This is the 3775th article of Da Medical Care
As we all know, tooth decay is a dental disease that plagues many people, and it always makes people have a kind of rush that they can't get rid of. But in fact, the simple tooth decay problem (which has not developed into a disease such as pulpitis) is still relatively easy to solve. And some dental diseases, once they occur, are more difficult to deal with than tooth decay. Today we will talk about one of them - tooth acid erosion.
What do acid-corroded teeth look like?
Teeth that have suffered from acid erosion have two main changes: one is the color change; the other is the morphological change.
There are also two types of tooth color changes that acid etching can cause: the first usually occurs on the incision margin of the middle incisor, which is transparent and is the result of the thinning of the tooth enamel after it is corroded; the second is a yellowish change on the corroded tooth (see figure below). This occurs because the white translucent enamel on the outer layer of the tooth is completely corroded, and the yellowish dentin on the inner layer is thus exposed.
Morphological changes in acid erosion teeth can be manifested as the tooth surface (e.g., the lip surface of the anterior teeth) appearing as a wide, circular concave surface (see figure below). At the height of the corrosion, teeth may even crack.
What exactly causes acid erosion?
The answer is simple, acid. But there are many sources of acid, some of which you can't even imagine!
The source known to the public is carbonated beverages. However, gastric juice, lemon juice, vinegar, orange juice, beer, coffee and other beverages, some acidic drugs (vitamin C, aspirin, etc.), acid mist or acid anhydride produced by the acid industry may also become the culprit of acid erosion.
The premise of their ability to cause acid erosion damage to the teeth is to put the oral environment at a pH of <5.5 (the critical pH of enamel decalcification) and make this state last for a period of time.
Why is acid erosion worse than tooth decay?
Although acid erosion is a destructive disease of the hard tissue of the tooth like tooth decay, its treatment is more troublesome than tooth decay.
General tooth decay, only need a simple repair. Teeth that have acid erosion often cannot be replenished. This is because the premise of the success of the filling is that the healthy dental tissue and filling material after the filling can both stabilize and support each other.
Because the lesion area of tooth decay is usually limited in scope and has a certain depth, the shape of the repaired cavity is easy to meet the requirements of filling; but the teeth with acid erosion are different, as mentioned earlier, its defective part of the form is often wide and shallow, so the filling is often not firm. Many cases of acid erosion can only be treated with repair techniques such as full crown.
To prevent acid erosion, do these things well!
Treatment alone does not fundamentally solve acid erosion, and as long as the cause persists, the injury will persist. Therefore, to prevent acid erosion, we must start from the cause and minimize the damage of acid as much as possible.
Acid erosion caused by gastric juice is often related to anorexia, gastroesophageal reflux and other diseases, so it is necessary to treat the above diseases as soon as possible; frequent or long-term drinking of carbonated drinks, lemon juice, orange juice, beer, coffee and other beverages, and even like to contain these drinks in the mouth, it is a bad diet, should try to avoid. It is better to use warm boiled water as a daily drink, which is beneficial to dental health and overall health.
In some disease states, if you need to take some acidic drugs that may cause insufficient saliva production, special attention should be paid to prevent acid erosion.
In daily care, on the one hand, we should pay attention to the use of fluoride toothpaste, fluoride mouthwash, etc., to enhance the acid resistance of hard tissues of teeth; on the other hand, we must also pay attention to the correct manual brushing operation with a soft-bristled toothbrush to avoid aggravating the damage of acid to the teeth.
Author: Shanghai Municipal Health and Healthy Development Research Center
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