If you discover a tooth decay while brushing your teeth, you might keep thinking about it. If you are unsure whether you should consult a dentist about it, we suggest you refer to stages of dental caries and treatment.
The Stages of Tooth Decay Development
There are stages in dental caries. Depending on how deep the cavity is, the amount of tooth that need to be eliminated differs, and different treatment methods should be applied. Generally, there are four (4) stages of caries development.
Stage 1. Enamel Caries – Initial of Tooth Decay
This stage refers to the condition where there is small area of tooth caries on enamel, the outermost covering of the tooth. During this stage, generally there is no pain symptom. As the affected area is relatively smaller than other stages and simple treatment is required to treat it, if you found the cavity in this stage, contact a dentist immediately. For most of cases, anaesthetic is not required, dental caries is eliminated through a simple procedure, and the affected area can be simply filled with material called raisin, which has similar colour as natural teeth. Procedure is usually one-day procedure.
Stage 2. Dentin Caries – Extension of tooth decay
This stage refers to the condition where dental caries has extended to dentin, which is a layer of material that lies immediately underneath the enamel of the tooth. At this stage, tooth decay develops and spreads rapidly, and a patient may experience toothache or hyper-sensitivity on his/her tooth when eating ice-cream or drinking cold drinks, such as iced-coffee. Although it would be the best if dental caries is discovered and treated at the first stage, still it is not too late to visit a dentist if you discovered dental caries at this second stage. Simple resin tooth filling treatment is usually insufficient to cover the affected area. Usually, a tooth cavity in this stage requires removal of the affected area and application of dental prosthesis like tooth crown or inlay & onlay to cover the affected area.
Stage 3 Pulpitis – Toothache
This stage refers to the condition where dental caries has extended to dental nerve. A patient in this stage usually feels severe ongoing toothache, or experiences pain when chewing food. Generally dental caries patients who visit the dental clinic are in this stage. Unfortunately, once dental caries has affected dental nerve, the affected nerve should be eliminated and tooth crown should be applied to cover the whole the tooth to protect the remaining part of the tooth. Generally, endodontic treatment, root canal treatment consists of three (3) to four (4) steps, and crown consists of two (2) to three (3) steps. Therefore, patients in this stage have to visit the dentist multiple times.
Stage 4 Periodontitis – Infection at Alvelolar Bone
This stage refers to the condition where dental caries has extended to the root of the patient’s tooth and destruction of alveolar bone has commenced. In this stage, there is no other treatment available, other than tooth extraction as it has already infection around alveolar bone. If more information about tooth extraction, clinic Here.
Tooth Decay develops by multiple steps
As mentioned above, tooth decay, referred as dental carries develops more seriously by time. The time required for progressing depends on individually but it is certain that it will progress worse unless it is treated at beginning. To prevent extensive toothache caused by tooth decay, you need to visit dentist to get regular check up to detect at early stage of tooth decay progression. Please feel free to contact us and visit us to get more information about dentistry.