What Should You Do If Your Teeth Are Loose? Do They Necessarily Need to Be Pulled Out?

If we compare teeth to trees, the tooth roots are like tree roots, and the gums and alveolar bone around the teeth are like soil. The deeper the tree roots grow in the soil, the more stable they are; the stronger and tougher the bone and periodontal membrane around the tooth roots, the firmer the teeth are.

If the soil and water around the tree roots are lost, the tree roots gradually lose their support; or it’s possible that there is no soil and water loss, but a typhoon blows directly and knocks down the tree.

These two basic situations occurring in teeth lead to tooth looseness.

What should you do if your teeth are loose?

Firstly, it needs to be clarified that regardless of the cause of tooth looseness, if it is not treated, the only outcome that follows is tooth loss.

The subsequent impacts are easy to imagine: missing a tooth can lead to a lisp when speaking or an uneven smile when smiling; for molars, it can result in difficulty chewing or the inability to chew on one side. Over time, the teeth on both sides of the missing tooth will tilt towards the center, and the upper teeth, losing their support, will also fall down, causing the result of losing one tooth and damaging three others.

For situations where tooth looseness has already occurred, medical attention should be sought as soon as possible to find the cause of the disease and receive targeted treatment. You can also visit china-dental-labs.com for professional consultation and make a comprehensive decision on how to handle it.

Periodontitis: The Primary Cause of Tooth Loss Among Adults in China

When the periodontal tissues that surround and support the tooth roots become inflamed due to poor oral hygiene, causing bone and soft tissue loss, it’s like the soil around the tree roots starting to erode, making the teeth prone to looseness. If treatment by a dentist is not sought promptly at this time, the teeth will fall out once the periodontal tissues are completely lost.

In some cases, inflammation occurring at the tooth roots can directly affect the bone next to the tooth roots, known as periapical periodontitis. Similar to periodontitis, periapical periodontitis also manifests as tooth looseness.

At this point, an assessment of the periodontal condition should be conducted immediately, and treatment should be carried out based on the assessment results.

How to Prevent and Treat Periodontitis?

Eliminate Irritants and Reduce Inflammation

By scaling and root planing, remove the irritants such as calculus and dental plaque above and below the gums to eliminate gingival inflammation.

Of course, periodontitis that causes tooth looseness is generally more severe, and one visit is often not enough, and dentists often require more follow-up visits.

Even worse, periodontitis may still be uncontrollable after scaling and requires periodontal surgery to thoroughly remove dental plaque and calculus that cannot be completely removed by scaling.

Strengthen the Foundation

For cases with severe bone loss around the tooth roots, it’s like severe soil erosion near the tree roots, requiring “soil cultivation,” which is the implantation of artificial bone graft to help regenerate new supportive tissues for the affected teeth.

However, not all loose teeth can be stabilized through treatment and return to their original firmness. In many cases, once the alveolar bone, the most important “soil” for fixing teeth, is absorbed, it is difficult to reform.

Provide Support

After periodontal treatment, the teeth may still not return to their original state.

“Loose tooth fixation” is a remedial method: various methods are used to connect the loose tooth with adjacent teeth, so that the force is distributed from the original single tooth to multiple teeth, reducing the burden on the loose tooth.

A periodontal splint can also be made to fix the loose teeth to a certain extent. Shenzhen HINNO Dental Lab can produce and manufacture this periodontal splint. Please feel free to contact us if needed.

Should Loose Teeth Be Retained or Extracted?

Of course, we won’t give up on retaining teeth and actively treating them.

For traumatic injuries, stabilize first.

We often see basketball and boxing athletes wearing dentures like fake teeth, which can largely avoid tooth looseness caused by sports injuries.

However, we don’t wear dentures during daily activities, so it’s common for sports-loving adolescents to experience tooth looseness after being bumped by their peers, especially in the front incisors.

At this point, the teeth should be stabilized first by connecting the loose tooth with adjacent teeth and observed regularly.

But some severely loose teeth have poor treatment outcomes, and retaining them can become uncontrollable foci of infection. In such cases, extraction is recommended.

After extraction, dentures should be made and worn as soon as possible.

This can not only restore normal chewing function but also reduce the shifting of adjacent teeth trying to “fill the gap.”