To develop artificial replacement for missing teeth has been an elusive goal for more than 1500 years. A fine dark stone shaped like tooth was found implanted in a skull found in Central America from 600 A.D.
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Dental Treatment of Geriatric (Old) Patients
Aging is the process by which a person grows old, irrespective of the tune required. It includes the complex interactions of biologic, psychologic and sociologic processes over time. The historically accepted chronologic landmark of old age is 65 years. The geriatric literature refers to the following categories, functionally dependent elderly (with illness or impairment), frail and institutionalized elderly, young old—65 to 70 years of age (healthy and vigorous), Old—75 to 85 years of age and old—85 years of age and above.
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1. Warm and moist environments of the mouth help the germs to grow and damage the gums & the teeth.
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Curious Beliefs
It is strange how the teeth seem to figure in myths and legends throughout history. They occupy some deep area of anxiety in our subconscious as well as causing many of us concern in our working hours. People often have dreams in which the loss or damage of teeth occurs.There seems to be a profound fear of tooth loss which, in more primitive times, arose from the difficulty in masticating food without teeth. In modern times the fear is probably more a cosmetic one.
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1. Retinal blood vessel,
2. Choroid: Blood vessels within this layer supply the eye with essential nutrients,
3. Retina: This innermost layer of the eyeball contains nerve fibers and light-sensitive cells,
4. Optic disk : This area, where the optic nerve leaves the eye, lacks light-sensitive cells and is also known as the ‘blind spot’,
5. Optic nerve: Nerve impulses travel along the optic nerve from the retina to the brain,
6. Eye muscle: Six muscles surround the eye, allowing it to rotate in any direction,
7. Fovea: The fovea, at the centre of the macula, is packed with light- sensitive cells and is the most sensitive part of the retina,
8. Vitreous humour: The back part of the eye is filled with a jelly-like substance called vitreous humour,
9. Lens : The elastic lens can change shape to focus light rays from both near and distant object, 10. Sclera : The tough sclera is the white of the eye, forming the outer coat of the eyeball,
11. Conjuctiva: This thin, transparent membrane covers the white of the eye andforms the lining of the eyelids,
12. Aqueous humour: This watery fluid, produced by the ciliary body, fills front chamber of the eye, which is between the lens and the cornea,
13. Cornea: This transparent cornea at the front of the eye plays an important role in focusing light rays,
14. Pupil: Light enters the back part of the eye through the pupil, the opening in the centre of the coloured iris,
15. Iris: The coloured iris of the eye contains muscles that control the size of the pupil,
16. Suspensory ligament: The fibers of the suspensory ligament attach the lens to the ciliary body,
17. Ciliary body: The ciliary body controls lens thickness to focus light correctly; it also secretes aqueous humour,
18. Skull bone: The bony orbit of the skull protects the eyeball.
Main causes, that impair eye-sight, can be summed up as follows:
EXPOSURE TO STRONG AND GLARING LIGHTS
Persons working in factories, blast furnaces, chemical units, mines, pesticides and insecticides, drug manufacturing units, glass factories, steel plants, using electrodes with bare eyes are some of the places where eye sight is liable to be impaired due to lack of proper protection and preventive measures. There is a high rate of eye diseases caused to such workers who work in the above mentioned industrial units.
Continue reading Eye Care: Harmful Factors Affecting the Eyes
Eyes are the mirror of our health, mood and temperament. They help us to perceive various objects, protect us from dangers by giving forewarning about impending dangers. But for the eyes, all our activities of life would have come to a grinding halt and all the charm, beauty, perception, vision, pleasure, etc. would have been lost to us. We can behold beauty through our eyes. It has been well said that beauty lies in the beholder’s eyes but, then, one must have eyes to behold.
Less than 10 percent of the population is born with blurred vision, upset binocularity (two-eyedness), or diseased eyes. But by young adulthood, a disturbing 60 percent of the remaining 90 percent have nearsightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, crossed or wall eyes, or ocular disease conditions. This provocative statistic clearly demonstrates that we as a culture are slowly losing our natural vision-fitness.
From case histories and clinical research we find that certain behaviours are related to vision-fitness. The following questionnaire wil help you identify particular behaviours that apply to your vision-fitness. Indicate on a scale from zero to ten how difficult these activities are for you.
Continue reading Eye Care: How Fit is Your Vision? Eye Fitness Questionnaire
You may be able to hit a fast-moving ball, read words and sentences, and observe data on a computer screen without difficulty. But when you have to process information at higher degrees of understanding, you tend to make less sense of what you are seeing.