Dr. Amy Khajavi and the entire staff at All Natural Dentistry are committed to your total health and well-being. Dental cavitations can adversely affect overall health in the long term. If you believe you may have cavitation, contact All Natural Dentistry immediately to schedule an evaluation. To better understand dental cavitations, as well as, symptoms, treatments, and the effects they can have on your overall health please read the article below.
A cavitation is a hole within the bone of the jaw, often caused by blockage of blood flow. The more medical term for cavitation in the dental community is NICO (Neuralgia-Inducing Cavitational Osteonecrosis). Now, a cavitation is not the same thing as a cavity, a hole within your tooth. While both are holes, they are within different areas of your mouth which means detection, symptoms, and treatment will differ greatly from one another. A cavity can be detected by simply looking at the tooth and seeing if there is a hol e. A cavitation cannot be detected so easily. They must be identified radiographically, by the use of a Radioisotope bone scan using technetium-99m, a Panoramic radiograph, a bone scan, a Cavitat, a Cone beam 3D CT scan, or a Biopsy and then interpreted by an expert eye. Because this process is so detailed and extensive cavitations are often undiagnosed. Understanding the symptoms of cavitation and letting your doctor know will greatly increase the chances of a proper diagnosis.
The most common symptoms of cavitation are pain or an uncomfortable feeling within your face. Examples of this pain may include:
● Pain and pressure deep inside your bone (potentially consistent or with varying intensity
● Bad breath or gagging, which a bitter or sour taste in your mouth can cause
● Pain within your jaw that is sharp and/or shooting
● Complications that followed a difficult tooth extraction, including your wisdom teeth
● Headaches and migraines
● Trigeminal neuralgia (TN)
● Atypical facial pain (AFP)
Keep in mind that these symptoms don’t occur in every case of dental cavitation, it is possible for a cavitation to be present in one’s jaw bone without feeling any pain or discomfort. At that point, it may be worth asking “Why treat the cavitation?”. While cavitation may not cause immediate pain, leaving it untreated can lead to far more severe health concerns in the future.
Cavitation is a problem that brings further issues. One of those issues is necrosis, the death of bone cells. When necrosis occurs it serves as an environment for toxins and afflicting bacteria. Harbored bacteria lead to infection and immune deterioration. As a result, your body's overall health suffers. These harmful bacteria can trigger long-term effects by triggering immune reactions that become chronic and result in a chronic inflammatory condition and causes the immune system to begin attacking itself. Autoimmune diseases commonly found include IBF(Inflammatory Bowel Disease), lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, and psoriasis. Blood Flow interruption to the bone cell is connected to other serious diseases, risk factors and symptoms include:
● Lyme Disease
● Pancreatitis
● Gaucher's disease
● Sickle Cell Disease
● Heart disease
Considering that dental cavitation can ultimately create an overhauled immune response, it is imperative to make sure that cavitation is diagnosed properly. Now that we understand the potential harm an undiagnosed cavitation can create for your overall health, let's look at the potential causes of cavitation and the risk factors associated with them.
As stated earlier, blockage of bone cells can lead to the more significant issue known as cavitation. Common causes include:
● Improperly extracting a wisdom tooth or tooth.
● Bone penetration from a Tooth abscess
● Long-standing infection near or in the bone socket or root canal that has gone untreated
● Having too much heat being applied to the bone while undergoing a dental operation
● Bone pressure elevation
● Using Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) in excess
● Severe Jawbone injury, including trauma
● Dry socket
● Periodontal disease (gum disease)
● Continuous alcohol consumption
● Chronic smoking hinders bone healing
● Genetic clotting disorders and other mutations
● Osteoporosis and low-dosage treatment (bisphosphonates)
● Cancer-related radiation treatment
● Hiv Infection
The fundamental trigger of cavitation is reduced blood flow. A contributing factor to decreased blood flow can result from genetic changes such as the lack of nitric oxide production. Referred to as NO, a decrease in production brought on by genetics affects the blood vessels by increasing blood pressure as well as simultaneously decreasing blood flow.
There is still active research on the complete understanding of cavitations. However, the apparent truth remains when there is a drop in blood being supplied to the jawbone, the bone cells die. Now that we understand the causes and risk factors associated with a cavitation that is left untreated, let's look at the treatment solutions for cavitation.
