Help the development of the site, sharing the article with friends!

Caries is a bacterial disease that can be effectively prevented and completely cured. Nevertheless, almost all of us suffer from caries at least several times in our lives. No wonder: only half of Poles brush their teeth every morning and evening. What are the causes and symptoms of caries? How is caries treated?

Caries(Latincaries dentium ) isan infectious disease , caused by bacteria- most of allL. acidophilusand streptococci (mainlyStreptococcus mutans ). The following also contribute to the formation of caries:S. salivarius, S. mitis, S. sanguinis, Enterococcus faecalis.However, for the disease to develop, you still need sugar and time, and an individual tendency to caries.

In Polandpróchnicais a problem as much as 95 percent. adults. The average adult Pole has caries in as many as 13 teeth! And 57% of people over 40 wear dentures.

The dentists find advanced disease in more than half of several-year-old children, and because of it, every second teenager enters adulthood without having a full set of teeth. Usually, we blame sweets for the development of caries.

And rightly so, although the reasons for its formation are much more complex. Caries is a process of gradual decalcification and decay of hard tooth tissues. Scientists believe this is happening for four basic reasons.

Disregarding the condition of our teeth, we play with our he alth. Gangrene and inflammation of tissues can become a source of infection for the whole body and cause many serious diseases, for example:

  • rheumatic disease
  • endocarditis and myocarditis
  • glomerulonephritis
  • iris inflammation
  • phlebitis

Caries - causes

Caries is caused primarily by bacteria. Although it is hard to imagine, there are about300 species of bacteriain the human mouth, and their total number is almost 50 billion.

Most of them, however, are not harmful to us. Only those that break down sugars, produce organic acids and tolerate acidic environments are responsible for caries.

Mostly they belong to the genreStreptococcus mutans .These bacteria form a soft, tightly adhering to the surface of the teeth, yellow coating, technically known asplaque . Microbes constitute as much as 80 percent. its mass, while the remaining 20 percent. is an organic substrate that makes it easier for them to adhere to the enamel.

The development of caries is not affected only by clean water, fats and proteins. Forgetting about it, we often eat candies, nutritious bars, sweet fruit or cookies between meals, drink sweetened coffee, tea, juice or orangeade. This is enough to provide bacteria with their strategic nutrient solution, i.e. carbohydrates (mainly disaccharides and simple sugars).

Tooth decay - course

Whenbacteria break down sugars,chemical processes generate organic acids (e.g. acetic, lactic, proprionic, formic, butyric), whichlower the natural pHin the mouth.

Affectedthe enamel becomes porousand the first sign of caries appears on its surface:white, matte stain , which may darken from food dyes. At this stage, the process can be stopped and the treatment does not require drilling.

However, if we do not visit the dentist then, the acids will still be harmful to the enamel. More bacteria will get inside the tooth and quickly destroy the dentin. This is how a hole will form, called by expertscarious cavity .

Advanced caries

The bacteria move deeper into the tooth until they finally come closer to the pulp. There is no doubt at this point that something is wrong.Tooth hurts , is sensitive to temperature changes. If there is still a thin layer of he althy dentin at the bottom of the cavity and you go to the dentist quickly, there is a chancesaving a living tooth .

However, if we delay the visit, the caries penetrates the pulp, and the inflammatory process cannot be reversed. It is necessary to remove the pulp, popularly known as root canal treatment.

The dentist, after local anesthesia, removes the pulp with a device resembling a hard cleanout. If access to the roots is difficult, it first "poisons" the tooth with a special preparation and after a few days removes the pulp. Then he has to clean the canals of the tooth, fill them with dental paste and put a filling. Thanks to this treatment, we keep the tooth, but it is dead and therefore it can easily break or chip.

Caries and periodontitis

For fear of drilling, some people, despitesevere toothache , do not visit a specialist. After a few days, they developpulp necrosis . The tooth does not hurt anymore, howeverit doesn't mean the end of trouble at all. Dead pulp is an excellent breeding ground for bacteria that eventually lead to its putrefactive decomposition, i.e.zgorzeli . Sometimes this process does not cause any discomfort.

