Dental disorders

Dental diseases mainly affect the teeth, but also the dental pulp, the periapical tissues and the development of the teeth within the dentition. These diseases are in some cases followed by diseases involving the fixation of the dental apparatus and supporting structures, particularly the alveolar ridge. The dentition itself begins to develop during intrauterine development, with temporary, so-called 'milk teeth' at first, which are replaced by permanent teeth later in life.

Dental diseases affect both temporary and permanent teeth. Human dentition is heterodont, i.e. it contains different types of teeth, namely molars, molars, canines and incisors. While the deciduous temporary dentition is made up of only 20 teeth and this dentition develops from the 6th to the 30th month, the permanent dentition grows much longer and in two phases. From the 6th to the 12th year most of the permanent 32 teeth and from the 15th to the 25th year the so-called wisdom teeth, which are the last molars on each side of the dentition.

The teeth and the whole dentition have several functions, but the most important is definitely chewing food and is therefore part of the digestive process. In a sense, the dentition is also involved in an auxiliary function in the production of sounds, but this is only a minor sense. The tooth as such consists of a crown, a neck and a root, the crown being the visible part of the tooth, the neck fixing the tooth in the gum and the root fixing the tooth in the dental bed, which is part of the jaw.

Dentition disorders

Disorders of tooth development and tooth eruption fall into several categories, whether they are related to the shape, number or other disorders directly related to tooth structure. Less common are anodontia, or toothlessness, more common are either hypodontia or oligodontia. Supernumerary teeth also occur, which have several types of disorders such as supernumerary teeth, distomolar, paramolar, mesiodens or fourth molar. Also, developmental problems include mottled teeth, whether dental fluorosis, enamel mottling or non-fluorosis opacities.

Various abnormalities in the shape or size of the teeth are also problematic. These types of dental diseases include tooth crowding, double or macrodontia and microdontia, conical teeth, evaginal and invaginal tooth or so-called tooth in tooth, various enamel pearls or taurodontism. Tooth formation problems such as aplasia and hypoplasia of the cementum, dilaceration of the tooth, hypoplasia of the enamel before and after birth, or hereditary disorders of the tooth structure and dentition are also common.

Various disorders can also occur during tooth eruption, the so-called dental eruption. These disorders include conditions known as natal or neonatal tooth eruption, premature eruption or premature loss of milk teeth or, conversely, the persistence of temporary teeth. Disorders of tooth development may also occur in the form of colour changes during tooth formation or in the form of internal discolouration of the teeth. In children and at the developmental stage, the non-eruption of teeth without obstruction by another tooth or the wedging caused by obstruction also occurs.

In the context of problematic tooth development or tooth eruption, these diseases are most common during childhood and adolescence, and sporadically in early adulthood when teething problems are involved. However, these are most troublesome for children, especially in the form of retination, i.e. when the tooth has not erupted at the expected time, despite the fact that physiological teeth eruption is possible. Sometimes it is also impaction, when the eruption has not occurred due to some obstacle, for example, another tooth or due to a cap.

Dental cavities

Tooth decay is their most common disease, and there can be several types of decay that affect the teeth, differentiated both by location and by the course and affectation of specific teeth. Decay can be confined to the enamel, where it is a beginning caries, or it can be a caries of the dentin, which is already the tooth tissue located under the enamel, but it can also be a caries of the cementum, which can interfere with the actual placement and fixation of the tooth in the dental bed.

In addition, there are also arrested caries and ondoclasia, which can take the form of both infantile melanodontia and melanodontoclasia. Tooth decay is also known as caries is also known professionally as caries and is essentially an acute or chronic disease of the hard tissues of the tooth, where the enamel on the surface of the tooth is first eroded and decayed and, if the caries is not addressed, the tooth enamel beneath the surface of the tooth is eroded as well. Most commonly, tooth decay is caused by bacteria found in the oral cavity.

They form a coating on the surface of the teeth and, if they have enough simple sugars from food, they can convert these sugars into organic acids that lower the pH in the oral cavity and also demineralise tooth enamel and dentin. Initially, cavities only show sensitivity if the enamel is disturbed; pain is only present when the decay penetrates the tooth enamel underneath the enamel. At first, the pain is transient, but if the decay progresses deeper, inflammation and permanent pain develop.

If even in this case there is no solution, which consists in removing all the damaged tissue and replacing it with a filling, the inflammation progresses further to the root into the pulp, where it causes the tooth to die and the pain subsides. The problem also arises when the inflammation continues into other tissues, pus builds up, inflammation occurs in the adjacent bone and the pain returns. In this case, there is also the risk of chronic inflammation in the tooth and the formation of various inflammatory deposits that cause further problems in the oral cavity.

