This two-part article series explains the four main causes of tooth loss: accidental trauma, tooth decay, periodontal (gum) disease and, interestingly enough, tooth loss to begin with!
You can’t imagine what it’s like to lose a permanent tooth until one of your pearly whites actually falls out your mouth or is extracted by your Arlington TX dentist. Unfortunately, too many people have become acquainted with this feeling; According to the American Academy of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, approximately 70% of all Americans between the ages of 35 and 44 have lost at least one of their original adult teeth! The initial shock and anxiety caused by losing a tooth has as much to do with a concern for your smile aesthetics as it does the cost and trouble involved in fixing it. Any Arlington TX dentist (and anyone who’s lost a tooth) will explain to you that prevention is ALWAYS better than cure, especially when it comes to tooth loss. This is because your teeth are irreplaceable and no fancy modern technology - even Arlington dental implants - can rival your own biological technology.
In this two-part article series, the Arlington TX dentist shall be discussing the four main reasons teeth become irreparably damaged and either fall out by themselves or need to be extracted: (1) accidental trauma, (2) tooth decay, (3) periodontal (gum) disease and curiously enough (4) tooth loss to begin with!
1. Arlington Dental Disasters: Accidental trauma
Contact sports involve all kinds of physical risks. Professional and amateur players alike regularly walk (or hobble) away from the field or court with serious injuries. Whether you play basketball, rugby, baseball, tennis or something a little more obvious like boxing, if there are balls, fists and feet flying around, you should have a mouth guard custom fabricated for you by your Arlington TX dentist and you should wear it at all times. “All it takes is an accidental fist to the face or a stray tennis racquet to the teeth and in a single second, your smile can be irreparably altered,” says the Arlington TX dentist.
“Hundreds of millions of teeth are lost or severely damaged every year as a result of accidental trauma. While most accidents aren’t ‘planned’, you can certainly exercise the correct amount of caution to either help prevent them or mitigate the damage done by them,” explains the Arlington TX dentist. The message here is to be careful, tread cautiously and wear a mouth guard if you play sports. Take care of yourself.
2. Arlington Dental Disasters: Tooth decay
The next major cause of tooth loss is decay. “Your mouth, no matter how good you are about keeping your teeth clean, is teeming with opportunistic bacteria,” says the Arlington TX dentist. “If you don’t brush and floss regularly and if you don’t see your Arlington dental health care professional twice a year, you are leaving your teeth highly vulnerable to oral bacteria.”
“Bacteria feast upon the sugary residues left in your mouth after eating and drinking,” explains the Arlington TX dentist. “Just like any other organism that eats, they produce waste products and this excrement is very acidic. By neglecting to brush and floss your teeth, you give bacteria a chance to establish vast colonies in the natural creases of your gums and teeth,” says the Arlington TX dentist. Eventually, bacterial acidic waste will erode away your dental enamel forming cavities which provide even greater shelter for bacteria.
Without treatment by the Arlington TX dentist, cavities eventually deepen, allowing bacteria a direct pathway into the heart of the tooth. Once the pulp chamber becomes infected, the tooth will need to be sterilized via a root canal procedure. The vast majority of Arlington dental patients, however, opt to simply have the decayed, problematic tooth extracted.
“Preventing decay requires high standards of oral hygiene and regular attention from an Arlington TX dentist. You should also minimize your intake of sugar and lead a healthy lifestyle,” advise Arlington dental health care professionals.
For More on Your Arlington Dental Health, Stay Tuned for the Second Installment of This Two-Part Series!
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