Friday, August 27, 2010

continue from last post..

A Periodontist is the one who specialize in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of periodontal disease and in the placement of dental implants. Periodontist is also dentistry’s expert in the treatment of gums inflammation. The word periodontal means around the tooth. Periondontal diseases are the bacterial infection that can destroy the attachment fibers and supporting bone that hold the teeth in the mouth. If left untreated may cause the lost of teeth. In recent years, gum disease has been linked to other health problems. This includes atherosclerosis and heart disease, diabetes, respiratory disease, stroke and premature birth. Periodontal disease is caused by bacteria in dental plague. In order to get rid off the bacteria, the cells of immune system release substances that inflame and damage the gums, periodontal ligament or alveolar bones. This leads to swollen, bleeding gums (gingivitis). Periodontal disease can be prevented by practicing good oral hygiene and visiting your dentist regularly. The treatment is either non surgical or non surgical depends on the condition of the tooth and gum. The non-surgical are includes scaling and root planning. Root planning is a careful cleaning of the root surfaces to remove plaque and calculus (tartar) from deep periodontal packets and to smooth the tooth root to remove bacteria toxins, followed by adjunctive therapy such as local delivery anti-micro bacterial, and host modulation. Most of the patient did not need any further active treatment after this. For the surgical treatment, the Periodontist will remove all the damage tissue around the teeth which cannot be treated anymore using scalpel, scissors, forceps and others. Following are four types of periodontal surgery:

· Pockets reduction procedures

· Regenerative procedures

· Crown lengthening

· Soft tissue graft

Conservative dentistry is the departments that are consist of specialties fields such as operative dentistry, Endodontics, and fixed Prosthodontics. It is the largest departments at the Faculty of Dentistry, Alexandria University. Generally, restorative dentistry is concern about the study, diagnosis and integrated management of diseases of teeth and their supporting structures and the rehabilitation of the dentition to functional and aesthetic requirements of individual. It also involves performing root canal treatment and associated surgical procedures to get rid of the tooth of its offending malady. The treatment provided includes various filling, root canal treatment surgical Endodontics, Endodontics implants, bleaching and management of traumatized tooth. The department has state of art equipment includes digital radiography and intraoral imaging, apex locators, dentine desensitizers, and odontometer, e&q plus-meta-biomed thermoplastisized G.P system, thermaprep plus kit oven, reduction gear hand-piece. A fully installed ceramic unit and conservative Dental Laboratory capable of doing specialized laboratory work. Operative dentistry is the prevention and the treatment of the tooth enamel and tooth cavity. Operative dentistry is responsible to restore up dental condition functionally and aesthetically to an adequate level and also to have good oral health. The treatment in operative dentistry are the treatments and restoration of the caries tooth with metallic and non metallic dental materials usually amalgam, composite resin, and glass ionomer restorations. Endodontics is the one that specialized to deal with the tooth pulp and the tissues surrounding the root of the tooth. Endodontists is performing varieties of procedures including root canal therapy, Endodontocs treatment, surgery, treating cracked teeth, and treating dental trauma. Meanwhile, the fixed Prosthodontics is the technique in dentistry used to restore teeth, using fixed restorations, which include crown, bridges, inlay, onlay and veneers. Prosthodontist is who are can be used to restore single or multiple teeth, spanning area where the teeth have been lost. The operative dentistry, Endodontics and fixed Prosthodontics are the important items in restorative dentistry where all of them connecting to each other.
Oral and maxillofacial surgery is surgery to correct a wide spectrum of diseases, injuries, and defects on the heads, face, jaws, and the hard and soft tissue of the oral and maxillofacial region. It is one from the nine specialties in dentistry. Maxillofacial is the adjacent structures near the teeth, jaw and oral cavity. The maxillofacial surgeons treat the patients by surgery and the tooth extraction is the simplest type of surgical. This branches of dentistry also concern on the aesthetics aspects of hard and soft tissues of the oral and maxillofacial region. The oral and maxillofacial specialty is unique as in requiring a dual qualification of medicine and dentistry and it a recognized international specialty which within Europe is defined under the medical directives. The scope of specialty is extensive and includes the diagnosis and management of facial injuries, head and neck cancers, salivary gland diseases, facial disproportion, facial pain, temporal mandibular joint (TMJ) disorder, impacted teeth, cyst and tumors of the jaw as well as numerous problems affecting the oral mucosa and such as mouth ulcer and infections. There are relationships between oral and maxilla facial surgeon and others specialties where they need to works as a team in certain condition to give the suitable treatment for the patient. The other specialties involves are ophthalmology, dermatology, neurosurgery, anesthesiology and others. The most case involves the oral and maxillofacial specialty is the maxillofacial injuries. Maxillofacial injuries are treated by the technique of open reduction and internal fixation, using a variety of micro mini reconstruction plating system. This has lead to early restoration of function and rapid rehabilitation, but there is no doubt that many serious face injuries can cause permanent disfigurement and physiological distress with extensive soft tissues scarring presenting a particular challenge to the oral and maxilla facial surgeons. The oral and maxillofacial surgeons also using advance imaging technique such as CT scan, MRI and stereolithography to observe facial bony injuries as well as the cranial bones. It is essential that all the facial injuries are needs to refer to oral and maxillofacial specialty.

