Lost Tooth

The Most Common Causes of Lost Tooth

The most common cause of tooth loss is dental caries, which slowly progress to destroy the tooth structure. Along its way toward the dental pulp, the decay gives warning signs such as pain with hot, cold, or sweets. If you ignore these signs, massive tooth destruction may occur, leading to the tooth going beyond repair, and extraction is the only solution.

The second most common cause of teeth extraction is gum disease. Untreated gum inflammation may extend the inflammation to the teeth-supporting structures such as the jawbone. Leading to bone resorption and receded gums. If tooth mobility due to lack of bone support reaches a certain level, tooth extraction becomes inevitable.

Lost teeth may also occur due to unexpected reasons, such as accidents or trauma. If you play contact sports or engage in activities with high falling risk, wearing a custom-made mouthguard decreases the chances of tooth fracture and allows you to play your favorite sport safely.

Risk Factors of Lost Tooth

Certain factors may increase your risk of losing a tooth, such as:

• Poor oral hygiene: Failure to follow a daily routine will lead to plaque and tartar accumulation on the tooth surface. If the plaque layer is not removed within 24 hours, it will require professional teeth cleaning. The accumulated plaque layer is a good medium for bacterial accumulation over the tooth surface causing tooth decay. It is essential to schedule hygiene visits every six months or whenever needed, combined with daily oral hygiene through brushing twice daily and flossing once.
• Uncontrolled diabetes: If you are a diabetic patient, it is essential to maintain a normal sugar level. Uncontrolled diabetes causes increased sugar levels in the saliva. This favours bacterial colonization and decreases the body’s ability to repair soft tissue damage and healing, leading to progressive gum inflammation, teeth loss, and extraction.
• Smoking and vaping: Smoking can impair the body’s healing function, so gum inflammation does not easily heal if you are a smoker. Smoking was identified as a major cause of severe gum diseases and eventually tooth loss.
• Dry mouth: Saliva has a natural protective mechanism against dental caries through its washing effect. When the amount of saliva produced decreases due to some medical conditions or as a side effect of certain medications, this leaves you with a dry mouth and an increased incidence of tooth decay.
• Menopause: During menopause, the body experiences a major hormonal change, and bone mineral density decreases, increasing the chances of developing dental caries and periodontal diseases.

Complications Of Lost Tooth

The teeth’ angulation and position allow for even force distribution during mastication. If this balance is interrupted due to a lost tooth, this will lead to several events affecting your oral health and esthetics. Lost tooth complication may lead to:

1. Decreased self esteem: The dream of a perfect esthetic smile is a common demand, and a lost tooth does not help. A lost tooth affects your smile and causes a fear of smiling and sometimes social isolation. Also, anatomically the teeth support the facial muscles, such as lips and cheek; if this support is lost due to tooth extraction, this may lead to sagging of the facial muscles leading to an older appearance.
2. Bone loss: The forces falling on the teeth during chewing are transferred to the surrounding bone leading to continuous stimulation and regeneration. When a tooth is lost, the bone is no longer stimulated leading to bone loss. Bone loss is at its highest rate after extraction, so it is essential to replace a missing tooth as soon as possible to get the maximum bone support for restoration and eliminate the need for bone graft.
3. Speech problems: Some letter pronunciation is produced by a programmed tongue positioning against the front teeth. When these teeth are lost, this impairs the correct speech of these letters especially if multiple teeth are lost.
4. Chewing problems: A lost tooth affects the ability to properly chew food, which may be reflected in your GIT health. Improperly chewed food will cause improper digestion and possible malnutrition.

5. Teeth shifting and malocclusion: Teeth are in continuous need of contact with each other horizontally through the contact between the neighbouring teeth or vertically when opposing teeth touch during the bite. When this contact is interrupted due to a missing tooth, teeth will continue to seek contact. This may lead to tilting of the neighbouring teeth and super eruption of the opposing teeth in their pursuit to reach contact. This endangers the periodontal health of these teeth and makes it difficult to restore the missing tooth because of the lack of space for restoration.

6. TMJ problems: Improper masticatory function due to missing teeth may pose greater pressure on the mouth joint, causing pain, headache, and clicking sounds during mouth opening.

7. Increased treatment cost: Missing teeth restorative solutions are generally expensive; therefore, it is better to save the natural teeth and avoid extraction.