are a few things you can do to make sure that your next dental exam goes as well as possible.

One of the benefits of having a dentist that you can trust is that you can talk to someone about what’s happening with your oral health, allowing you to make sense of it better than you may be able to on your own. However, most of your time is spent outside the dentist’s office, meaning that it would serve you well to have a working understanding of some of the most common oral health problems.

With that in mind, here are some examples of the most common oral health problems, along with how you can prevent them.