Are You Fed Up With Your Back Teeth?

The more common phrase that you may have heard is “fed up to the back teeth” which indicates being bored or angry because a bad situation has continued for too long and you’ve had more than enough of it. I often see emergency dental patients who have let a dental problem go on for too long and are now fed up with it. Often their solution, particularly if it is a back tooth that they think is unimportant because “no one sees it”, is to remove the tooth.

In some cases, there is no choice but to remove the tooth. (If there’s no room for it, as in the case of some wisdom teeth, or if there’s not enough of the tooth left for your dentist to be able to restore it.)

But even our best replacement option (which right now is a dental implant) is not quite the same as your natural tooth, so if you do have an option to save your own tooth, it is worth considering—even if it is a back tooth.

Back teeth provide a natural stopping point for your bite. They are also designed to take on the heavier chewing chores. Without back teeth, other teeth need to take on your heavier chewing. If you have only front teeth, the “pounding” your front teeth take will often buck them out and separate them (buckteeth).

Back teeth also contribute to how your face looks. Without the stopping point your back teeth provide, you may find that your face collapses and you notice wrinkles more.

Plus a new study has found that older people who have lost all their own teeth have worse issues with memory and with walking than those who have at least some of their own teeth!

If you have a known dental problem, please don’t wait until you’re so fed up with it that you act hastily. Dental problems don’t get better on their own; they will only get worse. If you haven’t seen a dentist in a while, please make a dental visit one of your priorities (and necessities). It’s much easier to fix a small problem than to wait until it is something that has you “fed up to your back teeth”.

Dr. Jennifer Robb is a general dentist who is accepting new patients at her office 1320 Cooper Foster Park Rd., Lorain, OH 44060. You can reserve your appointment time by calling 440-960-1940. You can also contact Dr. Robb by using the form on her website at www.drjrobb.com