Common Dental Conditions

Ins and outs of your tooth

This is the thin outer layer of the tooth. It acts as a shell that protects your teeth from daily use such as chewing, biting and grinding. Although enamel is the hardest substance in the human body, it can chip and crack.

Unlike a broken bone that can be repaired, once a tooth chips or breaks, the damage is done forever. Because there are no living cells in enamel and so the body cannot repair enamel.

The sensitive layer of teeth that is usually protected by the enamel or cementum. This is often the cause of sensitivity when it is exposed and should be protected by a restoration or a crown as this layer is very prone to acid wear, physical wear and active decay.

In the pulp chamber, lies the nerve and blood vessel that keeps the tooth alive.

Also known as your gums. They complete the picture with your teeth to give you a really nice healthy smile when they fill the gaps between your teeth. It is very important to keep your gums healthy, if you leave bacteria around them for too long, they can look very swollen and puffy or even recede and move away from your teeth.

This is the canal where your nerves and blood vessels run through to your pulp chamber.

A thin layer that covers the dentine below the gums, and its purpose is to secure the tooth to the bone through the periodontal ligament.

Just like any connection between two bones this is the joint that connects the tooth to the jaw bone. It servers a huge purpose in making sure the tooth is secure inside the bone. However, without good oral hygiene, these ligaments can easily be damaged by bacteria in the oral environment.

The bone around the tooth. Your jaw bone is very important. Like teeth, if bacteria has caused damage and the bone starts to resorb away, it is not something you will grow back. The more bone you have, the more stable your tooth is.

The nerve supplies your tooth’s colour, sensation to hot and cold and sensitivity when you have bit down too hard. Without it, you are likely to crack your tooth due to function and have a very dark tooth.

Dental Decay

Non-Cavitated Dental Decay (Incipient)

There are two types of dental decay, and one of them is called an Incipient Dental Caries. These areas are commonly present as superficial staining and chalky white spot lesions on the tooth surface. This is normally a sign that bacteria had not been cleaned from the tooth for a very long time and has started the process of removing minerals from your tooth and therefore softening the enamel. At this stage, the disease is reversible with the help of a hygiene appointment (hyperlink) with our dentists and oral health therapists.
It is essential to stop the disease here in order to preserve your tooth from requiring a dental restoration (hyperlink). With the help of fluoride, we are able to replenish the tooth with the minerals that have been lost to the bacteria before it cavitates and becomes an Active Dental Decay.

Cavitated Dental Decay (Active)

Active Dental Decay is an aggressive disease of the tooth when bacteria has broken through the protective layer of the tooth called enamel and is now in dentine and it will spread rapidly. It is essential to get this treated as soon as possible as this bacteria can also affect other teeth around it. This disease along with fracture lines and gum disease (hyperlink) are often painless and we do not want to wait until it does, as it then becomes much more difficult to treat and would have lost almost half the tooth worth of tooth structure.

What happens if you leave this untreated?

Leaving Active Decay untreated can lead to a number of things:

  • Tooth loss
  • Loss of tooth structure
  • Severe tooth nerve pain
  • Root canal treatment
  • Discolouration
  • Bad breath
  • Broken tooth

How can we prevent active dental decay?

  • Visiting the dentist regularly to look for incipient decay
  • Maintain good oral hygiene
  • Rinsing the mouth after having sugary foods or drinks
  • Flossing
  • Toothpaste and mouthwash

Fracture Lines

Fracture lines is known to be the most unpredictable tooth condition in dentistry. Dentists are able to see that your tooth has a fracture line but it is very difficult to determine whether it is getting worse, but we know that it will not get better. It is that small chip or large crack in your windscreen that does not seem to be getting bigger until it does. These fracture lines are often associated with large restorations, metal restorations and grinding. If you have metal or amalgam restorations in your mouth, we strongly recommend having it examined by a dentist at Peaceful Dental (hyperlink) so we can prevent tooth fractures.

