Many of us have had a cavity before. This early form of tooth decay develops when natural oral bacteria penetrate a weak spot in your dental structure. When bacteria wear a hole into the surface of your tooth, dentists refer to the damage as a cavity.
Your dentist can treat a cavity within one dental appointment in most cases. But some people feel tempted to skip or delay this treatment despite its relative ease. If tooth decay advances, you could suffer more extensive consequences in the look and feel of your smile.
Knowing more about the risks of untreated cavities can encourage you to visit your dentist about this dental concern. Discover potential oral health complications that may develop if you do not get the treatment you need for a cavity when you read on.
What Happens If You Do Not Seek Urgent Treatment for a Cavity?
A cavity can cause irreversible damage to your dental structure. You might see a visible hole in the tooth’s surface that might also appear discolored with brown or black stains. Some people may also feel tooth sensitivity pain where decay has exposed underlying nerves within the tooth.
Cavities will not go away on their own. They will start to spread further across the tooth as well as deeper if left untreated. You may experience more severe pain in the tooth if this occurs along with worsening cosmetic dental damage.
The weakening of your tooth from the decay can also allow bacteria to reach the vulnerable pulp of your tooth and give you an infection. This may require extensive dental treatment like root canal therapy to fix. If you sustain too much damage, the dentist might need to extract the tooth to stop the spread of decay and protect the rest of your smile.
How Will My Dentist Treat Tooth Decay?
If you develop a cavity, your dentist will need to remove the decayed part of the tooth in order to get rid of the problem for good. The dentist will give you a local anesthetic to numb the area, and then they drill away the damage.
They fill the resulting hole in the tooth with composite resin to restore the tooth’s structure. Then they cure the dental filling so that it creates a seal over this vulnerable portion of the tooth and remains in place. A final polish ensures a beautiful, blended, and natural-looking finish.
If you suffer from advanced tooth decay, a filling might not be enough to fully repair the structure of the tooth after removing the decay. In this case, a dentist might provide you with a dental crown. This is a ceramic cap that can cover and shield the entire surface of the tooth.
Dentists make crowns on a custom basis for each patient. This ensures a comfortable, secure fit that can last for about fifteen years. Learn more about the dental care that will suit your smile in the wake of tooth decay by calling your dentist today.