A loose baby tooth is not something that should worry you. However, if your loose tooth is an adult tooth, pay attention. How you treat your loose tooth from now on will determine whether you will be able to save that tooth from falling out. First, you need to identify the cause of the looseness. Only then can you determine whether you can save it alone or with the help of a dentist.
Injured Teeth Can Heal on Their Own
If trauma due to an accident is to blame for the looseness, then you can save it. When you hit a tooth during sports or an accidental collision, you might damage some of the bone holding it in place. Likewise, the injury has probably damaged the periodontal ligaments that hold your teeth in their sockets like strips of Velcro. In this case, your tooth needs time to heal on its own.
While you can help to speed up this process by cleaning your mouth with saltwater and chewing on onion and garlic to keep bacterial infections at bay, there isn't much more you can do. In a few days, your tooth should start to tighten up in the socket as the bone and ligaments heal. However, if your tooth doesn't tighten up, then it isn't healing for some reason, and you should see a dentist.
You can also have your dentist apply a tooth splint to your injured tooth. Like a splint on a broken limb, a tooth splint will hold the tooth in place until the bone and ligaments heal.
Infected Gums Need the Urgent Help of a Periodontist
Gum disease also causes teeth to become loose. If this is the cause of your loose tooth, the gum tissue around your loose tooth will be inflamed and swollen. There will also be some gum recession around the loose tooth. This is because the infection, caused by tartar, is destroying the bone and ligaments holding your tooth in place.
A tooth loosened in this way will not heal on its own. You need a periodontist to remove the plaque so that your bone and ligaments can heal. Otherwise, you will likely lose the tooth.
A Tooth Loosened By Grinding Won't Heal on Its Own
Again, like gum disease, the cause, not the symptom must be treated first before a tooth loosened by grinding or bruxism can heal. The fact that you grind your teeth every night means that your loose tooth will not be able to heal. In fact, it might very well fall out if you don't treat the grinding. You need a dentist to help you determine the cause of your nighttime grinding.
Grinding is usually due to stress or a misaligned bite. Your dentist will also give you a nightguard, which works like a sports mouth guard, to protect your teeth at night. This will help your loose tooth to heal.
Is your tooth loose? Then diagnose the cause before you decide if you can leave the tooth to heal on its own.
For more information, you can contact an emergency dentist in your area.
