Dental emergencies, which can often obviously require immediate attention, aren’t the only causes for people to lose teeth. In fact, more people experience tooth loss due to a chronic oral health condition known as gum disease. When you lose a tooth due to something that doesn’t seem like an emergency, the need to replace the tooth and restore your smile might not seem as pressing. However, regardless of the cause of your tooth loss, waiting to address the condition can lead to even more severe problems for your long-term oral health.
Time makes things worse for your smile
Most oral health concerns are progressive nature. Gum disease, for instance, only leads to tooth loss if it’s allowed to progress far enough to destroy your periodontal tissues and jawbone structure. Likewise, tooth loss can have progressively worse impacts on your smile and oral health, and the time it takes to replace lost teeth can directly influence the severity of theses consequences. For instance, from the moment a tooth root is lost, the area of your jawbone where it once rested can begin suffering from lack of stimulation. This can result in bone resorption in that area, and the loss of mass and density in your jawbone structure as a whole.
Your risks could be greater if you wait
Because of the continuing, progressively worse impacts of tooth loss, the absence of one or more teeth can also leave your smile more at-risk for several other oral health concerns. This can include the health and integrity of your remaining teeth, as they’re subjected to changes in your bite balance and pressure. It can also include heightened risks of developing tooth decay or worsening gum disease due to the more complicated buildup of dental plaque on your dental ridges. Replacing lost teeth as soon as possible is the only way to mitigate these risks and avoid having to deal with more extensive concerns in the future.
Your treatment may need to be more extensive
Waiting to deal with your tooth loss by replacing your lost teeth won’t make the problem go away. There is no point at which the damage it causes will stop on it’s own, and at some point, you will need dental treatment to restore your smile. If you replace your lost teeth as soon as possible after losing them, the steps necessary for your restoring your smile can be minimized. The longer you wait and the more complicated your oral health concerns become, the more extensive of a treatment plan you’ll need to address them all and fully restore your smile.
Replace your lost teeth as soon as possible
Waiting to address tooth loss can have a greater long-term impact on your smile than you realize, which is why you should replace your lost teeth as soon as possible. To learn more, or to schedule a consultation, call Santa Rosa Oral Surgery in Santa Rosa, CA, today at 707-545-4625.