The primary treatment of dental cavitations is cavitation cleanout - removing toxins, infected bone tissues, cysts, dangerous bacteria, and abscesses.
Compared to standard treatments, laser treatment is the least painful treatment by many dentists' standards, and it is highly effective and less invasive.
Another dental treatment option is ozone therapy. This process is achieved by filling the sinus and ear canals with ozone and oxygen. The approaches are highly effective in flushing out bacteria and toxins found in the cavitations, and it is also successful at combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains.
When an oral dental surgeon performs cavitation surgery, the infected tissue is removed from the cavitation, and the process is completed by creating a slight opening in the gum. The toxic tissue is removed, and the cavitation is cleaned as well. While this is an option among cavitation treatments, some experts often prefer it as an initial approach when dealing with dental cavitation's in the jawbone.
All Natural Dentistry takes a noninvasive approach to dental cavitation treatment. Our noninvasive procedures are performed with innovative technology, supplied by BIOLASE, and are precise in ridding dental cavitations of pain-inflicting toxins and bacteria. This laser-based treatment is an advanced approach to outdated dental methods, which historically have caused patient anxiety. Now, if you find that you are fortunate enough not to currently have a cavitation in your jaw bone, understand that it is very important to keep it that way. Cavitations are preventable, let's look at the common ways to prevent cavitations.
The most effective preventative approach for dental cavitations is knowledge. While cavitation is a common occurrence, being unaware of cavitation within your jaw bone, as well the understanding of how it can harm your entire body's health, shouldn’t be a common occurrence,
Cavitation prevention starts with daily oral hygiene routines such as brushing and flossing two times a day. Patients should also schedule regular cleanings at their local dental office, typically two times a year.
Additionally, experts have found that dentists should avoid a local anesthetic called epinephrine during cavitation procedures. It is a vasoconstrictor that can result in reduced blood flow.
All Natural Dentistry specializes in total and complete dental care. However, they also focus on full-body health in regard to how dental care and preventative maintenance can affect overall body health. Now, let's look at the long-term outlook for the proper treatment of dental cavitations.
A 2006 study by Columbia University College of Dental Medicine revealed that when improvements to oral health are made there is a 21% decrease in the total costs related to health issues. This means that when your oral health shows that it is in great condition it is generally an indicator that your overall health is in great condition as well. Which will lead to fewer health-related procedures and overall quality of life later on down the road.
Another way of looking at this is realizing that making the investment in solving your dental cavitation issues today will prevent even further complications from happening later on. Even if the pain isn’t prevalent at the moment, it certainly will be in the future. With the potential of other complications to go along with it. If you’re under the impression that your jawbone may contain a cavitation, take the time as soon as possible to talk to a dental professional.
Oral health is a great indicator of overall health and well-being for an individual. While many people are not directly familiar with dental cavitations, understanding the effects that they can have on your overall health are very important. This study supports the notion that if individuals knew more, they then can begin to work toward improving their dental health long term, which will then lead to a greater quality of life long term.
As stated earlier, Dr. Khajavi and the entire staff at All Natural Dentistry are committed to your total health and well-being. Dental cavitations can adversely affect overall health in the long term. If you believe you may have cavitation, contact All Natural Dentistry immediately to schedule an evaluation.
1. Albert, D. A., Sadowsky, D., Papapanou, P., Conicella, M. L., & Ward, A. (2006). An examination of periodontal treatment and per member per month (PMPM ... researchgate.net. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/6873716_An_examination_of_periodonta l_treatment_and_per_member_per_month_PMPM_medical_costs_in_an_insured_ population
2. Gandhi, Y. R., Pal, U. S., & Singh, N. (2012, January). Neuralgia-inducing cavitational osteonecrosis in a patient seeking dental implants. National journal of maxillofacial surgery. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3513818/#:~:text=NICO%20(Neura lgia%2DInducing%20Cavitational%20Osteonecrosis,or%20may%20not%20be%2 0 painful.
Marincola, M. (2014). Jawbone cavitation and its implication in implant dentistry. https://media.zwp-online.info/. Retrieved December 12, 2022, from https://media.zwp-online.info/archiv/pub/sim/im/2014/im0114/im114_20_23_bicon. pdf
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