Two of the most asked questions that I get from patients are: 1) “I don’t have any pain in my mouth, is this work necessary?” and 2) “How long will this work last?”. These questions are legitimate questions and the most asked questions on a daily basis. Prior to asking these questions, it is important to go over certain situations that we all can experience.
In the field of dentistry, dentists rarely come across patients with tooth issues that are symptomatic, or associated with severe pain, and teeth that are at the verge of needing to be extracted from issues that happened overnight. With an exception to dental trauma (i.e. sports injuries, accidents, etc.), the majority of the dental issues that require extensive dentistry are the result of problems that may have gotten worse over a long period of time. Advanced periodontitis, also known as gum disease with loose teeth, and painful endodontic nerve tooth infections are some examples of problems that have gone untreated for too long to the point where the problems have snowballed into a larger problem. Like everything else in life, smaller problems can be addressed with easier fixes and bigger problems will likely need a bigger construction job to correct the problem. The key is to promote preventative medicine so that bigger problems can be avoided. Even if we tried to do preventative medicine all the time, big dental problems can still exist but the risk will be much lower.
Going back to the 2 common questions, my answers have always been the same. If the teeth show signs of cavity, wear and tear of old restorations, cracks in the tooth, bone loss around the roots, etc., the risk has to be assessed and the dental work that addresses these risks would be “necessary” to prevent a bigger problem from happening. Remember, the key word is preventative medicine, so reducing any risk is always ideal to maintain good oral health. Depending on the risk, there will be priorities and the focus is to address urgent needs more than the non-urgent matters. If the patient and the provider can both come up with a plan to address all the risks in a timely manner, a long lasting healthier and stronger teeth can be achieved sooner.
With regards to the question about how long a dental procedure would last, it is important to understand the various factors that contribute to the longevity of the procedure. There are no guarantees about anything in life, but there are ways to minimize the risk of having an unsuccessful dental procedure to ensure long lasting outcomes. The major factors that contribute to the success of a dental procedure includes the quality of the dentist’s treatment plan and their professional work, patient compliance with instructions including recommended maintenance care, degree of severity of the problem at hand, genetic factors, and so forth. The list can go on but the most important factor is that dentistry, or any field of medicine, is a journey that both the provider and the patient walks together hand in hand. The provider’s professional expertise and genuine concern for the patient’s well being, and the patient’s understanding and compliance with evidence based medicine bonded by the trust between them will ensure a long lasting successful dentistry. From a personal experience, I remembered what my old dentist told me when he completed a root canal therapy and a crown on one of my fractured teeth. He put his hard work into the broken tooth and advised me to be careful with the injured tooth with homecare instructions. That work was done back in 1985 and I still follow his instructions to this day. Perhaps I may be able to have that tooth outlast me!
