You're attached to your teeth, but are they attached to you?

 Probably because I currently see patients in three settings I see a whole lot of different patients from varying socioeconomic backgrounds.  The patients who I see in my private practice and who buy into preventive maintenance and good home care do very well and even into their nineties have most of their teeth. The patients I see during my teaching tend to have less money allocated to their dentistry and have mouths that are missing more teeth. Also they are more prone to severe bone loss due to ongoing periodontal disease.

It is not terribly uncommon for a patient at one of my days spent teaching to come in with a mouth full of loose teeth that probably should be removed. The other day one such young patient in her thirties came in and had been told by her dentist she needed to have her teeth removed. Sure enough they all were loose without good bone support. Sooner or later her teeth will fall out or get infected. She explained that she was very attached to her teeth and would like to save them but unfortunately There is no cure for her gum disease and no predictable way to grow bone around her teeth either.

This seems to be a dilemma facing many patients from disadvantaged backgrounds who may only go to the dentist when a tooth is hurting them and the sad end result is that many of these people end up wearing dentures, either partial or full because most can not afford implant supported replacement teeth. This dental tragedy probably could have been avoided if they had been taught properly how to care for their own teeth at home and have a good cleaning at least once per year. Instead our profession has let them down since all too often dentists can be focused on restorative procedures rather than preventive dentistry.

Educating our patients and helping them understand the importance of proper home care, proper diet and appropriated and timely dental care is one of our most important functions as dentists . We are,after all, physicians of the mouth and it is our primary duty to truly help our younger patients maintain their oral health. No , not all dental problems can be "fixed" but instead are handled by us. Hopefully we do our best but no amount of "fixing" beat preventing the problem in the first place.



from Ask Dr. Spindel - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/2023/09/youre-attached-to-your-teeth-but-are.html - http://lspindelnycdds.blogspot.com/

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