How Long Can You Live with Periodontal Disease?

Living with periodontal disease is a challenge because it causes aesthetic complications and severe bone loss in the mouth. Unlike other infections, periodontal diseases silently affect you, causing your gums to become inflamed and bleed.

Periodontal disease is not a life-threatening condition. However, it might require you to seek treatments from various medical professionals when the bacteria from the infection spread to your bloodstream to affect your overall health.

What Is Periodontal Disease and How It Impacts Your Dental Health?

Periodontal disease starts as a minor gum infection called gingivitis. It silently progresses to moderate or advanced levels, leaving you with bleeding gums when brushing and flossing in the initial stages and causing bleeding when eating later.

You develop the initial stage of periodontal disease gingivitis when you don’t maintain proper dental hygiene and neglect oral care from a professional.

Gingivitis is an entirely preventable condition that can be reversed when detected early by visiting the emergency dental near you for regular exams and cleanings.

Unfortunately, gingivitis doesn’t progress to periodontal disease overnight and requires years before you realize you have a severe condition needing frequent appointments from dentists to keep it in check.

Dentists frequently advise patients not to neglect oral care and help keep preventable conditions at bay before they progress into a severe illness.

For example, periodontal disease results from neglecting oral care and starts with gingivitis. However, suppose you have allowed gingivitis to progress to severe periodontal disease. In that case, you have no alternatives available but to live with the condition by caring for it with frequent visits to your dentist.

Dental cleaning infographic

How Long Can You Live If Periodontal Disease Is Untreated?

How long you can live with untreated periodontal disease is a matter of conjecture because no infection in any part of your body pre-determines how long you live.

Whenever you are affected by any condition, medical professionals and dentists advise you to manage it appropriately to ensure it doesn’t cause additional complications that might affect other parts of your body.

If you have advanced periodontal disease, you will need help from the periodontist in Brentwood, Los Angeles, CA, a specialist dealing with this condition instead of the dentist nearby.

If your dentist provided affordable treatments when examining and cleaning your teeth, periodontists would likely charge you more for every appointment, making you wonder why you neglected your oral health or the six-monthly exams and cleanings.

Advanced periodontal disease causes bone loss that eventually leads to tooth loss. Therefore, you must manage the periodontal disease effectively to ensure that the condition doesn’t worsen and leave you with unmanageable expenses.

Periodontal disease also affects your aesthetic appearance because it causes gum recession or pockets between your teeth and gums, encouraging the bacteria in your mouth to accumulate in them.

The untreated periodontal disease eventually causes tooth loss after your jawbone weakens. Therefore while no guarantees are provided on how long you can live with untreated periodontal disease, the consequences of this devastating condition will make you wish you hadn’t avoided six-monthly dental visits to care for your oral health.

The untreated periodontal disease leaves you with many complications besides loss of teeth. Finally, however, if you decide to receive treatment for the condition; you can find help from periodontal surgery, deep cleanings, bone grafting, and splinting to save your natural teeth.

Unfortunately, if your periodontist determines your teeth are beyond saving, they recommend extracting them and having replacement solutions to prevent the consequences of tooth loss.

Therefore whenever you notice bleeding gums when brushing and flossing your teeth, you must get yourself evaluated by your regular dentist to determine whether you have the earliest stage of periodontal disease gingivitis.

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Outlook for Periodontal Disease

Treating periodontal disease is challenging because the condition is difficult to overcome. However, preventing it from advancing is relatively easy so long as you brush and floss your teeth every day and report problems with your gums, like bleeding immediately after you notice it.

When you report your condition to your dentist, you prevent gingivitis from progressing to periodontal disease because it is a reversible condition.

Unfortunately, if you leave it untreated, you must learn to live with it by scheduling frequent appointments with your dentist because periodontal disease isn’t reversible.

If you are affected by advanced periodontal disease, please seek treatment from Brentwood Dental Arts to manage the condition appropriately, receiving various treatments created explicitly for this condition.