In many ways, maintaining your oral health can be both simple and complex at the same time. For instance, the basics of good dental hygiene are fairly easy – brush your teeth at least twice a day and floss at least once. However, what if the plaque you’re supposed to clean with your toothbrush and floss works its way underneath your gums? Or, if you have multiple, seemingly harmless oral health conditions that contribute to more severe complications, like tooth loss? The many different factors that go into preserving your smile might complicate things sometimes, which is why it’s important to understand the potential risks that can contribute to you losing one or more teeth.
A tooth infection that leads to extraction
Tooth decay is more common that most other dental issues, and is a direct result of excess bacteria cleaning to your teeth surfaces. The bacteria can release harmful acids that erode tooth enamel and deplete your teeth’s mineral supplies. This can lead to the bacteria infecting the tooth structure, leading to cavity development. Tooth decay is often treated when the cavity is still mild or moderate. However, in severe cases, the infection can erode a significant amount of tooth structure, as well as the nerves and tissues inside of the tooth’s pulp chamber and root canal. In extreme cases, the remaining tooth structure may dissolve or fall out, or require extraction.
Conditions that impact your dental ridge
Your upper and lower dental ridges serve as the foundations that support and sustain your teeth. Therefore, maintaining their health and integrity is vital to mitigating your risks of experiencing tooth loss, or having to have a tooth extracted. These ridges can be impacted by a number of different circumstances; for instance, traumatic injury may cause damage that weakens the ridge and changes its symmetry. Severe gum disease may weaken areas of it, making it structurally less sound and less able to support all of your teeth. Any condition that can potentially affect the strength or health of your dental ridges should be address accordingly as soon as possible.
Severe issues with spacing or crowding
The health and integrity of your dental ridges isn’t the only thing important about the foundations of your smile. The same is true for the amount of space along each relative the growth and development of your permanent teeth. For many people, this becomes an issue when their wisdom teeth, or third molars, begin to erupt. The lack of space at the end of the dental ridges can cause the wisdom teeth to become impacted, causing severe damage to the surrounding teeth and bone structure. Not only will your impacted wisdom teeth need to be extracted, but other teeth may also be at risk of being lost if you hesitate to seek treatment.
Learn more about your risks of tooth loss
There are several potential factors that can contribute to tooth loss, and the more of yours you can identify, the better chance you have at preserving your healthy, natural smile. To learn more, or to schedule your consultation, call the Texas Institute of OFI Surgery in Midlothian, TX, today at 469-649-8259. We also serve patients who live in Dallas, Mansfield, Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Desoto, Red Oak, Waxahachie, Ft. Worth, and all surrounding communities.