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When your tooth becomes damaged due to cavities or decay, your dentist in Whitby typically will have two options: a root canal and crown, or a filling. In most cases, the right treatment will depend on the severity of your current dental situation. Dental crowns in Whitby are usually required when the structural integrity of the tooth is compromised and can no longer support a filling.

A missing tooth can become more serious the longer it goes without repair or assessment from a local dentist or an emergency dentist. Over time, a missing tooth can cause you to eat less, reducing access to nutrition, and it can cause bone loss, which can shift teeth, change facial aesthetics, and weaken neighbouring teeth.

While dental restorations like dentures and dental bridges replace some of the functions of missing teeth, like enabling your ability to chew, eat, and speak more effectively, they can create some challenges for patients struggling with one or more missing teeth, including bruising, maintenance challenges, bone loss, and some difficulty chewing.

Brittle teeth usually mean the tooth structure has become weak enough to chip, crack, break, or wear down more easily than it should. This can happen because of enamel erosion, aging, grinding, untreated cavities, trauma, large old fillings, dry mouth, or repeated stress on the tooth.

Dentists often recommend root canals when cavities have progressed severely or if infection has reached the nerve or pulp of the tooth. At this point, pain is usually at a high, and day-to-day activities like eating are unbearable. While necessary to preserve the tooth and return functionality, it is often met with fear and anxiety. 

Compared to dental bridges and dentures, implants provide patients with function, maintenance, and appearance similar to that of a natural tooth. Because of their strength, longevity, and reliability, dental implants allow patients with missing teeth to restore the quality of life negatively impacted by tooth loss.

Virtually no one is immune to cavities; even with the most diligent oral care, we still see patients come in needing cavity treatment. While prevention is incredibly important, it’s also important to understand how cavities progress in stages and when to reach out to your local dentist in Whitby.

When you lose a tooth, either from gum disease, an extraction, or an accident that knocks a tooth out, bone loss starts to occur around the area where there is no longer a tooth.