Dr. amit chaudhari

Dental health might come across as a rather innocuous problem, but there is no reason for us to take it lightly. Dental health often functions as the index to an overall good health and it is extremely crucial for one and all to maintain the utmost hygiene level. Your teeth are arguably one of the most susceptible parts of your body wherein the slightest neglect can result in substantial damage. Dental ailment pans across a variety of diseases which unless immediately arrested, can potentially inflict a lot of harm.  

We all know about that dreaded toothache and it is not an experience that one would like reliving. Although dentists with their whole host of extractions, fillings and excisions often help in soothing those toothaches, for a more natural mode of healing and remedying dental disorders, one may turn to Ayurveda.  Ayurveda regards healthy lifestyle practices like balanced and wise dietary choices and diligent brushing as the most fundamental requisite for maintaining your oral health.  

Some of the advisable methods for upholding oral hygiene can be enlisted as follows:

1. Dant Dhavani or Brushing: As an alternative to the new age bristle brushes, Ayurveda recommends the herbal chewing sticks for the purpose of brushing.  As per Ayurveda, the effect is better in those sticks which have a bitter or an astringent taste. For this purpose, Neem, Licorice, Cutch, Arjuna, Milkweed or Fever Nut are best suited. 
2. Gargling with rock salt and mustard oil: For the upkeep of oral hygiene, it is a healthy practice to massage the gums with mustard oil and rock salt. One can gargle it off with warm water after leaving it for a span of five minutes. Persistent following of this method can bring considerable improvement to your oral hygiene. It is also a good way to mitigate the impacts of asthma and migraine.
3. Jivha Lekhana or Tongue Scraping: Pure metal is endowed with a lot of health boosting properties. Thus, instead of stainless steel tongue cleaners, Ayurveda advocates the use of scrapers made of gold, silver or copper. This helps in battling bad odor and enhances your sense of taste. 
    

Teeth are one of the most precious parts of the human body.  By playing a significant functional and structural role in aesthetics, facial appearance, and food habits, digestion and chewing, all efforts at maintaining them should be undertaken. As we all know, we have two sets of teeth, primary or deciduous and the permanent set. Let us discuss tooth removal in these two sets separately.

Primary Teeth
In the primary teeth, the main indication would be dental decay.  If the tooth is severely damaged beyond repair with fillings, then removal could be an option, with two things considered. The primary successor will erupt within the next 6 months; if not, a space maintainer would be put in place.

Another reason would be if the tooth is beyond its lifecycle and is blocking the eruption of the successor, then it requires removal.

The permanent teeth, however, are a set that are meant to last for a lifetime and removal should be considered only as a last resort. With advances in dental treatment methods, gone are the days when removal would be an option for severe decay. 

Some of the absolute indications for removal would be:

1. Wisdom teeth: if it is erupting in abnormal position (flattened or crooked), then removing them to avoid infection and impingement on other teeth needs to be considered. Wisdom teeth infection is one of the most common causes requiring tooth removal. 
2. Recurrent infections: If a tooth has been root canal treated, but continues to have ongoing chronic infection, it could be a case for removal.
3. Malformed or supernumerary teeth: These may also block eruption of other teeth into the mouth. 
4. Orthodontic treatment: In cases where the jaw size is really not sufficient to realign the mal-positioned or crooked teeth, the first premolar is often sacrificed, and this space is used to align the other teeth. 
5. Injuries: In case of accidents or injuries with jaw fractures, teeth in the line of fracture may need to be removed. 
6. Preparation for dentures: In cases of severe periodontal disease, where the mobility of the teeth is high and complete dentures are being considered as an option, teeth removal may be planned.  Also, if there are teeth which are in the line of fixed partial dentures, again removal might be planned
7. Radiation therapy: For head and neck cancer patients, if there are teeth in the line of radiation, then removal might be planned.

Unlike in the earlier years, the absolute indications for removing tooth have changed.  A thorough examination, both oral and radiological, should be done before zeroing on extraction.

More than often, parents have to deal with children coming home with a broken front tooth / teeth. Dental problems (learn more to maintain dental health), injuries sustained during physical activities and games, munching on certain foodstuffs (nuts, certain candies) contribute in a big way to chipped front tooth. It is advisable for parents to consult a dentist at the earliest. Left unattended, the situation might result in infections or other dental complications (know more to maintain healthy teeth).

A broken front tooth is often the hardest to fix. The effectiveness of the treatment is largely governed by the nature and severity of the damage.

1. In case of a really small crack or a break, the problem can be fixed by simply filing the broken surface to smoothen it.

2. Dental bonding comes as a huge relief in situations where a small portion or corner of the front tooth chips off. The procedure is simple and hassle free. The surface of the broken tooth is fixed or bonded with a bonding material. The material is shaped well to give it a more natural appearance. The bonding material is finally hardened using UV light.

3. Dental crowning comes in handy when a large chunk of the front tooth cracks or breaks off. To understand the condition better, an X-ray of the affected tooth is carried out. If everything goes fine, the dentist proceeds to the next step. The tooth to be crowned is then filed down to ensure sufficient space to fit in the crown.

In some cases, the break results in enormous loss of the tooth. Under such circumstances, a filling material is used to assist the tooth in holding the crown. Next, an impression of the tooth (receiving the crown) as well as the opposing tooth is made using putty. Till the new crown is being manufactured, the dentist may fix a temporary crown (generally made of acrylic) to protect the tooth. In the next sitting, the dentist replaces the temporary crown with a permanent one. The crown used may be of stainless steel, all porcelain, all ceramic, metal, porcelain fused to metal or all resin.

In case of an extensive damage, Root canal is performed prior to the dental crowning. This goes a long way to ward off any possible dental infection or injury.