Can Crowded Teeth Fall Out?
Whether it is due to genetics or injury later in life, teeth crowding can become a serious oral health issue. If it goes unchecked, it can lead to gum disease, tooth decay and worse. Because of this, it’s important to understand what teeth crowding is, and how it can be addressed.
What is Teeth Crowding?
Teeth crowding, as the name implies, is the crowding of teeth. This may be as small as one tooth that has migrated, or as severe as the majority of your teeth.
Some of the oral health issues that teeth crowding can lead to are quite severe. These include:
- Gum disease
- Periodontitis
- Tooth decay
- Cavities
- Teeth impacting
It can be difficult to take care of your oral health when your teeth are crowding. With crowded teeth, it is hard to reach every spot of a tooth while brushing and flossing. Those hard-to-reach areas can suffer from decay, as well as buildup that leads to gum disease. Over time, the decay can become bad enough that a tooth is no longer viable and needs to be extracted.
The crowding and migration can get worse over time. This, in turn, can lead to the impacting of other teeth. This wear can cause permanent damage to your teeth.
How Do I Repair Teeth Crowding?
Because of all of the oral health risks that crowded teeth pose, it is important to stop the crowding of your teeth and reverse the movement that has occurred.
There are a few ways in which you can stop and reverse the movement of teeth that are crowding:
- Teeth-straightening surgery. Teeth-straightening surgery may be a good first step for some patients on the road to recovery. This surgery is often paired with the placement of braces.
- Braces. Braces are an effective method of adjusting teeth, and are often the best choice for repairing teeth migration. There are different types of braces available, which include metal, ceramic, lingual and invisible. The type that is best to meet your needs will depend on the severity of the migration, your budget and possibly your own personal preference.
- Extraction. Sometimes the best thing that can be done to save healthy teeth is to extract problematic teeth. This is especially the case for extra teeth (like wisdom teeth). These extra teeth often put pressure on healthy teeth, causing them to shift. The removal of these extra teeth can stop the progression of teeth migration.
Schedule an Appointment
There are many risks involved with teeth crowding and migration. While the damage may start as small as a cavity, it can progress to the point where a tooth is too decayed and damaged to save. When this is the case, an extraction is necessary.
To avoid these serious consequences, schedule an appointment with your dentist to discuss your options for addressing teeth migration. They will put a plan together with you and will begin the process of reversing teeth migration.