A big question that comes up from every patient – What is dental caries? Can we treat it by only medication? How can we prevent dental caries?
The most prevalent disease of the mouth is caries. To understand what is caries we need to first understand the basic anatomy of a tooth.
So if we cross sectionally cut a tooth , we find there are three layers from top to bottom
First layer is ENAMEL, which is bluish white in colour and we usually see that part in the mouth. This is a mineralized and a NON LIVING layer. It is also considered to be the hardest substance in our body.
Second Layer is DENTIN, which is yellowish white in colour and it is the second layer under the enamel
Third layer is PULP, that contains nerve ending and very small blood vessels. This is the only living layer of our tooth.
Now after brushing there are very small food particles that stays in between the non reachable areas of teeth. This food particles act as a medium for growth of the bacteria. This bacteria in turn produces mild acid that etches and DE MINERALIZE the enamel.
Now this demineralized part is like a hollow cavity where gradually more and more food particles get stuck. So more the food particles, more the bacteria and the deeper the cavity. It is always a progressive disease and cannot heal because the enamel and dentin are non living part of your tooth.
Hence the caries keeps on getting deep until a dentist intervene and remove the carious part and put a filling. But we mostly see that at the early and medium stage of a caries the patient usually don’t have a pain and they are unaware of condition.
The patient only starts feeling tooth ache & pain, when the caries have progressed deep and touched the pulp hence decaying the nerve ending and the small blood vessels.
Usually, at this point your dentist advises you to go for root canal treatment followed by crown of the tooth.