It seems obvious that gum disease gets worse with age. So if I’ll lose my teeth anyway, what is the point?

Sorry that you’re sounding quite resigned to an inevitable fate.

We’ve got good news for you – that’s not quite how it works, so tooth loss might not be as unavoidable as it might seem.

Approximately 12% of the population do not lose bone around their teeth whatsoever. We consider those lucky people to be quite “resistant” to gum disease. Researchers don’t yet know why it seems to happen, but it does.

The majority, 88% of us in fact, have a level of susceptibility to the problem. How much we can be affected is largely genetic, then unique factors to us (oral hygiene care, smoking, medical health, stress etc.) mean some of us can be more sensitive to the plaque bacteria at that particular time and not another.

When gum disease progresses, bone is irreversibly lost from around your teeth.

So of course, we are bound to see more bone loss in older age groups as the damage is cumulative in our lifetimes.

BUT be aware that does not mean age is a risk factor for it starting or progressing. As we often say, correlation does not mean causation.