Types of tooth fractures

This usually happens in the front teeth when you chip a small corner of your incisor. These are often harmless and can be easily treated with a tooth coloured restoration.

We certainly hope that tooth fractures does not happen to you as it can be a daunting experience when you find a piece of your tooth in your food. Most of the time we can prevent tooth fracturing from happening with a dental crown (hyperlink) but if it does happen to you treatment options are determined by how large of your tooth structure has been affected. Often times when they fracture and we can see the margins above the gums, these are all something that is treatable.

A split tooth usually presents with a lot of discomfort. It can present with the exposure of your dental nerve or detachment from your gums. Unfortunately, if your tooth fracture is below the gums, it will need to be removed.

What can we do to prevent this?

Visiting a dentist to consult a treatment plan to begin the strengthening of teeth with:

  • Large Metal fillings or Restorations
  • Fracture lines
  • Replacement of small metal restorations to tooth coloured restorations
  • Grinding mouthguard
  • Sports Mouthguard

Gum disease “the silent killer”

Gum disease or gingivitis usually happens before periodontitis or jaw bone disease (hyperlink). This is a build-up of bacteria around the tooth and along your gums and they cause an inflammatory reaction. As a result, your gums start to puff-up, swell, become red, bleed and become really sore to touch in some cases. If not properly looked after, it can cause tooth loss and often it happens in multiples. The good news is, it is reversible by simply brushing, and flossing and visiting our Oral Health Therapists who will not only do a professional scale and clean, but also educate you in how to reduce bacteria in your mouth.

In your appointments with our Oral Health Therapists, education is part of our focus as it is part of our core value, preventative dentistry. We wish to help you, your friends and family and the community to have a healthy oral environment.

Grinding

Bruxism is commonly known as the excessive grinding and clenching of your teeth.

  1. Adults – This usually is associated with stress and habit. It sounds like the constant nail scratching on the chalk board and you get goose bumps when you hear someone doing this. If your family member does this, it is best to visit our clinic to have a specific appliance made for it. Tooth grinding will rapidly wear away your tooth enamel, it is strongly associated with tooth fractures, failed restorations and generalised sensitivity. This needs to be picked up as early as possible to prevent tooth wear.
  2. Children – Children do not usually experience stress. So why do they grind? It is very common that this is associated with difficulty breathing. It is best to utilise your CDBS (Hyperlink) and visit Peaceful Dental to have this examined to determine whether it will be a condition your child may grow out of or something that should be looked into by your GP and Ear Neck Throat specialist.

Malocclusion/Misalignment

Everyone’s teeth are all slightly different, some teeth are bigger, some are smaller and some have different shapes. Some people’s jaws are bigger, wider and some are smaller and narrower. Your teeth are slightly crooked due to the following factors:

  1. Genetics
  2. Early baby tooth loss
  3. Thumb sucking
  4. Mouth breathing
  5. Poor tongue posture
  6. Trauma

What are the benefits of having straight teeth?

Cleaning crooked teeth is very difficult even for dentists. They have more overlapping areas and therefore requires finer instruments to help you maintain oral hygiene. Home Oral Health Care then becomes very difficult also. There’s a big association with gum disease and crooked teeth.

There have been social studies that do show people with straight teeth are often more confident in smiling and this is especially important in young adults where their personality begins to develop.

Speech is the control of airflow with breath, facial muscles and the positioning of your teeth. Some pronunciations especially S, F and P letters and sounds are very reliant on the positioning of your teeth.

Misaligned teeth is like having misaligned wheels, some parts will wear down quicker than others and some teeth are not even in function.

What can we do?

At Peaceful Dental, we have three registered General Dentists who have qualifications to provide full orthodontic treatment in Metal Braces and many more qualified to provide full cases of Clear Aligner treatments. Doctor Jeffrey Kho has over ten years’ experience in Fixed Metal Orthodontics and is also the national speaker for ClearCorrect. We are able to provide you with a reliable and comprehensive orthodontic treatment.

