Dentistry -- Dental Caries Flashcards
Correlation of poor oral health to 3 diseases
Higher incidence of:
- Diabetes
- CVD
- Pneumonia
What kind of disease do oral diseases share risk factors with?
Chronic diseases and conditions such as:
- Heart disease
- Cancer
- Stroke
- Diabetes
- Obesity
Prevalence of caries disease in Canada
- Canadian children and adolescents = ~60%
- Adults = 96%
The most common chronic disease of childhood
Dental caries (five times more prevalent than asthma)
Which groups of people have the highest rate of dental caries?
Children from disadvantaged communities and ethnic minorities
The single greatest risk factor of caries
Poverty
Define dental caries
A multifactorial, ubiquitous, life-long disease process, which is initiated into the tooth biofilm and leads to the formation of localized chemical dissolution of the tooth surface – caries lesion
Consequence of not producing enough saliva (xerostomia)
Increased risk for dental caries
What kinds of people most commonly experience xerostomia (dry mouth)
People who take mulitple medications (i.e. elderly, radiotherapy patients for oral cancer)
Effect of topical fluoride
Like a topical medication on the skin, applied to the teeth, it will slow down and stop the caries process
What part of one’s diet puts them at risk for dental caries
Refined carbohydrates
3 characteristics of dental plaque (tooth biofilm)
- A community of microorganisms with a collective physiology that is organized as a structure
- Forms by the growth of resident oral micro-flora
- Always metabolically active
How do bacteria form dental caries?
Bacteria metabolise fermentable sugars and produce acid into the dental plaque and the bacteria bury themselves a “hole” in your tooth for protection
Bacteria type mostly responsible for dental caries
Streptococcus mutans
pH that leads to tooth decay
pH ~5 and lower
Explain the state of acidity in the mouth
There are pH flutuations in dental plaque over time with a mineral loss and gain in enamel over time as well, so the formation of a caries lesion depends on if there is a net loss and net over-acidity in the mouth
3 Pathological factors in the caries disease process
- Acid producing bacteria
- Fermentable carbohydrates
- Insufficient saliva flow
2 protective factors in the caries disease process
- Fluoride
- Saliva flow and buffering capacity