Many patients with periodontal disease or missing teeth will experience bone loss in their jaw as a result. In general, the process is gradual and you may not immediately notice that your
Jawbone loss, severe dental pain, and tooth loss are devastating results of gum disease. The most concerning of these outcomes is jawbone loss. This can trigger the loss of other teeth. The patient then starts to have difficulties in speaking, eating, and even smiling.
Advanced periodontal disease can affect the attachments in the lower jaw muscles, making the tissue sag, which can lead to a “witch's chin” or jowls.
In most cases, dental bone loss can be stopped. And with expert periodontal care, you can actually regenerate bone and reverse bone loss.
Symptoms of bone loss
Changes in your bite and facial structure. If you wear dentures, bone loss can cause changes in the overall fit and comfort (i.e. they can feel loose or fit differently). Discomfort when you chew. Shifting or loosening of your teeth.
Bone grafting – The most common treatment for jawbone atrophy is a bone graft. This procedure can repair implant sites with inadequate bone structure due to previous extractions, gum disease, or injuries.
The rate that the bone deteriorates, as well as the amount of bone loss that occurs, varies greatly among individuals. However, most loss occurs within the first eighteen months following the extraction and will continue gradually throughout your life.
If you ignore the symptoms of earlier stages of periodontal disease, you will shift into stage 4, which threatens a 50-90% chance of irreversible bone loss. Symptoms of this final stage include red, swollen gums that ooze pus, painful chewing, extreme cold sensitivity, severe bad breath, and loosened teeth.
If you have periodontitis, your teeth start moving in the mouth, making tooth loss a reality. However, if you receive gum disease treatment early, you can preserve your natural teeth and prevent the need to search for replacement options.
In the advanced stage, periodontitis is associated with irreversible destruction of alveolar bone and loss of tooth support, causing tooth mobility and drifting.
As it spreads beneath the gum line, the infection then targets your teeth and bone. As a result, your teeth can become loose and fall out, and your bone will begin to deteriorate. When a tooth's root is no longer there to stimulate the jawbone, changes in the facial shape can occur.
Although you might assume that gum disease only affects the gum tissue, this all-too-common condition can affect the appearance of your teeth, your jawline, and even your overall face shape. The longer your gum disease is left untreated, the more drastically the condition can alter your looks.
Touch – your dentist will use their fingers to apply a bit of pressure to the jaw and TMJ to test for tenderness and pain. Sight – your dentist will look inside your mouth for signs of teeth grinding, clenching and alignment issues. They'll also use X-Rays, if they've found evidence of a TMJ disorder.
Periodontitis (also called periodontal disease) is gum disease. This infection damages the soft tissue around your teeth and wears away the bone supporting them. If left untreated, the disease eventually ruins the bone, loosening the teeth and causing them to fall out.
Bone cannot regenerate on its own after periodontal disease, but bone grafts, membranes, and tissue-stimulating proteins can be used to promote regrowth in areas where bone has been lost.
In its early stage, called gingivitis, the gums can become swollen and red, and they may bleed. In its more serious form, called periodontitis, the gums can pull away from the tooth, bone can be lost, and the teeth may loosen or even fall out.
Stage 4 of periodontal disease is the point of no return. At this point, even scaling and root planning won't be enough to treat your teeth. A dentist will probably recommend surgery or laser therapy to clean out the gums' deep bacteria deposits. The worse your periodontitis gets, the more it's going to cost you.
In some cases, it may be too late for gum grafting to save the gums. If your gums are severely damaged, receding so far back that they expose the tooth's root, or if there is significant bone loss from advanced gum disease, gum grafting may not be able to restore them to their healthy state.
The progression of periodontal disease is slow but steady. It only takes four days for plaque to reach its maximum extent, so you'll be able to physically see signs of gingivitis on day 5. Advanced stages of this disease can be seen in as little as a few weeks if you have not tried to reverse the gingivitis.
Stage 3: Advanced Periodontitis
As the infection worsens, the pockets may also fill with pus. At this point your teeth might loosen or fall out. This stage of gum disease is irreversible, though dental implants (replacement teeth) are one option for people suffering from serious periodontitis.
Advanced Periodontal Disease: The final stage of periodontal disease is when the infection has evolved into disease-causing bacteria. It can cause redness, swollen gums that ooze pus, sensitivity, loosening of teeth, painful chewing, severe bad breath, and bone loss.
The treatment for this stage of periodontal disease is deep root planing and scaling to remove all plaque deep under the gum line and along the teeth. You may also have laser treatment done to remove any diseased gum tissue, and you may be prescribed with an antibiotic to help fight the bacteria and infections.
Your jawbone is similar; if there are no teeth, the jawbone shrinks. If you only have one or two teeth missing, you may not even notice the change, but if all or most of your teeth are missing, this can make your jawbone weak.
Patients who lose a part of their jaw—whether from injury, infection, disease, or as a side effect of cancer treatment—can have the missing jawbone replaced through reconstruction.
When your tooth is extracted from your jaw, there is trauma to the jaw bone and this will take longer to heal than the gum tissue. The bone will start to heal after one week, nearly fill in the hole with new bone tissue by ten weeks and completely fill in the extraction hole by four months.