Missing Teeth

Seeking tooth removal after a severe toothache is a very viable option. While losing a tooth as a child is normal, as an adult, there are no more replacement teeth. It is unfortunate that missing teeth are often overlooked as insignificant when in-fact it puts your overall health is at risk and cheap when in-reality it costs you your tooth, surrounding bone and at least twice as much money to treat in the long run.

What happens when you lose a tooth?

With the loss of one tooth, you lose the function of the other tooth that it was biting on. This results in the extra wear of your other teeth and other factors that will domino effect and lose others.

Just like a tree in the soil, your tooth holds the bone and without your teeth, your bone will resorb away and affect your neighbouring teeth too.

Speech is a greatly dependant on your front and side teeth, without them, it will be difficult in pronouncing certain sounds.

It’s too common that dentists hear “it’s fine, it’s a back tooth”. However, losing a back tooth significantly affects your front teeth in the long run. So if you care about your front teeth, it is beneficial to keep your back teeth. Find out why with Peaceful Dental. (hyperlink)

Losing a back tooth on one side automatically sends a signal to your brain subconsciously that you will be eating on the other side and much less if any on the side you lose the tooth. This speeds up the process of your tooth wear on one side and causes an imbalance of your jaw joints. Think of it as an injury to one of your legs, this eventually will take a toll on your hips and this is the same to your jaw.

Without the balanced function of both sides of your teeth, one side of your jaw joint, muscles and teeth will wear down significantly faster. There is currently no definitive treatment to an injury to your jaw joint. Physiotherapy can help with your jaw joint to relieve the pressure by relaxing the muscles.

A large gap is often a very difficult area to clean. You have to angle your toothbrush sideways and brush sideways and is normally classified as a high risk area for gum disease and dental decay.

By losing a tooth, you lose the bone that holds it as well. As the bone starts to resorb due to the lack of stimulation from a tooth, the bone that supports neighbouring teeth are also affected. When this occurs, extra teeth of neighbouring teeth will be exposed and causes tooth sensitivity.

Normally you have 28 functioning teeth that all work together. Four pairs for chewing, six pairs for tearing and four pairs for cutting. The moment you lose one back tooth, you increase your tooth wear by up to 25% and more if you now only eat on one side.

Without a tooth sitting over your gums, your gums will also have no protection and therefore can be damaged but accidentally eating something crunchy.

Teeth are always moving, and they look for stimulation. When you lose a tooth, neighbouring teeth will start to tip into the space and the opposing tooth will begin to drop down searching for another tooth to function against.

Previously noted in the periodontal disease tab in this section, by losing a tooth you also lose the bone surrounding neighbouring teeth exposing new layers of teeth that aren’t designed to be exposed in the oral environment. This results in sensitivity signals an can make drinking cold water very uncomfortable.

Teeth are constantly moving, by having a gap on one side, all your teeth start to migrate to try and fill that gap. Overtime you will realise that your front teeth are no longer in the centre of your smile and are slightly tilted to whichever side that you had lost a tooth on.

Periodontal Disease or Severe Gum and Bone Disease

Periodontal disease is a serious and long term gum infection that damages the gums and destroys the jaw bone that supports the tooth. This disease is very aggressive as once you have it, there is no home remedy to stop this from getting worse and can rapidly progress with modifying factors like alcohol, smoking and medical conditions like diabetes. Prevention is usually very simple and involves maintaining oral hygiene and regular dental visits.

Significance of treatment

Periodontitis is a disease of the jaw bone that effects the whole body. Bacteria can now enter the bloodstream through the larger blood vessels in your bone to the rest of the body. It is a dangerous disease to have as it is a risk factor for heart, lung and sometimes brain disorders.

Signs that you might have periodontal disease:

  • Mobile teeth
  • Bad breath
  • Family history of diabetes
  • Family history of loss of all teeth

Peaceful Dental

Our team of fresh, young professionals strive to make a positive difference in your life. It’s about giving our patients amazing service and a big smile.

It’s about having fun, having a laugh and delivering first class dentistry in a safe, welcoming environment.

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