Primary Preventive Dentistry

TARGET GROUP: CHILDREN

OBJECTIVES

·        To develop the preventive strategies for understanding the normal dental.

·        The objective is not to eliminate all dental flora, but to suppress the cariogenic bacteria within the flora.

·        To provide an opportunity for a reduction in the mother’s constitutionally virulent, aciduric flora and downregulation of virulence genes within the ac-iduric flora, decreasing the child’s risk of dental decay.

SUMMARY

Prevention is defined as the action of stopping something from happening or arising. Prevention includes a wide range of activities -known as “interventions” - aimed at reducing risks or threats to health. As a whole preventive healthcare (alternately preventive medicine or prophylaxis) consists of measures taken for disease prevention, as opposed to disease treatment. Prevention in healthcare is typically classified into primary prevention (avoiding disease through eliminating disease agents or increasing resistance), secondary prevention/ early detection and treatment, and tertiary prevention/ rehabilitation. In the field of dentistry, preventive measures or care required to prevent disease of the teeth and supporting structures is known as preventive dentistry. Primary prevention employs strategies and agents to prevent the onset of disease, to reverse the progress of the disease, or to arrest the disease process. e.g the use of a topical fluoride gel to prevent caries. Secondary prevention employs action which halts the progress of a disease at its incipient stage and prevents complications. e.g use of remineralizing agents in incipient carious lesions. Tertiary prevention employs measures necessary to replace lost tissues and to rehabilitate patients to the point that physical capabilities and/or mental attitudes are as near normal as possible after the failure of secondary prevention e.g fixed bridge. Dental caries is a nonclassic infectious disease2 that results from an interaction between oral flora and dietary carbohydrates on the tooth surface. To adhere to tooth structure, oral flora utilize dietary sugars to create a sticky biofilm that is referred to as a dental plaque. Dietary sugar can change the biochemical and microbiologic composition of dental plaque.

REFERENCE https://www.recentscientific.com/sites/default/files/PRIMARY%20PREVENTIVE%20DENTISTRY.pdf