Stabilising Mobile Teeth at Absolute Dental

Our restorative specialist, Bill Beare, sees many varied and complicated cases here at Absolute Dental, cases that are referred to him from all over the South West - and beyond (Thailand is the furthest to date!).

Because he is a specialist, patients often come to him when a problem has exceeded the knowledge of the patients own dentist, and this can sometimes mean that the problem is quite advanced.

This case concerns a lady in her late 70s who came to see Bill following a history of periodontal (gum) disease throughout her life, which had left her with some mobile back teeth and areas of deep pocketing around other teeth.

Sadly due to the damage done by the gum disease to the bone over a prolonged period (the patient had first been aware of a problem in her 20's), some of the back teeth had such little bone support that there was no option but for the patient to have these teeth removed. However, Bill was keen to work with the patient to keep some of the teeth further forward.

Thorough cleaning of the remaining teeth was carried out under local anaesthetic, and the patient was given comprehensive oral hygiene instruction to enable her to keep on top of her regime at home.

Although the results from this were pleasing, Bill still felt there was more improvement possible and discussed the prospect of "regenerative surgery" the patient, using a product called "Emdogain" - this is a product that is made up of  a unique group of active proteins found in natural tooth development, and predictably regenerates lost tooth attachment. It was hoped that this would reduce the pocket depth around the upper right canine tooth, reduce the mobility and therefore stabilise the tooth.

Below is a copy of the before (on the left) and after (on the right) x-rays of the canine tooth. Before the Emdogain treatment this tooth had pocket depths around the tooth of between 7-10mm (this is 2-3mm in health) and 3 months following the treatment, these pockets have reduced to 2-4mm. You can clearly see the boney infill to the right of the tooth in the centre of the picture on the right. It is this that has caused the improved stability of the tooth.

 

We will need to continue to monitor the patient, and their visits to the dental hygienist are vital to address her on-going periodontal problems, however, this is a great result and has certainly prolonged the life of a very important tooth for this lovely patient.