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Recommended: Dental caries and its effects
Dental caries, also known as tooth decay, cavities, or caries, is a breakdown of teeth due to activities of bacteria. The cavities may be a number of different colors from yellow to black.
A dynamic process characterized by repeated episodes of demineralization and remineralisation occurring over a period of time.
If caries are not treated on time may lead to tooth destruction.
Risk factors
Food rich in carbohydrate
Frequent eating of sugary foods eg chocolate, toffees
Socio economic status: low and high
Decrease saliva flow e.g. dm,
Bacteria eg.streptococcus mutants,
Drugs e.g. antihistamine
Age; babies’ secondary to bottle feeding and use of pacifiers
Epidemiology
2.43 million
Disease is more common in the developed world than in the developing world due to high rate consumption of simple sugars like sucrose.it is common in adults and children in recent times
Symptoms
-Tooth pain or achy feeling, particularly after sweet, hot, or cold foods and drinks
-Visible pits or holes in the teeth.
-brown colouration of affected teeth
Investigations
-Primary diagnosis involves inspection of all visible tooth surfaces using a good light source, dental mirror and explorer.
-Dental radiographs (X-rays): This may show dental caries before it is otherwise visible, especially caries between the teeth. Dental x-rays are use in diagnosing pit and fissure caries.
Early uncavitated caries is often diagnosed by blowing air across the suspect surface, which removes moisture and changes the optical properties of the unmineralized enamel.
-Probing: soft/easily separated material at the crevices/fissures probe can go into the tooth if cavity formed.
Caries is a process.
(1)use of flouride in the early stages of dental decay helps in remineralising itself hence stoping or reversing decay.flouridification of drinking water and use of right amount of flouride in tooth paste is necessary in this
Many fillings are made of dental amalgam or composite resin.
Materials use in filling
(a)Amalgam is a silver-gray material made from silver, mercury, copper or other metals.
Amalgams are used in molars and premolars because the metal is not seen in the back of the mouth. Composite and ceramic materials are used for all teeth.
(B)Composite resin offers a better appearance because it is tooth-colored. Newer resins are very durable.
(3)root canal treatment
If a cavity is large, the remaining tooth may not be able to support enough filling material to repair it. In this case, the dentist will remove the decay and cover the tooth with a ceramic inlay, onlay or artificial crown. These may be made in the office or in a lab.
Sometimes bacteria may infect the pulp inside the tooth even if the part of the tooth you can see remains relatively intact. In this case, the tooth will need root canal treatment. A general dentist or an endodontist will remove the pulp and replace it with an inert material. In most cases, the tooth will need a
Bagis Y, Baltacioglu I, Kahyaogullari S. Comparing Microleakage and the Layering Methods of Silorane-based Resin Composite in Wide Class II MOD Cavities. Operative Dentistry 2009; 34(5):578-85.
Ceramics are most commonly used in dental applications as restorative materials for crowns, cements and dentures.
Dental caries occurs through a complex interaction over time between acidogenic micro organisms and fermentable carbohydrate, and host factors including teeth and saliva.1 The caries process can be described as a imbalance between re and demineralization and when more minerals are lost than gained from the hard tissues over time, caries lesion occurs.2Dental caries, if allowed to progress will result in non cavitated caries lesions initially on tooth surfaces, and eventually can progress to cavitation. There has been a general trend in clinical practice that caries lesion management focus primarily on operative treatment rather than using preventive non invasive strategies. This will lead to several replacements over time with increasing restoration size and produces iatrogenic damage. It has been reported that 71% of all restorations are performed on previously restored teeth, with secondary carious lesions as a major cause.3 This shows that although the carious lesion was repaired, the dental caries was not adequately treated, since the actual cause and risk factors were not adequately resolved. Recently the concept for caries management has been changed and focused mainly on multifaceted nature of caries and biofilm involvement. Currently it has been shown that the success to caries prevention
Children with disabilities or other health impairments require assistance of adults to live to their fullest potential. Although childhood caries is not a typical disease when considering disabling chronic illnesses, it is becoming a global health crisis that affects children in many ways. According to the United States Surgeon General’s report from the US Department of Health and Human Services (2000), dental caries is stated to be the “most common chronic childhood disease of children aged 5 to 17 years and is five times more common than asthma and seven times more common than hay fever.” Childhood caries can severely affect a child’s quality of life in the areas of overall development, family relationships, community relationships, and educational challenges; the collaboration of parents and teachers is essential in treating and preventing childhood caries, not only in the United States, but also around the world.
