What if you have exposed tooth roots?
Exposed roots are a product of their environment. If the dental ecosystem is suffering, teeth and gums will begin to break down. If the receding of your gums and the exposure of tooth roots is beginning to bother you, reach out for help. Many patients begin the journey each year with their dentist, working in tandem with hygienist to try to restore their gum health. Sometimes the patient may look at alternate options for care or tooth replacement. The outcome will depend on the situation, and how long the patient chooses to wait before they take action.
Signs of Exposed Tooth Roots
- Bad Breath: Persistent bad breath is usually a sign that something is decaying within the mouth, usually gum infection.
- Pain: Patient may experience very sensitive or painful gums.
- Bleeding: Blood from the gums near the tooth root, especially after brushing or flossing.
- Tooth Loss: Tooth loss is more common after the root exposure is significantly advanced or decayed.
- Dark Area Under Tooth: Patient may notice that gums have receded to the point that they can see dark areas underneath the tooth itself.
- Loose Teeth: Patient may be able to move tooth using their tongue, or may notice that area around tooth feels unusual–different than the tooth.
What causes Exposed Tooth Roots?
The development of exposed tooth roots usually comes about because of three major issues in dental hygiene.
Infection- Infection is usually the culprit. Millions of Americans suffer from dental infection. The root cause is simple, the hygiene is simply not good enough. If food is not removed from the mouth, it will break down and become a hot bed of harmful bacteria. This bacteria will enter the gumline and fester, which will lead to bacteria shirking the gums away from the tooth, and destroying healthy gum material.
Disease- Gum disease will usually develop as a result of infection. In some rarer cases, it is inherited like other unfortunate diseases in your family history. Dental diseases can attack the gums causing them to recede, or destroy the teeth from inside out–eventually pulling away from the gums.
Trauma- If you have sustained a strike to the face, or a fall, you may have dislodged teeth from the jaw. It will all depend on the extent of the force and the damage to the area. Make an appointment promptly after any sort of trauma to the face, and then use ice to reduce swelling; this may help to reduce the amount of gum recession that occurs initially.
When to see your Dentist (Spoiler: Sooner than you think!)
Sure, you can wait until you see your gums are receding to call the dentist–but why wait? Make your regular appointments and attend them. This will help to hold you accountable to a hygiene routine throughout the year. The sooner you get seen, the less likely these problems are to develop into something much worse; like tooth loss, gum disease, gum infection, or costly tooth replacement options.