A Modern thought to Dental Caries
Burhan Altaf Misgar*
Published: March 23, 2022
Abstract
Caries is considered as a biofilm-mediated, diet modulated, multifactorial, non-communicable, dynamic disease which results in a net mineral loss of dental hard tissues. It is influenced by biological, behavioral, psychosocial, and environmental factors [1]. This process is evident throughout life, both in primary as well as permanent teeth, causing damage to the clinical as well as exposed anatomical part of the tooth. Caries involving primary dentition is termed as early childhood caries, which involves the presence of one or more decayed (cavitated lesions or noncavitated), missing (due to caries), or filled tooth surfaces in a child under 6 years of age [2]. Dental caries usually results from microbiota especially S.mutans and S. sobrinus as initiating and lactobacillus as progressing species which cause metabolization of the sugars to produce acid, lowering the intra-oral pH, leading in a shift of balance towards loss of minerals of involved tooth structure [3]. Other factors include improper dietary and feeding practices, developmental enamel defects (enamel hypoplasia), systemic diseases (juvenile diabetes mellitus) and medications (containing sugar), socioeconomic and ethnic factors. These situations which prolong the event of demineralization eventually leads to breakdown hence, cavitation.