Neglecting Dental Health
Leads to Gum Disease and Tooth Loss

A healthy mouth is one of the best indicators of a healthy body.
Generally speaking, if you have healthy gums, teeth, and bones,
you’re doing what you need to be doing. However, if you
aren’t taking care of your mouth, it can lead to some detrimental
issues, including gum diseases and tooth loss.

What Gum Disease Can Look Like

This may seem like an extreme case, but it happens more often than you
would think. This patient was terrified at the thought of going to the
dentist, so they avoided it for many years. Once they finally realized they
needed to come in because of loose teeth, it was far too
late.

We were able to take a piece of gauze and take these teeth out of
the patient’s mouth without Novocain or procedures or anything like
that! Their teeth and bones literally just came right out of their mouth.
This was a result of neglecting proper care for their teeth and mouth and
lack of dental visits.

This is a photo of the patient’s lower teeth, and you can see a
considerable amount of gum loss. Gum loss is due to bone loss. The
bones support the teeth, and when the gum is low, the bone is low, and that
is how teeth get loose, and it makes it hard to clean them.

Neglect Can be Deadly

Another example of how important your mouth health is a sad story
about a TV show star who died because of a tooth infection. The star was 28
years old, and in between jobs and thought that he couldn’t go to the
dentist because he did not have insurance.

Due to the neglect of his tooth infection, it spread throughout
his entire body, which minimized his heart function, and within five years,
he passed away.

What Can I Do if I Have Gum Disease?

Unfortunately, there is no cure for gum disease; you can only
prevent it and manage it. If unhealthy gums go unmanaged, it can lead to
tooth loss.

To manage gum disease, we alter your dental visits and have you
come in more frequently so we can keep up with your cleanings. We suggest
other strategies, such as using an electric toothbrush, mouthwash, daily
fluoride rinses, etc.

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If you don’t have health insurance, we have plans to help
you afford your dental visits. If you have loose teeth, bleed when you brush
or see gum recession, make sure you go to the dentist so that you can keep
your mouth as healthy as possible and keep yourself healthy
too!