...an be seen that composite teeth form a high stability bond than PMMA teeth. This is due to the filler content allowing for low shrinkage, increased wear resistance and better cross-linkage with the base. In overall consensus the technique of heat-curing is believed to achieve significantly more polymer cross-linkage than that of self-curing the acrylic resin PMMA base - giving us a stronger base to teeth interface. It should be noted however that both techniques can be used for denture fabrication to achieve a desired result and it is up to the dentist and the technician to determine which one they prefer however, composite teeth bonded to a heat-cured PMMA base works best. Though the tooth and base by themselves may be strong, if the interface between them is not strong, this will result in the overall denture produced being weak independent of material selection.
Initially she would perform the exams as learned in school, but now after finding something abnormal, she now does a more thorough check, especially on patients with previous history of cancer. This incident solidified her belief in early detection and proper documentation. By having the information in the patient’s chart Annette could refer back to it and follow up to see if anything has changed since the last visit. Most patients she sees do not have oral cancer but she is able to identify abnormalities and encourage the patient to have them checked to determine if they are precancerous.
•Like an inlay, a white filling fills a hole in the tooth. Instead of porcelain, a composite resin is used. While this material is not as strong as porcelain, it is still durable.
Appearance: Discoloration of the enamel surface to a mild, brownish color and severe irregularity and pitting of the tooth crown.
The dental implant acts as a permanent replacement to the root of the
However, on the a recent visit dated 23/12/13 the patient’s gingival condition had deteriorated, presenting with an increased plaque scores of 34% and bleeding scores to 63%. Intra oral examination also showed generalised oedema and erythema throughout in the mouth in response to this increase in plaque bacteria. The presence of supra-gingival calculus on lower anterior teeth and both sites of upper buccal molars and the patients BPE now reads 212 /121, putting the patients caries risk at a ‘High’ status.
Flouride application is one of the method to limit the caries development due to poor oral hygiene to eliminate the caries development.
Saliva contains glucose; therefore, if you have uncontrolled diabetes, the amount of glucose present in your saliva is elevated. We naturally have somewhere between 200 to 300 bacterial species in our mouths: Some of these bacteria are good and some of them are bad. Streptococcus mutans is typically the bacterium responsible for causing tooth decay; whereas, periodontal disease is usually caused by a mixture of Porphyromonas gingivalis and Treponema denticola.
In conclusion, while composite and amalgam fillings, both have advantages and disadvantages we must look at the big picture and take all the factors into consideration which choosing the best filling option for you. I am no expert and do not seek to persuade you one way or the other, but rather I hope to provide you with some research regarding both materials and let you decide for yourself which material will better suit your needs. What material you should choose depends on multiple factors, including: your dentist, the location and size of your cavity, dental insurance/cost, allergic reactions, and preference to name a few. Nevertheless, I will conclude this paper by sharing with you what I believe to be the restorative material with the most benefits. Based on my findings composites are more likely to succumb to recurrent decay in the short term, but that amalgam is more likely to fracture a tooth in the long term (longer than many of these studies go). Recurrent decay can be fixed with a new filling while a fractured tooth is either lost or needs a crown and/or root canal. Even though, composite may cause more problems in the short term their solution to that problem is easier and cheaper than a fractured
In the past, diseased or damaged teeth could not be salvaged and in most cases, had to be pulled out. However, in the last three decades, endodontic dentistry has evolved to quite an extent and today, professionals trained in this specialty can help save teeth and repair any inherent damage. Common endodontic procedures include root canal therapy, fixing of broken teeth and repairing dental trauma.
7. Aziz RD, Gonzalez NAG, Kasim NHA. Microleakage Testing. Annals of Dentistry 1997; 4(1): 31-37.