While oral function serves a major purpose in your ability to perform routine tasks such as eating and speaking, your oral health is the top priority to consider when attending your dental visits. Indeed, there are a number of factors that contribute to the degradation of your smile, and sometimes a circumstance can progress to a point that difficult decisions must be made. In today’s blog, your Conroe, TX dentist takes a look at times when decay has completely compromised an oral structure and your only option is to have a tooth extracted.

Oral Health is Affected by Many Factors

It goes without saying that your grin endures significant wear over the course of your life. Factors such as the effects of foods and beverages you consume, injury or accident to the mouth area, and even the quality and frequency at which you practice preventive care at home all contribute to the durability and strength of your smile. That being said, falling short in any one of these categories could result in future complications.

As one of the most common dental concerns, decay can cause destruction in multiple ways. It is caused by oral bacteria that have been permitted to thrive and live relatively protected. These bacteria secrete harmful acids that weaken and break down your tooth’s healthy natural structure. Over time, these soft spots will form into holes known as cavities, which is one of decay’s earliest stages.

Ensuring Proper Protection

If you do not treat a cavity in a timely and efficient manner, it will begin to get larger and affect the inner working of your teeth. Indeed, the inner dental pulp and nerves will begin to suffer, causing sensations of sharp pain, sensitivity, and difficulty in function. Once it has progressed past this point, there will likely be little that can be done to salvage your tooth. What’s more, the infection will likely threaten your surrounding teeth and cause their demise as well if treatment is not sought.

Your Last-Ditch Effort

The last thing your dentist wants is for you to lose a permanent tooth, but sometimes extraction is the only viable option left in order to preserve your health. You see, once a structure is compromised beyond saving, it will likely fall out on its own. The problem here, however, arises in the time frame of total compromission and falling out. At this stage, the infection itself is most likely to spread to surrounding teeth. In other words, you won’t lose just one, but several. To best combat this scenario, it may be necessary to remove the one in order to preserve the rest.

Contact Our Team

For more information about the need for extraction or to schedule your appointment with our team, contact The Dental Centre of Conroe in Conroe, TX by calling 936-441-4600 today.