When you lose one or several teeth for any reason, your jaw bone starts to shrink, and we call this process bone loss. Whether you had a tooth extraction or your tooth got knocked out, preventing the bone loss following the event seems to be of the essence. If you don’t pay enough attention to your jaw bone condition after a missing tooth, you will probably put the surrounding teeth and tissue in danger. Faze.ca has recently published an article in which Dr. Behnam Bohlouli from Smile Point Dental argues that there are several preservation stages through which you can prevent alveolar bone shrinkage when you lose your tooth.
In addition to tooth removal, periodontal disease can cause alveolar bone shrinkage too. Periodontal disease is associated with a bacterial infection that will deteriorate the gum and bone tissue step by step until the teeth root gets exposed and become loose. Still, the most prevalent reason for bone loss is tooth loss and, specifically, tooth removal. The jaw bone always requires the chewing force to remain tight and healthy. We can say that chewing pressure preserves the bone tissue alive and constantly growing. When you lose your tooth after the tooth extraction process, your body absorbs the jawbone tissue as there is no tooth it can support. Here the bone degeneration starts, and it gets lost gradually.
Bone loss typically happens in the tissue surrounding and supporting tissue of the extracted tooth. This area of the jaw bone is called the alveolar. Anyway, it would be best if you considered a tooth replacement technique to stop the bone loss process before it is too late. Several dental treatments, such as dental implants and dentures, can replace your missing teeth. Still, you should pay attention that denture, full or partial, will not prevent bone loss individually. They can even accelerate the bone loss process, and they will wear away the gum and bone tissue. This will unfortunately even make eating and chewing a painful procedure. Besides, dentures may also cause your lower jawbone to collapse.
How to Prevent the Bone Loss?
Your jaw bone needs real pressure, which is similar to real teeth, and dental implants can provide such force. Dental implants are artificial tooth roots that are surgically placed into your jawbone and look and function like your natural teeth. The dentist can use dental implants for either a tooth or several teeth.
How Can You Restore Your Lost Bone?
Your jaw bone must be dense and strong enough to get the dental implants unless the process faces a painful failure. Bone loss makes your jawbone porous, and it loses its required density. Your diet, hormonal changes, several oral diseases, and tooth extraction can all be the reason for bone loss. However, bone grafting surgery through which the dentist can restore your jaw bone density. This explains why your dentist should evaluate the condition of your jawbones before applying the dental implants for your missing teeth.