Dental Educator

Dental Educator
This area of the website can be used to educate yourself about dentistry. Learn about root canals, gum disease, restoring damaged teeth and replacing missing teeth..

Root canals:

Root canal treatment eliminates infection, or the potential for infection, by removing damaged pulp from within the tooth and sealing the canal against bacteria. Access to the interior of the tooth is obtained by drilling through the biting surface of back teeth and through the back of front teeth. The pulp is then removed by careful filing of the canals, using tiny metal files. The filing also shapes the canals to accept filling material. The remaining contents of the empty canals (e.g. dust from the filing, bits of pulp) are removed by washing out the canals with special liquids. This irrigation process also reaches areas inaccessible to filing. The cleaned canals are sealed with an endodontic filling material. This prevents bacteria from re-entering the space so infection is controlled. If infection has extended into the bone, the dentist may also recommend the use of antibiotics.

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Gum disease:

In a periodontal exam the dentist is looking for signs of early gum disease. If left untreated, gum disease progresses and can result in bone loss. Advanced gum disease, called periodontitis (or pyorrhea), is often diagnosed by x-rays and probing which show the amount of bone loss already suffered. Bone loss can be measured because there are spaces (pockets) which occur naturally between the teeth and gums. Normally these spaces are only one to three millimeters deep. Pockets which are greater than five millimeters deep usually indicate advanced periodontal disease and probable bone loss.

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RESTORE DAMAGED TOOTH STRUCTURE

Tooth structure is loss by trauma or cavities. Malformed teeth have apparent tooth loss. Restoration is accomplished by restoring the lost, or apparent lost structure, with filling materials such as silver, gold, white composite, porcelain, ionomers, or the like. Extensive tooth loss requires materials strong enough to resist tooth or material fracture and are often constructed at a dental laboratory. Multiple appointments are required and the cost is considerably more.

Common terms are silver fillings, white fillings, gold onlays and crowns, all porcelain crowns, veneers, porcelain fused to metal crowns and the like.

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REPLACE MISSING TEETH

Teeth are lost from trauma or when considered to be unrestorable as occurs with large cavities. Teeth are also missing if they were never formed also called congenitally missing.

Missing teeth are replaced with partial dentures, full dentures, implants, fixed bridges or combinations of these. When teeth are not replaced several things can happen

Leaving an empty space after a tooth is lost can result in:

shifting, tipping or super eruption of remaining teeth (super erupting is a tooth erupting into a space on the opposite jaw);

bite collapse (the jaw closes farther than it should because shifting teeth no longer give proper support);

an increased chance of fracture, root canals or accelerated bone loss due to excessive force on the remaining teeth; or,

pain in the joint of the jaw due to improper bite (you may have heard the term TMJ which is short for the jaw joint, the Tempromandibular Joint).

The longer missing teeth are not replaced, the more complex the treatment may become. Dramatic tipping, shifting or super eruption of teeth may require braces to be straightened.

Replacing missing teeth can be accomplished by bridges, partial dentures, or implants. Complete tooth loss requires full dentures or implants.

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