By Lamin Sillah
The mouth is the gateway to other parts of the body such our breathing system and our digestive system and this reflects the connection between the mouth and our general health as complications of chronic dental and oral conditions often affect our airway and digestion; but the good thing is that most of the common dental diseases are preventable and among them is dental caries.
Dental Caries: Also known as tooth decay, it is the commonest cause of toothache and results from the action of cariogenic bacteria on fermentable dietary sugar causing acid production which demineralises the hard part of the tooth and overtime causing tooth decay. This condition is a chronic condition and can be asymptomatic therefore most people can be living with it comfortably because they are not experiencing any pain or discomfort and overtime gradually causing symptoms and the need to visit the dentist.
Symptoms include: Pain it is the commonest symptom and the reason why most patient visit the dentist and it can be severe to the extent of causing sleep disturbances other symptoms include tooth sensitivity, cavity or holes in the tooth and dark spots onor discoloration of tooth.
Treatment: Treatment depends on the extent of the tooth decay and generally involves filling on tooth or more advance restorative procedure called root canal treatment. Pain relievers and antibiotics are also used for temporal relieve of symptoms such as pain.
Complication: complications of tooth decay are life threatening due to the close proximity to our airway and brain. Therefore, posing significant risk to morbidity and mortality and they include:
Ludwig’s angina- this is a life-threatening complication of tooth decay due to its potential to obstruct the upper airway
Dento- alveolar Abscess formation: this is the commonest complication of tooth decay and appears as a swelling on the face or jaws.
Bone infection- infection from tooth can tract down to the jaw bone causing a painful jaw swelling called osteomyelitis of the jaw.
Other complications include: loss of weight due to decrease appetite as a result of phobia to triggering pain symptoms, brain abscesses and cavernous sinus thrombophlebitis.
Prevention: Preventions include reducing intake of sugar and sugar containing food, regular and appropriate tooth brushing with medium textured toothbrush and use of fluoride containing toothpaste. Finally, visit to the dentist every six months for routine scaling and polishing.
A very important effect of tooth decay is the psychological component of it with the theme of this year’s world oral health day celebration A HAPPY MOUTH IS A HAPPY MIND! reflecting the interconnection between the state of mouth and the mind as dental conditions including tooth decay can lead to stress, anxiety, depression , loss of self-esteem, loss of confidence and reducing one’s ability to express and interact socially and certain psychiatric disorders also increasing one’s chance of developing dental diseases or false perception of having a dental or oral condition when in actual sense you don’t.
Sillah is a final year dental surgery student at the school of Medicine and Allied Health Science at the University of The Gambia.
