Gum disease
It is always said,
Rome was not built in a day.
This applies almost everywhere , even when we talk about teeth.
Gum disease is the biggest example for it. It is never like gum disease happens in a days. It is years and years of negligence that leads to severe gum disease eventually mobility and losing of tooth.
I always give an example of dumpyard to my patients when they ask me how did this happen to my gums.
Foul smelling Dumpyard is the similar to foul smelling mouth.
When years and years we keep dumping garbage and do not clean it from there, it rots and it spreads foul smell plus it pollutes the place it occupies.
Same case is when we let calculus keep accumulating in the free gingival margin of teeth, it will cause bacterial growth leading to halitosis ( Bad breathe) and diseased gum.
So what are the different stages of gum disease
1) Healthy Gums and tooth:-
When a tooth comes out from tooth bud it is always healthy and so are the gums.
Gradually plaque develops at the junction of tooth and gum which generally gets removed while brushing.
It converts into calculus only when there is lack of proper brushing or brush do not reach a particular area.
2) Gingivitis:- It is the early stage of the disease when calculus starts building on teeth and starts irritating gums.
Initially Gums get inflammed but tries to stay attached to the tooth.
If calculus is removed or cleaned in this stage this damage is reversible, gums can go back to normal.
3) Periodontitis:-
Sever inflammation causes seperation of gums from the tooth forming pockets.
This pocket makes more and more room for calculus to gather around teeth and irritate gums even more causing early bone loss.
4) Advanced Periodontitis:-Now this is irreversible unrepairable phase where there is severe bone loss and deep pockets and the tooth loses its grip from gums and bones and it comes in danger of falling out.
Once the disease enters this phase it becomes more and more difficult to save the tooth..
So Its better to be safe than Sorry..
People are not as much aware of their own dental need as much aware they are regarding the false notions of dentistry that prevails in the society.
Out of which the most famous ones are
– Teeth cleaning causes spaces in the tooth (which actually was space created by calculus which one starts realizing after removal of calculus)
-Teeth cleaning causes mobility of teeth ( again the culprit is Calculus that do not let one realise the damage it has done to teeth, gums and bone)
These are all false notions that leads fear of getting teeth cleaned and so one keeps neglecting the progession of gum disease.