Dental Caries Process and Principles of Dental Caries Cavity Preparation
In the new concept, the occurrence of dental caries process is dynamic, because of that, some definitions or understandings of caries can also be formulated.
In the new concept, the occurrence of dental caries process is dynamic, because of that, some definitions or understandings of caries can also be formulated.
One of the definitions is that caries is the cumulative result of the dissolution of low pH (acidity) and precipitation at high pH (Hoffman 1980). With this definition, it can be understood that the change in pH at the matching plaque and tooth surface is always changing according to the presence of ions that determine the acidity in the area.
This is possible with the enamel characteristics (the outer tooth surface) that are porous and it allows the occurance of ion exchange into and out of enamel. With the concept above, the dental caries process is also a process that occurs between attack and defense, but it can be stopped. Furthermore, it can become active if the situation in plaque around the teeth turned into acid.
In this case, if a person eats a lot of cariogenic foods, caries will attacks the teeth and the pH of the teeth is under pH criticism that causes enamel solubility or higher enamel. Besides that, the caries occurance is a multifactorial interaction, which means that a lot of factors influence it. Factors affecting dental caries are socio-economic factors, environmental factors, demography factors, cultural factors and behavior factors.
With the development of the basic principles of dental caries treatment, the cavity preparation methods also develop that commonly called minimal preparation.
The basic principles of this kind preparation are getting caries tissues as much as possible and maintaining the healthy tissue as much as possible. Included of this kind of the preparation is the atraumatic restorative treatment or ART, resin preventive restorations, and tunnel preparation which is also called micro preparation (Baratieri, 1993).
To carry out the preparation by maintaining the healthy tissue as much as possible, the location and the extent of the lesion should be noted. It is used to consider the cavity preparation access, so that the principle of maintaining the healthy tissue as much as possible can be done.
On the other hand, this principle development is also supported by the development of adhesive dense material or which the retention is mechanical by etching. It should also be known the advantages of this minimal preparation, such as the rest of the network is more powerful, a little injury to the pulp tissue, the recovering of the tooth anatomy easier, and more secure aesthetics.
Those are really according to what has been proposed by Brattall (1997) that the concept of the present treatment will be easier, cheaper, faster, and more friendly to the environment.
