Common Causes Of Tooth Decay

Tooth Decay is one among the world’s most common health problem seen in children and adults. If tooth decay is not treated they might affect deeper layers of your tooth structure which leads to severe pain, infection and finally tooth loss. Major causes for tooth decay develops by eating sugary, sticky food and beverages. The more sugar consumed, the more acid attacks the tooth leading to decay. Plaque formation is another major factor of tooth decay. When sugar combines with plaque, it weakens the tooth layer causing decay. Each time we consume sugary snacks our tooth is more prone to decay.

Second factor is poor oral hygiene. It allows plaque formation which attacks the enamel of tooth eventually causing hole in your teeth.

Dry mouth is another cause for tooth decay. Food tends to stick to your teeth can increase risk for cavities. As decay progresses we start getting pain which is the common symptom for decay, hole or pits can be noticed in the affected tooth. Most serious symptom is swelling and pus in and around the tooth.

To prevent decay, first step is to maintain good Oral hygiene. Limit your intake of sugary food and drinks. Rinse your mouth with mouthwash which helps in removing food that is lodged in between your teeth. Visit your dentist twice a year for routine examination.

Common gum diseases seen in children is CHRONIC GINGIVITIS, because of soft deposit accumulation called plaque, especially in young children less than 5 years. In older children more than 6 years hard deposits called calculus is evident in lower front teeth as the new permanent teeth starts erupting it results in gum bleeding. Plaque deposits help in forming dental cavities in children especially between the two teeth. Calculus deposit results in chronic gingivitis which requires scaling of the teeth. There is an attachment called frenum in upper jaw front teeth. If this attachment is placed very high it can spoil the arrangement of the newly erupting front teeth. This is called high frenal attachment resulting in midline diastema (gap between upper front teeth) in this situation dental procedure called “Frenectomy” with the help of laser it is carried out for teeth arrangement.

The common viral infection of gums called “Acute herpetic gingivostomatitis” which occurs in toddlers and young school boys. This infection makes the child vulnerable to deteriorating general health for 5-7 days. There is another bacterial infection of gums called ANUG which is pure fusospirochete bacterial infection. This also presents a similar suffering like acute herpetic Gingivostomatitis. Children does not suffer from gum pocket formation like adults because the gum architecture and surrounding bony architecture is different from that of adults. Other common gum diseases in children are Vitamin C Deficiency, Scurvy, Swimmers Calculus, Juvenile Periodontitis, Papillon Lefevre syndrome, Hand foot and mouth disease and Apthous ulcer which again is commonly found in children.

Child abuse/child maltreatment is physical/psychological or / and sexualmaltreatment/neglect of a child especially by a parent or a caregiver.

Various children around India even today face these kinds of abuse that affecting them both physically and mentally.

Among various kinds of abuse, children facing physical abuse, a non-accidental act or behavior causing injury trauma or bodily harm, Facialinjuries are more prevalent in physical child abuse and accounts for about 50% of overall body injuries.

How can you identify?

• A child facing facial injury during an abuse, he/she will get their teethtraumatized/knockingout indicating a blunttraumaatthesite.
• Toothdiscoloration is an indication of repeatedtrauma.
• Stages of healing will be different for each injuries, there will be no uniform healing of all wounds.

“Prevelence of dental injuries in physical abuse”:

Fractured teeth-32%

Fracture of upper/lower jaw-11%

Though in India, child is considered as gift of god, child abuse is still common especially in remote and tribal areas.

However child abuse cases are not reported due to lack of awareness.

Various laws and NGO’s are working against child abuse in India.

STOP CHILD ABUSE!!! LET THE CHILD SMILE BIG!!!

TOOTH DISCOLORATION

Tooth discolouration as a result of trauma/injury is most common among kids.

When your kid’s teeth get injured at a considerable level, that will involve the pulp of the tooth, and usually greyish/brownish discolouration of the baby tooth occurs several days after injury which is due to the main reason of ignorance.

This discolouration often goes unnoticed and leads to loss of baby tooth and creating a problem for the eruption of adult teeth.

So it is mandatory to undergo pulp therapy for the injured baby tooth and restore it with tooth coloured crown with your pediatric dentist.

AVULSION OF TOOTH

Tooth avulsion is the most common scenario that occurs soon after the injury where the tooth is completely knocked out from your kid’s tooth socket.

What should you do when your kid’s tooth was knocked out?

Your pediatric dentist will restore the injured tooth by appropriate pulp therapy and crown placement.

How Tooth chipping affects Kid’s Milk Teeth

TOOTH TRAUMA

Your kid’s teeth can become chipped, cracked, broken into pieces and knocked out completely as a result of minor/major injuries.

Kids often knock out their front tooth during fall/injury, this is because the upper jaw for the kids are quietly placed forward compared to the upper jaw of adults. This makes the upper front tooth of the kids to become more prominent and forwardly placed making it easy for the injury.

TOOTH CHIPPING is one of the types of tooth trauma common in children.

TOOTH CHIPPING

Tooth chipping is a complete/incomplete crack to the baby tooth (most commonly front tooth),that may involve chipping only a part of the tooth, commonly involving the lower third of the kid’s front tooth.

Your child may not feel any pain or he/she might have mild sensitivity later. But this gives really a bad esthetic appearance to your kid while he/she smiles,

And hence, it has to be treated with your pediatric dentist to restore your child’s beautiful smile.

In this case a small restoration of the baby tooth can be done if just a part of enamel has been chipped off, or if considerable tooth loss has taken place your pediatric dentist will restore it with tooth colored crown.