Park Ridge Implant Dentists Discuss Maintaining Your Jawbone’s Integrity

In our last article, we discussed the importance of your jawbone’s integrity to your continued good oral health, and how tooth loss can threaten this integrity if not treated fully and promptly. Today, your Park Ridge implant dentists, Dr. Maria and Dr. Thanasi Loukas, discuss how to protect your jawbone from destruction and how to reinforce it to receive dental implants, if necessary.

Recapping Tooth Loss & Jawbone Deterioration

To refresh your memory, unresolved tooth loss is one of the most devastating influences against your oral health. Healthy tooth roots, which are embedded in your jawbone, facilitate a healthy supply of nutrients to your jaw, and losing tooth roots can result in a nutrient deficiency and eventual jawbone deterioration. In a sense, your jawbone atrophies from the loss of root stimulation, which can affect its ability to retain the rest of your teeth.

Preventing a Diseased Jawbone

Even if you still have a mouth full of natural teeth, your jawbone can still face trouble in the form of severe gum disease. As the name suggests, gum disease attacks the soft gum tissue that surrounds and protects the bottoms of your teeth (roots). When allowed to run amok, the disease can continue past the gum tissues it destroys and make its way to your jawbone, continuing its destructive work on your smile’s foundation. Consequently, severe gum disease is the number one cause of adult tooth loss. With an excellent oral hygiene routine, regular professional maintenance, and diligent periodontal care, you can prevent gum disease from developing, or at least from reaching your jawbone and causing extensive damage.

Reinforcing Your Jawbone for Dental Implants

If you lose one or more teeth and wish to replace them with dental implants, then Dr. Loukas will first thoroughly inspect the state of your oral health to determine your eligibility. One of the most important factors to consider is the state of your jawbone; if disease or extended tooth loss have diminished its integrity, then you might not be a candidate, or you may have to undergo a jawbone graft to reinforce your jaw. A jawbone graft involves grafting bone from a donor source, or from a donor region of your own body, onto your jawbone to replace the structure it’s lost due to disease or deterioration. Once healed, your jawbone should be strong and dense enough to support your surgically inserted dental implants.

Learn More About Total Smile Care with Your Park Ridge Implant Dentists

To learn more about the importance of maintaining your jawbone’s integrity, or to find out if you’re a candidate for dental implants, schedule an appointment with your Park Ridge implant dentists by calling Loukas General Dentistry at (847) 696-1919. Located in the 60068 area, we proudly serve patients from Park Ridge and the surrounding Chicago communities.