What to do if children have exposed tooth roots

The second tooth replacement experience in childhood directly affects the tooth shape in adulthood, so when your children are experiencing the tooth replacement process, parents must pay attention to some conditions of the children during the tooth replacement process and whether the tooth replacement is beautiful. The teeth are mainly connected to the gums and gums, so the root part we refer to is generally the gums. But what should we do if children's tooth roots are exposed during the tooth replacement process?

First of all, the roots of teeth do not grow directly on the alveolar bone (gum). There is a thick layer of gum tissue between them [1]. This part of the gum is called "periodontal tissue" in modern oral medicine (perhaps it would be more accurate to call it inner gum). The periodontal tissue and alveolar bone are tightly wrapped by the outer gum. Therefore, the combination of teeth and alveolar bones is actually a joint relationship, which belongs to the micro-motion joint (small range of motion) in the human body. Therefore, even if the teeth are strong and healthy, there will be a feeling of slight movement when touched by hand.

The alveolar bone basically relies on the gum tissue that wraps it for nourishment. When the gums age and shrink, the ability to transport nutrients to the alveolar bone decreases, and the alveolar bone shrinks and becomes shorter. This is called "bone resorption phenomenon" in oral medicine. Gum atrophy causes the wrapping and maintaining strength of this "micro-motion joint" to decrease, and the teeth begin to loosen. At the same time, the alveolar bone is absorbed, making the tooth roots shallower and the teeth longer. As the bone absorption phenomenon becomes more and more severe, the teeth naturally fall off.

On the other hand, after the gums shrink, they can no longer tightly wrap the tooth roots as before, resulting in the exposure of the periodontal tissue (inner gums). Various bacteria in the mouth (especially anaerobic bacteria) and dental tartar directly invade the periodontal tissue and cause periodontitis. Periodontitis will in turn aggravate gum recession and accelerate the absorption of alveolar bone, forming a vicious cycle. The result is not only the destruction of gums and teeth, but more seriously, it threatens physical health. Since current oral medicine believes that gum recession cannot be reversed, periodontitis cannot be cured, so it is listed by the World Health Organization as the third largest killer threatening human health.

In short, there is a great relationship between tooth root exposure and alveolar bone absorption after gum recession!