Dramatic Changes

Gum disease is very common among Chinese.  Mrs. Qu is not exception.  Her gum disease is so severe that one of her top front teeth has moved outward and downward (Fig.1 arrow).  Finally this tooth needs extraction and implant replacement (Fig.3 I) .

Her oral hygiene is quite bad, around the bottom front teeth, which are crowded/crooked (Fig.1).  One of them (*) is hidden behind with a lot of stain.  This tooth has severe gum disease.  Bone around it is almost gone (Fig.2: arrowhead).  There is overlapping between crowded teeth.  Overlapping areas look especially white (#).  Eventually the tooth with severe gum disease (Fig.1,2 *) also needs extraction, but it does not need any replacement, because the space is not so big.  Nobody can see it!

Surprisingly, the space closes by itself in 5 months (Fig.3,4 *).  It appears that the neighboring teeth have moved to the space (arrows).  There is no overlapping among the remaining bottom front teeth (Fig.4, as compared to Fig.2).  More surprisingly, her oral hygiene improves dramatically (compare Fig.1,3).  With removal of the two mobile teeth, it is easier for her to clean her teeth.  She admits that she tries harder on keeping her teeth clean.  She brings dental hygiene devices to workplace so that she can brush and floss more.  Maybe she does not want lose any more of her teeth.  Her oral hygiene remains good one year and nine months later (Fig.5).  Bone remains stable nine months after extraction and improvement of oral hygiene (Fig.6).

Xin Wei, DDS, PhD, MS 1st edition 10/04/2011, last revision 08/30/2013