How Gum Disease Affect Your Bite

Gum disease is serious, as it can cause tooth loss and has the ability to affect your general health, but did you know it can also affect the way your teeth bite together? The way a person’s teeth fit together is called their bite or occlusion and everyone has a unique bite. While very few people will bite together absolutely perfectly, occlusion can be affected by periodontal disease or advanced gum disease. While having a less than perfect bite won’t cause periodontal disease as this is a bacterial infection, if you are actually missing any teeth then this could cause periodontal disease to worsen.

 

How Tooth Loss Affects Your Bite

This is because tooth loss affects your remaining natural teeth, increasing the risk that they will move out of position towards the gap left by missing teeth. This not only affects the teeth adjacent to the gap, but also those that used to oppose your missing teeth as they will begin to drift towards the empty space, affecting the way your teeth bite together. This type of tooth movement can have a destabilizing effect on your teeth and any change the way your teeth bite together can lead to problems with your jaw joints or temporomandibular joints.

 

How Tooth Loss Can Affect Your Jaw Joints

Your jaw joints are called your temporomandibular joints and they hinge your lower jaw in place, enabling it to move from side to side and up and down. If your bite has been affected by tooth loss, it can be sufficient to place your jaw joints under pressure, causing inflammation and pain.  This pain can be quite considerable and could result in you waking up with headaches that don’t seem to respond to conventional treatments, and the pain can even radiate down towards your neck and shoulders or it may affect your ears, causing tinnitus.

 

Correcting the Damage Caused by Gum Disease and Tooth Loss

The first thing to do is to get treatment for any existing periodontal disease and it’s best to visit a periodontist specializing in gum disease, for example Dr. Navid Rahmani. An initial evaluation will also help determine the best way to approach any problems caused by teeth that are out of alignment. Sometimes it may be as simple as removing any high points on teeth that are only slightly out of occlusion so they bite together correctly. Otherwise it might be a matter of replacing old fillings or other restorations that have gone beyond their sell by date such as crowns or bridges. Every dental restoration needs replacing periodically and it’s important to do so as this helps protect your dental health. If your teeth are significantly out of position, you may need to consider orthodontic treatment Midtown Manhattan to reposition them and this is something that may need to be done before restoring any lost teeth. Then there is the matter of replacing any missing teeth.

By replacing any missing teeth, you’ll be preventing your remaining natural teeth from moving any more, restoring stability and structure to your mouth. One of the best ways to replace missing teeth is through dental implants and again it’s best to visit a practice that specializes in implant surgery, for example Manhattan Periodontics & Implant Surgery.

 

In: Periodontal Disease

Tags: gum disease, occlusion, perfect bite, periodontal disease treatment, periodontal disease treatment in new york, periodontal treatment in nyc, tooth lost