General Dentistry

Cavities

The most common problem that most people come with to a dental clinic is CAVITIES.

So what are Cavities?

Cavities are the permanantly damaged tooth structure that causes because of the acid that is produced by bacterias.

Most of the patients always asks me that why do their teeth decay even when they take adequate care of their teeth?

If we talk in terms of example,
When an accident occurs, there are series of mishaps that occurs that leads to an accident. Even if a single one of them would have been prevented rightly that accident could have been prevented.

Same is the case of cavities a.k.a Dental caries.
There are multiple factors that are responsible for initiation of caries.
Even if we can avoid any one of these major factors, the initiation of caries can be prevented.

There are mainly Four main factors that are associated with dental caries.
These are
– Fermentable carbohydrates,
– Bacterial biofilm,
– Susceptible tooth surface and
– Time of exposure.

1) FERMANTABLE CARBOHYDRATES (Dietry sugars):-
When we eat food,the digestion process starts from mouth itself.
The very first digestiom that occurs in oral cavity is of carbohydrates.
The bacterias in our mouth converts dietry sugars into lactic acid.

The food particles that keeps itself adhered to teeth causes the acid formation on the tooth surface that causes dissolution of the enamel portion of the tooth.

2) BACTERIAL BIOFILM:-
The mouth contains a wide variety of oral bacteria, but only a few specific species of bacteria are believed to cause dental caries.
These cariogenic species of bacteria
are most commonly found in dental plaque which increases with presence of dietry sugar in oral cavity.

3) SUSCEPTIBLE TOOTH SURFACE:-
There are some conditions which leads to increase in risk factor.
Retained dental plaque
Pits and Fissures
Open contacts
Hypomineralized surface
Crowding
Gingival recession etc

4) TIME OF EXPOSURE:-
The frequency with which teeth are exposed to cariogenic (acidic) environments affects the likelihood of caries development.
The carious process can begin within days of a tooth’s erupting into the mouth if the diet is sufficiently rich in suitable carbohydrates.

Along with these factors, there are certain behavioral and sociodemographic factors that are likely to increase the risk of caries. These include poor oral hygiene, age, improper tooth brushing habits, severe gastritis, dry mouth, lack of fluoride, lack of enamel etc.

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