IS EXPOSED TOOTH ROOTS AN EMERGENCY

Is Exposed Tooth Roots an Emergency?

An exposed tooth root can certainly be an emergency, depending on the scenario and health of the patient who is suffering from it. Every individual is different, and your experience with dental health and hygiene, as well as your total health history will impact your body’s ability to recover from exposed tooth roots. You should also consider what caused the exposed roots, when deciding how you will treat them.

What causes Exposed Tooth Roots?

Exposed tooth roots occur as the gums in your mouth break away from your teeth. This can include gum shrinking or tissue damage. Either way, the supportive root created by the gum tissue erodes and the nervy painful root of your tooth becomes exposed. This also has an aesthetic quality as well, which can make teeth look longer or thinner.

Three main causes of Exposed Tooth Roots

• Infection– Dental infection is an epidemic in our country. Millions of Americans have dental infection, to varying degrees. People are not meticulous enough in their hygiene to remove food stuffs from their mouth. These food particles break down forming bacteria and enter the gumline, thus entering your blood and dental biosphere. Over time the bacteria proliferates and becomes an infection. Infections cause fevers, bleeding, redness, inflammation, tooth loss, and gum recession.
• Disease– Much like the infection above, gum disease has become a major issue for those with receding gums and exposed roots. Gum disease usually develops from any number of conditions, like dental infection. As the disease becomes more advanced, the teeth begin degrading and the gums supporting them loosen up. This eventually leads to more advanced conditions, like tooth loss.
• Trauma– Some patients report exposed roots as a result of other conditions, like a fall or a strike to the face. Oftentimes these sort of freak accidents are treated in an Emergency Room with emergency dentists. However, the course of treatment may still be the same; update hygiene routine and follow up regularly with Dentist for progress checks as things heal.

How to treat Exposed Tooth Roots

In order to treat exposed tooth roots your Dentist may opt to perform any number of interventions:

• Root Canal– This is a notoriously uncomfortable procedure, but it is often no longer painful. Many Dentists have techniques to help the patient relax and find comfort. Your dentist will enter the tooth socket and marr the gums, removing harmful bacteria on the way out.
• LANAP– Like a high end route canal machine, LANAP allows the dentist to scrape out a bunch of yucky bacteria from under the gumline in the least invasive manner. Proper LANAP treatments are marketed as a “tooth saving” tool.
• Tooth Replacement– In some cases if the gums cannot be healed through hygienic interventions, the teeth may need to be replaced. Once the support of the gums are compromised, it is unlikely the tooth will remain secure in the socket. Tooth replacement has come a far way, and some of the materials used for crowns are much more durable than actual teeth.

What if you have exposed tooth roots