Do You Want to Avoid Bone Loss After Losing a Tooth? You Need to Read This

Ever emerged from the hairdresser and been less than thrilled with your new look? It's a temporary inconvenience, and the only difference between a bad haircut and a good haircut is a little bit of time. Hair grows back, and this is one way in which your body can regenerate something that has been removed. The body's ability to regenerate has some limits though. Hair? Sure, it will come back. Your nails? Again, these grow back fairly quickly. Bone? Not so much. If you've ever broken a bone, it will heal, although medical intervention will usually be required. But if you've experienced bone loss, it's not as though the bone can simply regenerate itself. Bone loss in the jaw is something that is associated with severe periodontal disease, which has resulted in the loss of a tooth or teeth. This is obviously something to be avoided, but how can bone loss be prevented when your smile isn't as complete as it used to be?

The Loss of Density

The very classification of bone loss can be slightly misleading. It's not as though you're going to wake up one morning to discover that a bone in your body has mysteriously vanished overnight. In dentistry, bone loss is when your jawbone loses density, very gradually shrinking in size. As it no longer needs to support the tooth that was once held in the dental socket (and the corresponding pressure placed upon the tooth from chewing), the bone around the site will retract.

Possible Complications

This shrinking bone can result in a number of issues. The missing tooth means that the surrounding teeth need to take on added physical pressure when chewing, which can accelerate their decline. Chewing is essentially a collaborative effort for all your teeth, and when a team member is missing, the remaining teeth need to pick up the slack. Shrinking bone in your jaw can also affect your physical appearance as the bone slowly contracts, leading to premature aging.

Your Solutions

A missing tooth might not seem like an urgent concern, especially when the tooth in question was at the rear of your mouth, meaning that it doesn't obviously affect your physical appearance. But just because people can't see it doesn't mean that it shouldn't be attended to. When a damaged tooth is removed, your dentist might opt for socket preservation, a surgical procedure which can minimise bone loss, although it won't avoid it altogether. A dental implant can provide the necessary mass to prevent bone loss, and yet if this isn't an option for you, partial dentures will also prevent your jawbone from losing density. Though dentures can be a lifelong solution, remember that they will need to be periodically relined (which involves adding an additional layer of resin to the denture base to ensure a perfect fit). Dentures can only keep your jawbone intact when they fit well, allowing them to accept an amount of chewing pressure commensurate with your other natural teeth (once again making chewing a truly collaborative effort).

The loss of a single tooth in a position that nobody is going to notice might not feel like a big deal, but the subsequent loss of bone can pose problems further down the track.