Preventitive Procedures: How Plaque is Formed and Becomes Calculus, How Cavities Form, and Periodontal Disease

Gingivitis and Periodontists

First off everyone needs to know how plaque is formed. You know the shiny/ wet looking part of teeth, that is called the material alba. The material alba is the perfect place for bacteria to chill out and congregate because it is a sticky substance. After the bacteria has stuck to the material alba, it begins to colonize and produce the plaque (soft deposit). After only 24 hours of the bacteria colonizing it becomes pathogenic and start to irritate your gums. That's why its so important to brush your teeth everyday. Its important to brush off the plaque because then it has to re-colonize all over again.

the white part at the bottom of the gum line is the calculus

After the plaque has colonized and has not been removed, it will turn into calculus (a hard deposit) making removal impossible without a dentist because it cannot be removed with a tooth brush, only a scalar.

This calculus, if left untreated, will be in the sulcus (where your gum attaches to your tooth) and the gums will start to recede and become red, very sore, and bleed when you floss. This can turn into gingivitis. Gingivitis is a form of periodontal disease.

 

You can see the red and inflamed gums along the gum line

If you still don't brush and most importantly do not floss it can become much worse. You can start to get periodontists which is the recession of bone!

You can see how the gums have receded all the way down to the bone and look like they're about to fall out, because the supporting structures are gone just because of plaque and it being pathogenic.

Cavities

Pharmacology: Care and Matienance of Drugs and Where they Come From (kind of boring, but I gotta learn it haha)

Pharmacology is the study of drugs encompassing drug origin, chemical composition, indications and actions on the body. The definition of a drug is a chemical substance that when administered to an organism produces a response.


Drugs can come from plants, animals, minerals, synthetically made and genetically engineered. Morphine comes from the opium plant. Some examples of these are insulin that comes from an animals pancreatic endocrine glands of mammals and treats diabetes. Magnesium sulfate comes from the mineral salts. Diazepam is a man made drug that is used to treatment of seizures. Human R. Insulin is genetically engineered to mass produce the drugs at are identical to human hormones.

 << LOL

 Opium Plants

The purpose of drugs are to diagnose, treat, prevent, and cure humans and animals by antibiotics, immunizations, vitamins etc.


There are factors to why drugs sometimes don't work or have too much of an effect on a patient. The factors the effect drug action are: does, cooperation, presence of other drugs, age, gender, genetic, body composition, diet, disease, and liver/kidney function.

Preventitive Procedures: Dental Probing

I don't know if a lot of people have had this done before, but the main purpose of probing is to see how deep your gums are attached too your tooth. A healthy gingival pocket is 1-3mm, anything deeper then that has the potential to be periodontal disease (gingivitis or periodontist).

For people with healthy gums probing can be very uncomfortable because the gum tissue is tightly wrapped around the tooth. For unhealthy gums the probe will fit easily between the gums and most likely bleed.

Other purposes for dental probing is to identify ginigival bleeding, measure the size of an oral lesion , aid in the detection of calculus underneath the gums.

Preventitive Procedures: Selective Polishing, Tooth Brushing and Flossing Techniques

Rubber Cup Polishing

The first thing that everyone should know is, polishing is a selective procedure. Not every patient needs to have their teeth polished or every single tooth in the mouth only the teeth with a stain.

The purpose of polishing are too remove extrinsic (stains on the outside of the tooth) stains that cannot be removed but brushing or scaling.

RCP is also used for polishing amalgam (form of filling), which makes the filling more resistant to tarnishing and corrosion. It prepares the teeth for cavity preventing agents like sealants. Also used before cementation of orthodontic bands, crowns, and bridges. Lastly, for polishing of the root surfaces that have been exposed during periodontal surgery to reduce endotoxins and bacteria on the cementum.

The Effects of Rubber Cup Polishing

A RCP and cause a person to have a bacteremia which means there is an introduction of bacteria that is localized in the mouth, and then goes into your blood stream. This happens when plaque is not under control and then the RCP brush irritates the gum tissue causing it to bleed and then the plaque gets into the blood stream. This can also clog your arteries so floss and brush your teeth daily!!!

Another effect RCP has is that it produces aerosols. The biological contaminant of aerosols stay suspended for long periods, increasing disease transmission to the dental team and patients.

Another very important effect of RCP is that it removes 2mm of your tooth enamel. Which is why dental assistants want to selectively polish the teeth. It is also important to have the fluoride treatment after the polish because it puts that enamel back(we'll talk about this later)! Newly erupted teeth should not be polished because the tooth enamel isn't fully mineralized.

It can also cause teeth to have a rougher surface if a very abrasive polishing paste was used to get off a tough stain. A rougher surface is a perfect place for bacteria to colonize and ferment the carbohydrates to make the acid that gives you a cavity.

Note: Stains and deposits removed by polishing will return promptly if plaque control is not carried out faithfully (brushing and flossing).

Self Care With Tooth Brushing and Flossing

Have you ever wondered if a product your using REALLY works? Well if it has the Canadian Dental Association (CDA) seal of recognition, then it has been tested and proven to work. I'm not saying that products that do not have this seal don't work, but if you want to be 100% sure, look for this seal.

Purposes of Dental Flossing

With the effective use of dental floss it accomplishes the removal of dental plaque and debris that adhere to the teeth, restorations, orthodontic appliances, fixed prostheses, pontics and around implants from the gingiva (gums) in the interproximal (contacts areas in between the teeth) area and the sulcus (the area when the gums attach to the tooth. Also the place were plaque and food debris are harboured. Very important to clean) space. Flossing also aids in identifying the presence of subgingival (below the gum line) calculus (plaque turned into a hard deposit). It also reduces gingival bleeding. A lot of people might be surprised by this, but the reason your gums bleed when you floss is because your not flossing enough! The bleeding means that your gums are irritated by the plaque and food build up.