Your jaw performs many critical functions, including allowing you to make ordinary daily movements with your mouth, like laughing, speaking, eating, yawning, singing, among others. Furthermore, it makes significant contributions to your overall dental health. In this article, you will learn the main role of the jawbone in dental health.
Holding Your Teeth
Your jawbone plays a critical role in keeping your teeth strong and healthy. First of all, you need to understand that your natural teeth are entrenched in the jawbone. Therefore, if your jawbone is weak or damaged, your teeth will be directly affected. You also need to understand that your jawbone relies on your teeth for stimulation. This stimulation happens when you perform different tasks with your teeth, like chewing and biting. Without the stimulation, your jawbone will become weak and resorb, causing your teeth to loosen and eventually fall off.
If your teeth fall off, they will leave gaps in your jaw, and your jawbone won’t get the necessary stimulation to help it regenerate. Without regeneration, the affected area of your jawbone will recede, causing other serious dental problems like jaw pain, altered facial appearance, and loose teeth. You will also have difficulty chewing and biting. Therefore, you need to have strong teeth to keep your jawbone healthy and effective.
Preventing Gum Infections
If you have a weak jawbone and your teeth fall off, your gum will be left with empty sockets where food particles and plaque can accumulate, exposing your gum to bacterial infections. These infections will damage your gum and eventually spread to the jawbone and neighboring teeth, leading to a further loss of teeth.
A bacterial infection in your gum can also cause you to have a smelly mouth that will leave you depressed. It will also make it difficult for you to chew food properly for better absorption of essential nutrients by the body. Therefore, an unhealthy jawbone can easily lead to malnutrition, which will consequently expose you to more serious dental problems, including tooth loss.
Prevention of Temporomandibular disorder (TMD)
When you lose your teeth due to a weak jawbone, you might end up having a misaligned bite, which can cause injuries to your temporomandibular joint (TMJ). TMJs are the two joints connecting your lower jaw to your skull in front of each ear. If you have gaps in your jaw, the remaining teeth might become misaligned, causing misaligned bites that will injure the muscles in these joints.
If you have further questions about jawbone health, get in touch with STL Oral Surgery immediately.
