Three things that can cause your Teeth to wear prematurely

Seems like the last few years, we are seeing more and more extreme wear of people's teeth, and a lot of times the patients are young, even in their twenties or thirties.  The wear can be extreme, even damaging, and the wear can be painful, making the teeth sensitive as well as making the smile look bad! This photo is of a 40 something year old man, and he has worn his teeth down to where he was having a constant sore tongue from the sharp surfaces of the worn teeth. His lower front teeth were simply slicing the upper  front teeth on the wrong side.

Why does something like this happen? What are the factors that trigger this?

There are Three Major factors:

1. Sleep apnea- interestingly enough, is a major cause of wear, through sleep bruxism, where the person is awakening many times during the night, and often when this happens, they grind or clash their teeth together. One of the first things I check today when I see a patient with extreme wear is their sleep status.  There isn't any reason to put new restorations in a mouth if the patient is going to just keep wearing them away!

2. Acid Drinks- this is more of a problem with young people- teenagers and twenty- somethings, but at any age, drinking soft drinks or sport drinks that have a low ph, not only will make their decay incidence much higher, but can actually dissolve and soften the enamel in their teeth. If you combine that with vigorous gum chewing, you can see an incredible amount of wear in a very short time! All soft drinks and most sports drinks have a low ph! Water and tea are your best bets!

3. Occlusal reasons- other than sleep apnea and sleep disturbance concerns, many people just grind their teeth at night anyway, for all sorts of reasons. Young children grind their teeth very often when their permanent teeth are coming in, and many people seem to grind when they are feeling stress. Not only does this grinding and clenching trigger headaches and sore jaw joints, but it wears the teeth away. Sometimes is it do to bad tooth position, and sometimes to bad jaw positions, but that is why we do the thorough examination.

So, what do we do to treat teeth with wear?

1. First of all, we typically get a sleep study done to see if Sleep Apnea is a concern. We certainly might uncover a life threatening problem, as well as be able to help solve a dental problem. 

2. After we do a very thorough examination, we talk with the patient to see if they can be okay staying where they are, and just not damaging their teeth any further, in which case we can make a protective splint. If their teeth are too worn, we have to figure out a bite position that will allow us to  a long lasting correction of their smile, and then make them a night splint to protect their new teeth!

THE KEY IS PREVENTION

It is always a lot easier to prevent damage than to fix it, so when we find someone in the early stages of a tooth wear pattern, we want to get them diagnosed and in the appropriate treatment, before they have damaged their mouths so badly that it will take major dental treatment to get their mouths back in shape.

Typically, if it is early enough, we can combine a bite splint with some remineralizing toothpaste to harden the enamel and to prevent further damage. And of course, the patient has to stop the habits that might be causing the problems to begin with.

In any light, the problem of excessive tooth wear can be a painful and expensive malady, and the earlier you pay attention to it, the less treatment will need to be done, and you can save a lot of money!

As always, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to call or email me at riccoker@gmail.com!

Have a great day!

Dr. C