Is Dental Bone Loss Serious
Dental bone loss is a serious condition, and one that can have wide-ranging effects on your oral health, overall physical health, and even your mental health and outward appearance. At the same time, dental bone loss is a fairly common malady affecting tens of thousands of Americans every year. This is because it is caused by other common problems, including missing teeth and gum disease. Happily, there are solutions to these problems, which means that dental bone loss does not have to be your fate!
Tooth Loss and Dental Bone Loss
While it might seem strange, simple tooth loss is one of the leading causes of dental bone loss. When a tooth goes missing from the jaw, a key signal between teeth and bone is effectively cut. This is because teeth are connected to the jawbone via dental roots, which are embedded deep into the hard tissues of the jaw. This connection is what allows for the massive amounts of pressure that teeth deal with multiple times every day. While teeth are strong, it is the jaw that absorbs much of the pressure of biting and chewing, channeled down into this larger, stronger, structure via the connection between them.
Gum Disease and Dental Bone Loss
Another leading cause of dental bone loss is gum disease. One of the most common oral ailments experienced by adult Americans, gum disease is a progressive disease that can ravage all kinds of tissues in the mouth. Gum disease beings when built up plaque and tartar on one’s teeth begins to infect the gums that surround them with the millions of bacteria that they contain. Left untreated, this infection will continue to grow, infecting more and more gum tissue and finally infecting the nearby tendons and ligaments that hold teeth in place as well as the bone that supports them. At this point, the infection can actually eat away at the bone, threating the viability of the teeth that it supports as well as the size and health of the jawbone itself.
Other Causes of Dental Bone Loss
Because the connection between dental roots and the jaw is so crucial, bone loss can also occur when missing teeth are replaced by conventional dentures or bridges, as these forms of tooth replacement only replace the part of the tooth that is visible above the gumline and not the dental roots, which are crucial to continued bone health.
Dental bone loss can also be caused by injury or trauma, or even osteoporosis.
Signs and Symptoms of Dental Bone Loss
When a tooth and its roots go missing and this connection is severed, the jaw no longer receives the stimulation it needs to continue to maintain itself. Over time, it simply recedes. This can lead to neighboring teeth shifting around to fill in this space, causing a change in the appearance and even function of one’s teeth. As bone loss progresses, it can also lead to a change in facial appearance, as the bone that supports facial muscles around the mouth begins to shrink.
Likewise, bone loss resulting from gum disease, injury, and trauma can all have similar effects, leading to movement of teeth in the jaw, increased tooth loss, bite problems, and changes in facial appearance. Luckily, there are steps that can be taken to slow the continuation of bone loss and, in some cases, even begin to regenerate healthy new tissues. For this reason, it is crucial to see a dentist right away if you suspect you are beginning to experience dental bone loss.