Dental Caries Essay

The tooth is the hardest structure in the body, with the strength of enamel exceeding that of bone. If teeth are so tough that they can grind through wood then that begs the question why we keep losing them? It’s nearly inevitable that at some point in life you will lose some of this super tissue just by having a sip on your fizzy. Although it seems that there is a large number of ways for you to lose dental hard tissue, they can be boiled down into to broad mechanisms: Mechanical destruction e.g. trauma; and Acid dissolution.

Caries is the disease that has been the biggest concern to dental profession in the modern era and will continue to be in the foreseeable future. Dental caries is defined as: “Tooth decay, which involves the destruction

Abfraction – which is where a non-carious cervical lesion develops due to extensive cyclical non-axial loading of the tooth causing stress concentration in the cervical region – could also be considered a form of tooth wear however the clinical evidence for its inclusion as a true contributor is still insufficient (Michael, Townsend, Greenwood, & Kaidonis, 2009). These processes rarely occur individually and an interaction between the four, mediated to a degree by erosion is inevitable (Shellis & Addy,

It also occurs when the surrounding aqueous phase is under saturated in relation to tooth mineral (hydroxyapatite and fluoroapatite) (Larsen, 1990). Erosive lesions are hard to detect in the early stages, typically presenting with smooth silky-glazed, dull enamel surface. This can progress to flattening cupping on incisal/occlusal surfaces with rounded edges as well as loss of dimension on smooth surfaces with a thin ledge of intact enamel following the gingival margin with associated morphology changes in advanced lesions (Ganss & Lussi, 2014; Lussi & Jaeggi, 2008). The source of the acidic solution can be characterized as being intrinsic or extrinsic. Intrinsic erosions is caused by the strong acids of the stomach entering the mouth, most often due to the acid travelling from the esophagus the damage is most severe on the palatal surfaces of teeth (Moazzez & Bartlett, 2014). Extrinsic causes of erosion are broken down into environmental (occupations or advocations with daily exposure to acid); Diet (specific foods and eating behaviours); Medicaments (Medications or oral hygiene products with low pH that come into regular contact with oral cavity); Lifestyle (behavioural factors or lifestyle choices which involve excessive consumption of acids) (Zero,