The Consequences of Leaving Periodontal Disease Untreated

Periodontal (gum) infections are a condition of the tissues holding your teeth in place. Gum infections usually develop from improper dental hygiene practices like poor bashing, flossing, and neglecting visits to dentists for cleanings and exams. In addition, improper brushing techniques allow plaque buildup, a sticky film of bacteria on the teeth, to harden into tartar. Tartar is nonremovable by brushing and flossing and requires help from a dentist or a hygienist to give you treatments like deep cleaning and teeth scaling for the removal.

Detected in the early stages, gum disease called gingivitis is comfortably preventable and treatable. Early treatment can help you avoid the adverse consequences of periodontal disease. However, if you allow the condition to progress, you will require extensive and expensive treatments from your dentist besides visiting them frequently for various therapies.

What Precisely Is Periodontal Disease?

Periodontal disease is the advanced stage of gingivitis which is easily preventable and even reversible with proper brushing and flossing and six-monthly cleanings from your dentist. However, when you allow gingivitis to progress into periodontal disease, your dentist recommends more frequent visits if you display signs of advanced periodontal disease.

During dental checkups, dentists remove plaque and tartar deposits from your teeth using scalers and other instruments in a process called deep cleaning. They also recommend you maintain excellent dental hygiene using proper techniques for brushing and flossing if you intend to negate the adverse consequences of periodontal disease.

What Are the Risk Factors Increasing Your Chances of Periodontal Disease?

Some factors that increase your risk of periodontal disease include gingivitis, hormonal changes, including those related to pregnancy or menopause, recreational drug use, poor dental hygiene habits, tobacco use, obesity, genetics, et cetera.

What Are the Complications of Periodontal Disease?

Periodontal disease can loosen teeth to cause tooth loss. In addition, the bacteria liable for the situation can access your bloodstream through your gum tissue to affect other parts of your body. Periodontal disease is associated with conditions like respiratory disease, rheumatoid arthritis, coronary arteries, and problems with controlling blood sugar in diabetes.

Are There Techniques to Prevent Periodontal Disease?

The best technique to prevent periodontal disease is to follow a good oral hygiene regimen starting early in life and practicing consistently throughout. It indicates you must brush your teeth for at least two minutes twice a day, once in the morning and the second time before going to bed at night. Flossing is also necessary to remove food particles and bacteria from your teeth and mouth. Flossing before brushing is helpful because it loosens food particles enabling you to flush them out of your mouth.

Preventive techniques for periodontal disease require you to see your dentist twice yearly for cleanings. If you are affected by the risk factors increasing your risk of developing periodontal disease, you need frequent professional cleanings.

What Is the Treatment for Periodontal Disease?

After getting your mouth evaluated by your dentist to determine the severity of your condition, therapy for periodontal disease is performed by a periodontist or a general dentist. Periodontal disease treatment aims to completely clean the pockets around the teeth to inhibit damage to the surrounding bone. Your best chances of a successful cure rest on whether you follow a proper oral care routine and manage health conditions that may impact your dental health.

If you are not affected by advanced periodontal disease, you can find relief from non-surgical treatments like scaling, route planning, and antibiotics. All non-surgical procedures help reverse gingivitis to prevent it from progressing to periodontal disease.

However, if you have developed advanced periodontal disease, no definitive treatment for the condition has been discovered until this moment, although various surgical procedures are available to manage the situation. For example, you can undergo flap surgery, soft tissue grafts, bone grafting, guided tissue regeneration, and tissue stimulating protein techniques to maintain periodontal disease throughout your life.

The consequences of neglecting treatment for periodontal disease will bring upon you several health complications needing treatments from different medical professionals. You will also experience tooth loss, compelling you to wear dental prosthetics such as dentures. The condition would have weakened the jawbone making it unsuitable to have dental implants without intensive bone grafts. Besides being expensive and taking much of your time, the treatments are devastating to your life and overall well-being. Therefore the best option is to prevent the condition from developing by maintaining proper dental hygiene, treating the initial signs of gingivitis when you observe the signs and symptoms or preparing yourself for considerable stress and expenditure trying to keep periodontal disease.