What Can Be Done For Worn Down Teeth?

As you age, it’s completely natural for your tooth enamel to slowly wear down. At the age of 30, for example, a “normal” adult will have lost about a millimeter from their front teeth due to the friction caused by chewing. Unfortunately, an increasing number of older adults are experiencing excessive wear beyond what’s considered normal. This can lead to a number of problems, from an unattractive smile to tooth sensitivity.

If you suspect you may be suffering from excessively worn teeth, it’s best to address this problem sooner rather than later. Here’s a closer look at worn teeth, common causes, how you can prevent wear, and treatment options your dentist may recommend.

Common Causes of Excessive Tooth Wear:

Grinding and Clenching

If you grind or clench your teeth when you’re feeling stressed or anxious, this can cause the enamel to wear down prematurely. When you grind one tooth against another, the friction can slowly rub away the enamel. Clenching your jaw leads to the formation of micro-cracks in the tooth enamel. The enamel around these cracks then wears away more easily when you chew or brush your teeth.

Physical Abrasion

Similar to how sandpaper wears away at wood, chewing on hard items like fingernails and pen caps can slowly take away the enamel on your teeth. Brushing too hard with an overly stiff toothbrush can have a similar effect. This is one reason dentists generally recommend using a soft toothbrush and a gentle touch when brushing.

Acidic Foods and Beverages

When you consume acidic foods or beverages, the acid weakens your enamel. Then the enamel is more easily worn away when you brush your teeth or chew harder foods. Common acidic foods and beverages include sodas, citrus juices, and tomato sauce. Those with bulimia also experience acid wear due to frequent exposure of their teeth to acidic stomach contents.

Problems resulting from worn down teeth

Worn-down teeth can cause aesthetic problems and serious oral health issues that require professional dental treatment.

The following are problems commonly associated with worn-down teeth.

Yellowed teeth

Tooth enamel is white; however, the layer of your teeth below enamel—known as dentin—is yellow. Your teeth may gradually become more yellow as the enamel on top of dentin wears away due to bruxism, abrasion, or a diet high in acidic foods.

See-through teeth

“Why are my teeth see-through?” is a common question many patients ask their dentists. Factors that contribute to see-through teeth are aggressive bleaching and whitening treatments, acid erosion, and celiac disease—the latter of which is associated with poor development of tooth enamel.

Tooth sensitivity

When the enamel on your teeth is worn away, the nerve endings in dentin are exposed to every substance you put in your mouth. Worn-down teeth can make you extremely sensitive to certain foods and drinks, and may even cause pain when brushing your teeth.

Headaches and jaw aches

Teeth that become worn down can lead to alignment problems with your bite and jaw to cause strain, headaches, and jaw aches. You may also tend to bite harder or chew differently to compensate for problems with tooth alignment.

Gaps, spaces and loose teeth

When the back teeth wear down and become shorter, the consequences to the front teeth can be devastating. It is termed, secondary occlusal trauma and it can lead to loosening of the front teeth, bone loss, gaps between the teeth and even tooth loss.

Preventing worn teeth

There are a few things that can be done which will help to keep your teeth strong and the enamel healthy. The most obvious one is brushing and flossing regularly as well as dental and hygienist appointments at our Balwyn dental practice.

Other than this, you should avoid acidic food and drinks and especially fizzy or fruit drinks. As these pass over the teeth, they will gradually wear away the enamel. If your enamel erosion is caused by teeth grinding, you may need to seek professional help to stop this. A protective guard might also help and you should discuss this with your dentist.

Crooked teeth too cause an uneven bite that leads to premature wearing. Please ask our dentists about our corrective orthodontic options that we have available at our Balwyn practice.

Restorative treatments

Once your teeth are damaged, the only way to prevent further deterioration is to restore them using dental treatment and there are a number of options which are suitable for different situations.

Bonding

Bonding can be used to ‘build up’ teeth that have been worn. However it is not as strong as other types of restorations and can discolour more easily too. It does have various uses though and can provide a fast solution for a one off situation such as a wedding or other important event.

Porcelain veneers

Veneers can provide a more durable and practical solution than bonding and are usually used on the visible front teeth. They are also often used to improve the appearance of badly stained teeth.  In most cases, a fine layer of the natural tooth will be removed and replaced by an equivalent thickness of porcelain which is then attached using dental adhesive and shaped and polished to improve the appearance of the teeth. If looked after well, veneers can last for 10 years or more.

Dental crowns

Whilst veneers can only really be used on the front teeth, crowns provide a solution for teeth that need to be stronger, for example those used for grinding food. To fit a crown, the tooth has to be shaped and impressions taken which are then sent to a laboratory for the crowns to be made. These are then attached to the prepared teeth using special adhesive.

If you are concerned about your teeth for any reason and you would like to speak with one of our friendly dentists, please call our Balwyn clinic on (03) 9817 7144  we’ll be pleased to book an appointment for you.