Dental Care: Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate

Cleft Lip and Cleft Palate

It is a distressing experience for the mother to see her new baby with a cleft lip and palate. Such a deformity is very obvious, and often the parents have a feeling of guilt or shame. It would be reassuring for the parents to know just how much can be done to remedy the condition. Surgical treatment to close the lip defect is made early— often before the child leaves hospital with its mother for the first time. This is, of course, a good psychological factor for the mother and for other members of the family, and lessens the risk of ‘rejection’ of the child as not quite belonging. However, the time of surgery and its nature depends on the condition of the child—a decision to be made by the surgeon. The immediate problem at birth is that of feeding, and lip closure surgery helps this.

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Dental Care: How to Treat Dental Pain?

Pain producing causes may be as simple as toothache nitiated by a deep carious tooth or a loose tooth. On the other hand pain may be complicated requiring further investigations. Pain is defined as an unpleasant stimulus which is perceived by the conscious mind. The perception of pain begins upon a process of electro-chemical conductivity from the painful area to the brain.

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Dental Care: ECC (Early Childhood Caries)

The problem of dental caries is normal and widely prevalent. Irrespective of age and sex, all the races and nations have its impact. Dental caries in children is known as ECC. Early childhood caries popularly known as bottle caries, is mainly due to the feeding bottle; of course the micro-organisms also play an important role.

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Dental Care: Thumb Sucking, Lip Biting, Mouth Breathing and Tongue Thrust Habit

Mum : What About my Coke and Chocolates?

It is rather evident that the eating culture has changed. Fast food has become very popular with all ages specially children. The child watching television for long hours is easily influenced by the commercials that sell the products. Wrong food habits affect the formation of teeth. Skipping meals and instead snacking on foods with little nutrient, refined foods, fried and sweets are often a typical diet. The body requires strong gums and teeth that these foods fail to supply. Do not go in the beginning for the colour of the teeth.

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Dental Care: What is Caries and How is it Treated?

The Greek meaning of this word ‘Ker’ is death. In the Latin the meaning is decay. A formation of hole on the tooth surface due to germs is known as cavity. This cavity is formed on the exposed surface of tooth that is the crown of tooth. It is an astonishing phenomenon that the hardest tissue in the body, that is enamel of tooth, is dissolved by tiny germs of oral cavity. There are various theories of formation of caries on teeth. The germ theory, the mechanical and the chemical theory and auto-immune theory, are said to be responsible for caries. The exact mechanism is still unknown.

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Dental Care: How to Control Plaque (Tartar)?

Dental caries and gum diseases are the two most common chronic diseases of the oral cavity. These diseases are dependent on the micro-organism present in the plaque. So plaque control is of prime importance for the prevention of these diseases and for good dental health. Dental plaque is defined as highly specific variable structural entity formed by sequential colonisation of micro-organism on the tooth surface. The natural physiologic forces that clean the oral cavity are inefficient in removing dental plaque. So plaque control is the procedure for removal of the plaque and the prevention of its accumulation. It is the primary level of the prevention of the gum diseases and caries. The plaque control includes both mechanical and chemical means.

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Dental Care: What is Gum Disease?

What is Gum-disease

The Gum disease is a common terminology used by our people. The gum is only a small portion covering one third portion of the exposed part of crown of a tooth. A tooth is supported and surrounded by the tissues. These tissues are the cementum and cover outermost of the root of tooth. The next is a periodontal tissue. Perio mean around and dontia is tooth, hence a tissue that surrounds tooth is known as periodontal tissue. Still next to periodontal tissue is the bone known as the alveolar bone. This is the portion of jaw-bones. This bone provides a fitting for tooth. One socket, a bone space, for one tooth.

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