Causes and Symptoms of Tooth Decay - Health Channel

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Causes and Symptoms of Tooth Decay |

Causes and Symptoms of Tooth Decay, Health Channel

Tooth decay is the softening of the tooth enamel damaged by the acid, which is produced by bacteria. Dr. Teresa Lozano, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon with Baptist Health South Florida, explains the differences between tooth decay and dental erosion.

Transcript

Causes and Symptoms of Tooth Decay, Health Channel

We talk about tooth decay and what it is well tooth decay is when the acid produced by bacteria has damaged the enamel and therefore the intent is exposed and it can progress to all the way down to the pulp of the tooth which is inside so there’s it’s important to differentiate tooth decay with a dental erosion the entire dental erosion is caused by the assets that are not caused by bacteria like sugary beverages in the like carbonated beverages vomiting and so forth and then there’s attrition which is the wear and tear of the occlusal surface of the tooth from excessive grinding so all those things are very damaging you also if you brush too hard you can cause recession of the gums now remember that the roots have no enamel so they get eroded down here and then you can get a neck defect on the tooth that needs to be filled otherwise it becomes very very sensitive and what we’re looking at there doctor is this mild or severe like on a scale of one to ten mild that’s mild a yeah they can get all the way down to the to the Pope of the tooth and can this patient if you come to the office can this be remedied yes the patient has to go to the dentist to get that area looked at cleaned up and filled and when we hear the word pit what is a pit and where is the pit then well you can get a pit in where the enamel meets in from each one of the cuffs of the teeth you can get a some staining and like a deep pit literally mm-hmm and sometimes people think that that’s a cavity but the dentist will be able to determine whether that is the cavity or not and it’s like like a like a defect there okay you

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