It isn’t just your teeth and smile that are unique to you alone. The things that could potentially threaten your smile and oral health can be, as well, which is why the most successful dental treatments are those that address your specific oral health concern in a highly personalized fashion. For example, a healthy, natural tooth can become compromised in many different ways. While preserving your healthy tooth structure is typically the goal of your treatment, that can mean a variety of things depending on the specific problem your tooth faces.
It’s lost some of its natural structure
Many common oral health concerns involve direct damage, infection, or other harm caused to your natural tooth structure. This may include a fracture or break in the tooth’s visible structure, or part of the structure becoming extensively worn down due to chronic teeth-grinding. Or, it may involve a progressive infection in the tooth (known as tooth decay), which erodes its natural structure as it grows worse. In any case, your tooth’s health, strength, and integrity become compromised when any part of its structure is damaged or lost to infection. Your treatment may include restoring the compromised tooth structure as well as addressing the underlying condition that caused it, such as removing decay from your tooth or addressing a chronic teeth-grinding habit.
It’s lost support around its root
Direct damage or harm to your tooth structure is a common way for a tooth to become compromised, but it isn’t the only way. For many people who lose teeth or have to have one extracted, the problem isn’t with the tooth’s structure, but rather the supportive tissues and jawbone structure that surround the tooth’s root. These structures are essential to stabilizing your teeth and providing them with the essential minerals and nutrients they need (through the tissues in the root canal). If they’re compromised by traumatic injury or by the progression of severe gum disease, then one or more teeth may be lost or need extraction due to the loss of support.
It’s lost completely, or has to be extracted
When a tooth is compromised, it can often be saved along with your smile to avoid losing the tooth. However, some conditions can be severe enough to lead to tooth loss before you can prevent it, or cause you to have to extract the tooth in order to successfully restore your smile and good oral health. When a tooth is gone, the empty space it leaves can compromise the rest of your oral health in several important ways. Often, the best way to address this is to replace the tooth or teeth with one or more dental implants and an appropriate, custom-designed restoration.
Find the right treatment to save your tooth
Your natural teeth can become compromised and, in some cases, a threat to your smile in a variety of different ways. Fortunately, you can mitigate the threat with the right customized dental treatment. To learn more, contact our office by calling Syosset Dental in Syosset, NY, today at 516-433-2211 or 516-921-1678.
