A tooth out of function is worthless and can cause serious harm to the human body. Like an arm or a leg, a tooth that is just sitting there accumulating “dust” will break down and loose integrity. The ligaments that hold the tooth to the bone just like the ligaments in an arm or leg will send signals that draw cells called osteoclasts and blasts that build or destroy bone. The body wants every organ and every part of the body to function otherwise it will tend to let “it die”. This is not a real death but it is in a sense the concept that if it cannot function, “I do not want to waste time feeding you.” These are autonomic signals that are transmitted to the healing and growth functions of the rest of the body.
Arms and legs wither and muscles weaken with atrophy. The bone even changes as in the case of a tooth the bone allows the tooth to start over-erupting or to lean away from forces applied to it. In the case of molar teeth this would relate to the action of the tongue pushing the tooth forward and outward. An over-erupted tooth is useless and can prevent the placement of denture. It will also collect more food and debris that feed bacteria.
You want your teeth to function so that they do not move and so they do not collect “garbage”. The more a tooth moves the more it becomes a food trap and the more the likelihood of pathology or disease to form around it. These diseases include gingivitis, periodontitis and what I call “garbage-itis.” Garbage-itis is a made-up name for all the bacteria, food, and debris that can collect around these useless teeth.
These bacterial plaques can then spread disease to the rest of the mouth and to the rest of the body. If inhaled they will cause pneumonia. If certain bacteria form large colonies they will feed enzymes into the bloodstream that can generate all kinds of serious issues including: the breakdown of heart tissue and its capillaries, inflammation of joints, infection of the pancreas and other organs, pre-term births, and possibly brain cell degeneration. One of these bacterium is P. gingivallis which can get into amniotic fluid or the placenta of a pregnant woman. This creates a stimuli that some researchers believe initiates a series of events that will cause a pre-term birth of the baby.