WHEN TO CALL IT QUITS ON YOUR TOOTH!

Should you, or not, have your tooth extracted?  When should you say YES to having it taken out?

Your teeth are sacred! They serve multiple purposes and should be considered very important parts of your body and overall well being.  Not all diseased teeth are hopeless; as a matter of fact, it is your responsibility to do whatever is necessary to save the dentition whenever possible.  And, a dentist's role is to educate and inspire you to do just that! The extraction of teeth should be our last resort.  Hopeless and unrestorable teeth may actually worsen your oral health if kept in the mouth.  Still others, whose position, anatomy, and general relationship with other teeth in your mouth pose a less than desirable environment for those surrounding them, may be healthy but undesirable when planning to restore normal function and esthetic harmony to the overall oral environment. These, then, may be considered for extraction when necessary.

Your teeth play an imperative role in chewing, speech, esthetic appearance, self image,  digestion, facial muscular support, and jaw bone preservation among other things. Why consider extraction so lightly? Whenever and however possible, save your teeth!  

Removal of your dentition will slowly alter the way your bite fits together, causing uneven and unbalanced pressures to spread across the remaining dentition.  This alone can result in cracks, fractures, bone loss, pain, discomfort and sensitivity, and eventually more tooth loss.  Your digestion may also be affected when the full complement of teeth is absent and not able to completely breakdown food particles.  Speech may become slurred and sounds unclear when certain teeth are missing.  Your jaw bone quality and quantity suffers when teeth are lost.  In doing so the scaffolding for your facial muscles is debilitated.  And, surely, you must realize that tooth loss affects your chewing ability and pleasure when consuming your favorite foods.  And not less important is the effect edentulism ( tooth loss ) may have on your self image and overall appearance. 

Calling it quits on your tooth should be considered when there are absolutely NO VIABLE OPTIONS TO PREDICTABLY SALVAGE IT.  More specifically, our purpose in saving your tooth is to promote its LONGTERM health and its role in HELPING SUPPORT the overall oral health you deserve.  When your tooth fails to heal and suffers from chronic and recurring disease, it is NOT contributing to a healthy environment nor is it serving to increase your quality of life. 

Generally, when the longterm prognosis of your tooth is guarded to poor and less predictable than what today's technology can provide as a replacement then it is time to CALL IT QUITS!

Please contact me if you would like us to assist YOU in creating a "Smile You'd Be Proud To Wear...ANYWHERE!"