How You Can Achieve Dental Longevity
Barring accidents, one can only lose teeth in three ways:
- Tooth Decay
- Gum Disease
- Overloading a less than complete set of natural teeth
TOOTH DECAY
Tooth Decay can be prevented at least four ways:
Good diet - minimise consumption of destructive substances
Effective cleaning - from infancy, plus fluoride protection
Regular professional care - To identify incipient problems and commence early intervention for malocclusion
Preventive innoculation - against decay-causing bacteria
Our practice advises on each patient’s most effective approach
GUM DISEASE
Gum Disease can be prevented- by adequate home care; minimised - by regular, professional cleaning; and even eliminated- by combinations of mechanical, pharmaceutical
and surgical therapies.
With periodontics, loose teeth, assisted by splinting, often become firm. When this is matched by dedicated home care, teeth may be retained for many years even when the initial condition suggests a hopeless prognosis.
OVERLOADING
Following the loss of even a single tooth from a key position- overloading is prevented by promptly restoring the gap. To-day’s treatment of choice for the unavoidable loss of a tooth is to restore the space with an implant.
Whenever there are too few functioning back teeth, the masticatory load causes excess wear of front teeth - at least five times the normal - which accelerates facial ageing.
Where sound teeth remain at each end of a gap, a permanent bridge may be ideal, or even a low cost, temporary bridge to prevent drifting and collapse of the remaining natural teeth.
Where few natural teeth remain, an "Equipoise" cast partial denture will transfer the load to the remaining teeth as well as restoring the spaces aesthetically, without diplaying any retainers.
Finally, when no natural teeth have been retained, implant-borne complete dentures provide a highly functional replacement.
Our practice advises on each patient's most effective approach.