Temporary splinting for loose teeth can it actually dissolve the jawbone?

Hello.

I’m the director of Seoul Bardi Dental Clinic.

When teeth become loose due to trauma or gum disease,

temporary splinting is often performed

to help stabilize the loose teeth.

However, did you know that a method that only fixes the surface without addressing the underlying cause

can sometimes become poison that makes gum health even worse?

Today, I’d like to explain exactly what this treatment is,

and why caution is needed, through real cases.

What is temporary splinting? Temporary splinting for loose teeth can it actually dissolve the jawbone?

Temporary splinting, as the name suggests, means temporarily fixing teeth in place.

It is a procedure in which loose teeth caused by gum disease or trauma

are tied to adjacent healthy teeth

using wire or resin so they can stabilize and recover.

When a tooth is loose, the surrounding tissues do not get a chance to heal,

so artificially limiting movement to help healing

is easy to understand as a kind of “tooth cast.”

It is also sometimes used in implant cases

to prevent the opposing tooth from drifting down

by tying it with wire until the implant is completed.

When used properly at the right time,

it can be very helpful in extending the life of a tooth.

Temporary splinting: these cases should be avoided. Temporary splinting for loose teeth can it actually dissolve the jawbone?

But why do I say this procedure can sometimes be risky?

The underlying cause of loose teeth is usually calculus embedded deep around the root.

These deposits dissolve the jawbone and cause the tooth to become loose.

Temporary splinting performed without removing the true cause, the calculus,

is no different from pouring water into a bottomless bucket.

At first, it may seem like things are fine because the tooth is no longer moving,

but

if treatment of the underlying cause is not carried out together,

then on the surface it may seem calm,

while inside the gums inflammation continues to gnaw away at the bone.

As a result, even healthy adjacent teeth can gradually collapse.

What makes temporary splinting especially frightening is that because the teeth are firmly fixed with wire,

it is hard to feel the looseness, so you may not realize that the gums are slowly being lost.

This can even lead to cases where the treatment window is missed and extraction becomes unavoidable.

In addition, the areas tied with wire are very difficult to brush,

so they can actually become a cause of new gum disease.

For those who have trouble with proper oral care,

it is better to remove the wire as soon as possible.

A case of a patient who lived with temporary splinting for a long time Temporary splinting for loose teeth can it actually dissolve the jawbone?

This patient, in the past, when the lower central incisors (#31, 41) started to become loose,

was afraid of extraction and had them broadly tied with wire to the teeth on both sides~

251022

Since there was no immediate looseness,

they felt reassured and spent a long time like that,

but the inflammatory cause embedded at the root tips

still remained.

Eventually, the inflammation that started in the central incisors quietly spread to the adjacent teeth (#32, 42).

By the time they visited the clinic,

it had already progressed beyond what wire could manage,

and four teeth were severely loose all at once,

251028

and the surrounding jawbone had melted away extensively.

In the end, all four front teeth were extracted and implants were placed.

251230

Because a great deal of the jawbone had already been lost due to long-term inflammation, if a standard prosthetic restoration were placed,

the teeth could look unnaturally long and the appearance could become awkward~

To prevent the teeth from looking too long,

we recreated the gums with pink porcelain (gum-colored ceramic)

260116

so that the teeth would appear shorter.

Although a lot of gumbone had been lost,

thanks to carefully adjusting the tooth proportions, we were able to achieve a very natural result without awkwardness.^^

251022 (Before) 260116 (After)

I understand the desperate wish to protect one’s own teeth,

but

sometimes a temporary fix can lead to a much greater loss.

Are you perhaps holding on to loose teeth by force right now?

Fixation that does not treat the underlying cause can instead put even the healthy teeth around it at risk.

At a place where even hidden inflammation deep in the root is carefully diagnosed,

check the true condition of your teeth’s health.

Thank you.

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Temporary splinting for loose teeth can it actually dissolve the jawbone?

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02-481-4278

| This post was written directly by Seoul Bardi Dental Clinic for the purpose of providing medical information in compliance with Article 56, Paragraph 1 of the Medical Advertising Act. The information provided is for reference only, and we recommend that you visit a medical institution and receive guidance from medical professionals for symptom assessment and accurate management methods. All procedures/surgeries performed at the dental clinic may involve individual risks (inflammation, bleeding, swelling, etc.). Please make decisions after sufficient consultation with the medical staff in advance. The treatment cases in this post were photographed with the consent of actual patients who completed treatment at our clinic, and the before/after photos were taken under the same conditions. |