Non-inflammatory hard tissue diseases of the teeth

Besides tooth decay, other problems, disorders and diseases affect the hard tissues of the teeth. For example, excessive teeth grinding can occur due to various causes and reasons. For example, wear of the lateral and biting surfaces of the teeth, abrasion of the teeth by excessive brushing with a hard toothbrush, habitual abrasion of the teeth, occupational abrasion, and there is also the so-called wedge defect caused by a hard toothbrush, or neurological reasons. Sometimes erosions also occur due to the effect of dietary acids or medications.

Diseases affecting the teeth include pathological resorption of teeth, both external and internal, even with the presence of marrow granuloma. Excessive cementosis of the tooth occurs with hyperplasia of the cementum of the tooth, ankylosis of the tooth is also a problem, when there is a localized fusion of the alveolar bone and the cementum of the tooth root. This condition most often affects children, as it occurs in most cases in temporary dentition and arises during or after tooth eruption.

Teeth and the hard tissue of the teeth are mostly troubled by various plaque or deposits on the teeth. The most common such problem is tartar (dental calculus), which can be subgingival or supragingival. Tartar appears quite often and even its one-time removal may not mean that a person will get rid of it for good. This plaque is formed by the hardening-mineralisation of normal dental plaque and can be found both near the gum and on the inside of the teeth.

In addition to tooth tissue, various other types of deposits and coatings can occur on teeth, such as betel nut deposits, black plaque, green plaque, white plaque, orange plaque or various non-specific films and tooth discolouration. In many cases, it is not so much a pathological condition per se as a symptom or clinical sign of another disease arising from the tooth or related to the oral cavity. In the context of other diseases, enamel is affected by irradiation and dentin by excessive sensitivity.

Diseases of other dental tissues and parts of teeth

Various inflammatory and non-inflammatory diseases also affect other tissues and components of the dentition. The most common are inflammation and necrosis of the dental pulp, whether it is a pulp abscess, pulp polyps, acute, suppurative and chronic inflammation of the dental pulp, which can be hyperplastic or ulcerative. Necrosis also includes tooth marrow gangrene, which is closely related to the transfer of bacteria originally from, for example, the gingiva or hard dental tissues, and occurs with prolonged non-treatment.

Pulpitis, as the inflammation affecting the tooth pulp is professionally called, is a very unpleasant pathological condition, which is, moreover, extremely painful. It is a very acute disease that has a rapid onset and usually arises from the spread of inflammation and infection from the hard tooth structures to the root of the tooth. If a person visits a dentist in time, it is possible to cure the disease completely, but in the case of advanced pulpitis, irreversible disease processes usually occur in the pulp and even necrosis- death is threatened.

Degeneration of the dental pulp, which manifests itself as dentigerous calcifications and pulp stones, is also dangerous. The dental pulp may also abnormally form dental hard tissue or radicular cysts, which may take several forms. These are apical, periapical or residual radicular cysts. Inflammatory apical periodontitis of marrow origin is also common and may be acute or chronic, with granuloma formation in chronic cases.

Several types of abscesses also arise in the dental region as a result of complicated inflammation, and in the context of oral cavity and dental diseases, these are periapical abscesses, which arise on and near the alveolar bone. These may be dental abscesses, dentoalveolar abscesses or periapical abscesses. Many times these abscesses and inflammations are also associated with abscesses and inflammations of the gingiva, which means the possibility of further complications if they are not treated in time.

Dental anomalies and supporting tissue disorders

The dentition as well as the individual alveolar parts are also affected by several anomalies or disorders, and this also applies to the various supporting tissues for the dentition. For example, anomalies of the relative position of the dental arches are typical and include crossbite, which can be anterior or posterior, dystoocclusion, mesioocclusion, formed anterior or posterior bite, overbite deep, horizontal or vertical, or posterior lingual occlusion of the mandibular teeth.

The teeth themselves may also have anomalous positions. These conditions include crowding of the tooth or teeth, diastema between the front teeth, tooth displacement, tooth rotation, creation of large gaps, or tooth transposition. Several conditions are caused by various systemic causes, such as tooth exfoliation or tooth loss caused by local periodontal disease.

The alveolar ridge may in turn be affected by either atrophy or enlargement, and sometimes irregular protrusion occurs. Several disorders of the supporting tissues are also related to diseases of the jaws, especially in the case of various anomalies or defective pathologies.