Some people give their teeth and gums the same type of care as their car. They give it minimal maintenance and only bring it into the shop when it breaks down. Eventually, with too many parts neglected for too long, the car requires either a huge investment in repairs or the cost of replacement.

Well … your dental condition has some similarities. Once it starts to deteriorate, you face a crossroads: do you want to keep your teeth for your natural life or lose them?

If you catch up on your dental work before it’s too late, you can sidestep many procedures that “older” people wind up getting. For example, a 45 year old woman came into my office requesting her thirty-year old silver fillings be removed, since they were dark and detracted from her beautiful smile.

Lurking underneath were cracked teeth which, left alone for another year or so, would have required extraction and replacement with implants and crowns. She was lucky that we treated the situation in time and was able to restore the teeth with buildups. Had they deteriorated even slightly more, she would have been faced with having to replace her teeth.

I see people neglect simple fillings, which over time get bigger and, in some cases, lead to infection and root canal therapy. It’s just not a good idea to neglect needed dental treatment. Teeth and gums don’t get better by themselves.

Normally, the motivation to catch up on years of backlogged treatment is cosmetic. There’s a romantic or professional reason. Or, the person recognizes the role a smile plays in maintaining a youthful appearance. Whatever the motivation, if you already know you want to keep your teeth for the rest of your life – or you want to get some cosmetic procedures to brighten up your appearance, the first step is to restore the health of your teeth and gums. Neglected treatment always results in more expense, unless you’re content to wind up with dentures.