  • Dentophobia (fear of the dentist) - how to treat? Causes and symptoms of fear of the dentist

Only sharp pain provesperiodontitis . Then the last barrier that stops infection within the tooth disappears. It spreads to the surrounding tissues and then - through the jaw bone - throughout the body.

Periodontitis can be acute, and it hurts not only the tooth, but also the entire jaw and head. It is accompanied by swelling, general breakdown, and fever. If an abscess forms as a result of inflammation, it may need to be cut and treated with an antibiotic. Sometimes, however, periodontitis is chronic and occurs asymptomatically around the apex of the root.

Only when this condition turns into acute inflammation and the pain becomes unbearable, we go to a dentist who tries to start root canal treatment (it usually lasts much longer, even up to several months, because drugs are needed to fight bacteria and regenerate damaged tissue). If the treatment is ineffective, the dentist may perform the so-calledroot apex resection . It involves surgical cutting and cleaning of the bones.

Sometimes, however, a tooth cannot be saved and then the only solution is itsremoval . This most often happens with multi-rooted molars.

Caries - treatment

  • Remineralization

Only the so-calledinitial caries . Its characteristic feature is a slight decalcification, visible in the form of white or darker spots. It does not require drilling, which is unpleasant for us. The dentist, after thoroughly cleaning the place, applies a fluorine compound in the form of a gel or varnish. The preparation is to create the right conditions for calcium, phosphate and fluoride ions to re-build into the damaged area. The treatment should be repeated several times.

  • Sealing

Even if only a small hole is visible, dentin, being softer and less resistant to decay than enamel, can be significantly damaged. The dentist must first remove the diseased tissue (most often he does it with a traditional drill, less often - with a laser or a special gel that dissolves caries). Then, it tightly fills the cavity with an appropriate material, commonly known as a seal. However, we need to know thatneither the laser nor the gel replace the drilling, they only significantly shorten it.

What is the cavity filled with?

Amalgamis a combination of mercury with filings of a metal or alloy of several metals. While this type of filling has opponents who argue that mercury can be released into the body in dangerous amounts, detailed studies do not indicate such a risk. The advantage of amalgam is high durability, long-term bactericidal effect and speed of the procedure. However, due to its dark color, it is used today only in the treatment of molars and invisible surfaces.Composites , i.e. composite materials, have been used in dentistry for 30 years. Today dentists usually use light-hardened materials because their color can be perfectly matched to the shade of the tooth and the seal cannot be seen. In addition, composite materials perfectly bond with the tooth tissue and are very durable. In this respect, however, they are inferior to amalgams.Glass-ionomer cementsare complex mixtures of various ingredients. Their main advantage is the ability to chemically bind to tooth tissues and prevent the development of caries (this is due to the presence of fluoride, one of its components). The disadvantage of cements is the dark color and relatively quick abrasion from the tooth surface, which makes it necessary to replace the seals.

Caries - prevention

The condition of the teeth of an adult human being also depends on the diet of his mother and her habits, which the child takes over, because teeth begin to form already in the womb. This process, called odontogenesis, lasts from the 4th week of pregnancy, when the buds of milk teeth are formed, to around 20 years of age, when the development of eights, the so-called wisdom teeth. Therefore, during pregnancy:

  • limit the amount of sugar,
  • Eat as much protein as possible, because protein and collagen are the organic core of the hard tissues of the tooth.

Vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin D as well as calcium also have an influence on the quality of the teeth. Lack of vitamin A or C leads to underdevelopment of enamel (hypoplasia). As the teeth mature, calcium phosphate is deposited in their matrix (parts of the enamel). If we deliver too little of it to the child, the teeth have much weaker enamel and dentin.

  • Caries treatment: modern FILLINGS
  • Teeth treatment without drilling: what instead of a drill?
  • SANDBLASTING - a way to get rid of plaque and discoloration
  • Scaling, i.e. removing tartar

Over 90 percent Poles have tooth decay

Source: Biznes.newseria.pl

Help the development of the site, sharing the article with friends!

Category:

Dentistry and Orthodontics