Loss of bone

[B]

If bone has been lost and a tooth feels wobbly because of it, does it mean that bone has been lost from all of the jaw, can you lose bone from just a part of it?
also, if you get periodontal disease can that affect just a part of the gum or does it always affect the whole of the mouth?

thanks in advance denties

[Zzzdentist]

Bone loss can be localized or generalized in the mouth. It can be worse in some areas and better in others, and there are different types of bone loss (horizontal, vertical, combo defects). If a tooth is wiggly, that means the periodontitis in that area is quite severe as to allow the movement of the tooth.

Depending on the severity and situation, some periodontal procedures can be performed to reform the bone and tighten up the teeth (bone grafts, perio surgery, splinting).

[B]

They sound like fun procedures.

would you expect the teeth to be rotten if the gum disease was so bad that the teeth had to be removed?

mine arent rotten, they are ugly and crowded but not rotten. I guess because they are crowded that makes it very difficult to clean them properly?

[Zzzdentist]

Some of the procedures aren't too bad. They involve accessing the area, cleaning up the root, reshaping the bone, adding bone graft material, covering it up with a membrane, and closing the works up.

Actually there doesn't seem to be a correlation that I've seen between incidence of decay and severity of gum disease. *You can get severe gum disease and almost intact teeth with no cavities, severe rampant decay of the teeth and quite solid teeth with minimal gum disease, or more commonly a combination of both decay and periodontitis.

Crowding really complicates home care, and as such can lead to suceptibility to gum disease. *It's hard to get all the nooks and crannies brushed and flossed clean so plaque and bacteria build up and break the tooth support structures down.

Usually I'll recommend more often cleanings for people with crowding or anyone who has deeper periodontal pockets that need the cleaning more frequently.