Search

Objectives. Evidence suggests that communities with higher levels of social capital have better health, but this association has not been explored specifically in relation to dental injury. We investigated the association between social capital and dental injury. Methods. We conducted a multilevel study assessed individual and neighborhood effects on dental injury of 1302 14- to 15-year-old adolescents in 39 schools of Distrito Federal, Brazil. Children underwent a dental examination and, with their parents, answered a questionnaire about their local environments. Our data analysis used logistic multilevel modeling of students and neighborhood (the latter defined by catchment areas of schools). Results. The prevalence of dental injury was significantly lower in neighborhoods with higher levels of social capital, especially among boys. After control for individual and neighborhood variables, the adjusted odds ratio for a 1-unit increase in the standardized social capital index was 0.55 (95% confidence interval=0.37, 0.81; P=.002) among boys. Conclusions. Social capital may explain inequalities in rates of dental injury, especially among boys.

Abfraction may not be directly responsible for tooth damage that is not caused by dental cavities. Abfraction was the name given to the loss of tooth structure due to mechanical forces in the mouth during chewing. According to this theory, the mechanical stress of chewing causes tooth enamel to break.

There are many causes of maxillary midline diastemas. This is the medical term for gaps between teeth, particularly the upper incisors. This is very common in children and leaves room for future teeth. Most adults consider gaps between teeth to be unattractive. Causes include discrepancies in the sizes of adjacent teeth, excessive tooth overlap, excessive angular displacement of teeth, muscle weakness and missing teeth. Treatment will depend on the underlying cause.

Many dentists should familiarize themselves with the signs and symptoms of diabetes. Diabetes is a metabolic disorder that occurs when the body can not metabolize glucose. Type 1, or juvenile-onset, diabetes is caused by the autoimmune destruction of the pancreatic cells that make insulin. Type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes is caused by insulin resistance. Both types cause hyperglycemia, or excessive blood glucose levels. This can change the bacterial content of the mouth, causing gingivitis, periodontal disease, bone loss and tooth loss.

Dentists must reevaluate their use of the term, erosion to describe processes that result in the loss of tooth substance. The scientific community defines pure erosion as the process of wearing away matter by fluid flow. The chemically-induced loss of tooth substance that dentists call erosion is more accurately classified as corrosion. Stress corrosion, an engineering term, describes mechanical stress combined with corrosion. This process takes place in the oral environment. Chewing, biting, swallowing, and grinding the teeth produce stress inside the mouth that is concentrated at the junction between the teeth and the gums. Forces cause the teeth to bend and may ultimately create microfractures called abfractions. The loss of tooth matter may result from a combination of processes including erosion and corrosion, abrasion and corrosion, abrasion and abfraction, or biocorrosion (cavities) and abfraction.

Research has been conducted on periapical endodontic lesions of asymptomatic teeth. The ability of micro-organisms to live in these lesions has been investigated via the use of fluorescence in situ hybridization and epifluorescence and confocal laser scanning microscopy, and the details are reported.

Research has been conducted on Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans. The morphology of this gram-negative bacterium's biofilm colonies has been investigated, and the results suggest that the bacterium uses biofilm cell detachment mechanism involving cell release from the inside of biofilm colony.

The author discusses the problem of dental diseases and the effect of ecological catastrophies on teeth. The topics of interest include the relationship between plaque bacteria and the host in disease and health.