Pathology is branch in medicine that involve in study and diagnosis of diseases through laboratory or bare eyes. There is also pathology specialty in dentistry which is called oral pathology. Oral pathology is concern about the identification of oral diseases through diagnosis and investigates the causes, processes and effect of the disease. The practice of oral pathologist is includes research, diagnosis of diseases using clinical, radiographic, microscopic, biochemical or others examinations, and management of the patients. A good dentist should have good understanding and knowledge on oral pathology because they can detect the early symptoms of oral diseases by looking at their patient’s oral cavities. The microscope is the instrument usually used by oral pathologist to observe the tissues taken from infected area by biopsy. By using the microscope, they can detect the abnormalities occur on the tissues for example benign or malignant cancer and help in proper diagnosis to achieve suitable treatment for the patients. Oral pathologist helps the patient especially by early detection of fatal disease such as malignant cancer. Meanwhile, the oral biology is the specialty in dentistry that involve in the research and teaching in all dentistry school. Oral biologist teaches basic science of dental students such as anatomy, biochemistry, cell biology, immunology, microbiology, pathology, pharmacology and physiology. The major research in this specialty are immunology and innate defenses, relationship of oral pathogens to systemic diseases, saliva and salivary glands, microbial pathogenesis of oral organism, bone and connective tissues ( tissues engineering ) and epidemiology ( clinical studies ). The oral biology helps to graduate successful researchers, teachers and administrators in dental school and research institutions.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

overview of specialties in dentistry..

The pediatric dentistry or Paedodontics is a branch in dentistry that specialized in all dental treatments of children. It is concerned about the primary and comprehensive oral health care with the aim to help the children to achieve the optimal oral health. Provision of care includes therapeutic oral health care, restorative and preventive components with emphasis on prevention and early interception of oral disease of infant and children through adolescence. Due to pediatric dentistry merely focused on treating children, they can handle the behavior and fear of children included the one with special health care needs compare to non-pediatric dentist. Sometimes, they need to use the conscious sedation in order to keep the children safe during the certain dental treatment. The pediatric dentist usually deals with early childhood caries (baby bottle tooth caries), early missing tooth, misalignment tooth and others problems. The Paedodontics use dental sealants to protect the tooth from decay after they are erupts especially the molars. The Paedodontics also helps the parent by giving the advice on the best way to keep their children’s gums and teeth healthy.

Orthodontics is one of the most famous branches in dentistry nowadays. It is the branch in dentistry that specializes in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of dental and facial irregularities. Years ago, orthodontics treatment is only for the teenagers which are have malocclusion (improper bites) but recently orthodontics treatment covers adults as well. Since malocclusion may interfere eating and speaking, the treatment can maximize the effectiveness of teeth. Orthodontics treatment is using metal wires as well as orthodontics brackets to align the tooth to desire positions. They also use jack screw, retainer and elastics to achieve the ideal position of teeth. The treatment also can help people with disproportionate jaw relationship as well as rejuvenate the facial appearance. The orthodontics also helps their patients with congenital skeletal deformities which affect the occlusion.

In general, prosthetics is the branch in medicine dealing with the production and use of artificial body parts. The prosthetics dentistry is mainly concerned about the restoration or replacement of the tooth whether fixed or removable prosthetics. This specialty will cover three main areas that are includes crown, bridges and dentures. Due to improve the esthetical values, there are several things that are introduces such as veneers, implant and inlays. The prosthetics dentistry will help the patient to get back the normal look of their teeth as well as its functions or replace the missing tooth, one or the whole arches. Besides that, the prosthetics dentistry maybe related to Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery specialty where they help their patients through the plastic and reconstructive facial surgery or Prosthodontics in replacing the missing tooth. The most recent method in prosthetics dentistry is they are using laser photonics for denture design optimization.

to be continued...insyaAllah..

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