It's a Disease!

by J. K. Hackbarth, DDS

With the exceptions of congenital problems and accidents, all dental problems can be classified as disease. That's DISEASE! Decay is an infection of the tooth. Periodontal disease is an infection of the gums and bone. Abscesses are acute flare-ups of infection in the bone or soft tissues.

Dental disease is caused by bacterial infections. Dental infection, as in decay and periodontal disease, tends to be chronic in nature. If it is not controlled it will cause the debilitation of your health. If one looks at it from this point of view, he can see that long term infections in the body have serious health consequences. Chronic hepatitis and AIDS are other examples of chronic, long term infections. I believe that untreated dental disease will definitely affect your future health and life expectancy. When has untreated infection ever been good for you?

The one good aspect about dental disease is that it is preventable and controllable. If a person takes good care of their teeth and gums he can control and prevent future damage and health consequences. This requires some effort on your part, as well as regular professional care.

Patients often are worried about their teeth. I often hear question like "What if I have this dental work done and then one of the teeth goes bad?" What that tells me is that they really don't know that the disease is controllable. When a patient really gets the idea that they can control their disease, then they are not afraid to make the effort to have the damage of past disease repaired.

As a dentist, I am concerned with stopping active disease processes for a patient, and then counseling the patient about the prevention of future disease, as a priority. After that, dental care becomes a matter of repairing the past damage that has occurred and replacing restorations as they wear out. (All types of dental repairs will eventually reach the point where they must be replaced.)

You should realize that you can have a healthy mouth and that with modern dental technology, you can have a great smile. If you are not really sure that you can be a winner in dental health, then you should see us for a consultation.

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