Filling is the most famous way to eliminate caries. But despite all the advantages, it does not at all guarantee a complete deliverance from the disease. Sometimes it happens that caries can occur after a certain period of time, that is, again. This usually happens 2-4 years after treatment. However, if the dentist made mistakes in treatment, then caries under the filling can appear much faster, some time after the procedure.
Why appears
The reasons for the recurrence of caries are as follows:
- The negligent implementation of the procedure. The dentist is obliged to carefully clean the tissues affected by caries, treat the tooth with an antiseptic, and remove harmful bacteria. If the tooth cavity contains areas that are affected by caries, then inflammation will reappear.
- Poor quality seal. If the tooth surface is prepared incorrectly, then the material will not fully adhere to the tooth and dentin. The filling will not fit closely, so saliva and microbes can enter the cavity. At the same time, it appearscaries, and the material that makes up the seal begins to crumble.
- Shrinkage of the material from which the seal is made. Shrinkage may occur if poor quality dental raw materials are used. In this case, a space is created in which harmful bacteria and microbes enter, contributing to the appearance of the disease.
- Each material has a certain expiration date. At the end of this time, small cracks appear in the fillings, in which harmful plaque accumulates.
Secondary caries often occurs without any symptoms and is expressed only by a darkening of the tooth near the filling or under it, for this reason, patients simply do not see the onset of the inflammatory process.
Treatment
As the name suggests, the disease recurs under a previously placed filling or occurs after improper treatment. Those who have been diagnosed with secondary caries are advised to contact only experienced dentists with good recommendations who will conscientiously approach the process of dental treatment. You should not save on the services of such doctors, in addition, it is recommended to contact those specialists who have proven themselves from the most positive side. Only in this case, the treatment will be of high quality, there will be no recurrent caries.
Most often, secondary caries is formed under those fillings that were not very well installed. So, for example, a filling material applied toprocessed tooth, decreases in hardening in size. This can lead to the formation of large gaps between the edges of the hardened filling and the tooth itself, and pathogenic bacteria will gradually penetrate into the resulting hole.
Main treatments for secondary caries
Even in cases where the teeth were filled correctly, relapse is possible due to any external factors that you also need to know about. Secondary caries can develop after high-quality treatment if a person does not observe oral hygiene, brushes his teeth incorrectly, and does not use additional means to eliminate food between the teeth. A relapse is also possible when a person cracks nuts or some other very hard foods too often, which can first lead to cracks in the tooth enamel, and then to further caries. Another provoking factor can be malocclusion, so after treating secondary caries, it is recommended to consult an orthodontist.
Methods of therapy
Only timely treatment by a competent dentist will help to avoid recurrent caries, and the treatment process will be more successful if a person turns to a specialist at a time when the disease is at an early stage. The main treatment for secondary caries formed under the filling is to re-open the problem tooth. Then the dentist very carefully removes all the affected areas inside the tooth. After a detailed check of the work performed, the physicianinstalls a fresh filling.
First stage
If we talk in more detail about the treatment of secondary caries under a filling, then it consists of several stages. The very first is a complete examination of the affected tooth. The dentist starts treatment only after establishing an accurate diagnosis, and before starting the treatment process, the patient is given a local anesthetic in a certain dosage. The fact is that each person has his own threshold of sensitivity to pain, which means that someone will experience severe pain even after two injections, and someone will only need one injection. Someone gets scared even at the sight of a syringe, in this case, the place where it is planned to inject an anesthetic drug is additionally sprayed with frost in the form of a spray.
After ten minutes, this drug begins to act actively, and the patient does not feel the injection at all. After the anesthetic drug begins to act, the dentist will begin to treat secondary caries by removing the old filling material. After that, the specialist removes all the affected tooth tissues with a drill, this whole process takes a long time, since it is necessary to thoroughly clean the dentin and enamel from the affected tissues. As soon as the tooth cavity is thoroughly cleaned, additional treatment of these areas is carried out using special disinfectant and antiseptic medicines.
Second stage
If there is a medium or deep cavity, then the medicbe sure to install a special dental pad to protect the nerve of the tooth from germs. Only after all these manipulations, a permanent new filling is installed, and it is made of amalgam, cement, as well as chemical and light composite substances.
All these components are mixed, resulting in a paste, which covers the treated area of the tooth. This filling hardens under the influence of UV rays emitted by a small special device.
Third stage
The last stage of secondary deep caries is a thorough and very careful polishing of the hardened filling and grinding it, then the dentist recommends that the patient come on a certain day for a control examination of the sealed area. It is important to contact a specialist with a problem in a timely manner, since with a very late diagnosis, caries develops more strongly, the infection penetrates very deeply and reaches the nerve, which can lead to severe and sometimes unbearable pain. If caries is too advanced, then this can lead to complete destruction of the tooth, which will no longer have to be treated, but removed.
Primary and secondary prevention of dental caries
The probability that this disease can form is about 37%. When detected, it is imperative to take urgent treatment measures to prevent complete destruction of the tooth. First, you need to remove the old filling, under which a recurrence usually occurs. Next, you need to clean the tooth from dentin and process the formed cavityantiseptic preparations. When the cavity is cleaned, it needs to be sealed again. If this is not done, then the tooth can easily break after some time, for example, due to sucking sweets. The cavity created after cleaning may be too large for a filling, so in such cases, the doctor may suggest ceramic inlays or crowns.
Prevention is also very important, so that there are no more relapses in the future. To do this, you should regularly visit a doctor so that he can quickly identify defects in the seal. If the problem is identified in time, it will cost less damage to dental he alth. After the tooth has been cured, it is necessary to avoid strong chewing loads on the first day after treatment, as well as to eat foods containing coloring substances, such as black tea, coffee, etc. In addition, it is necessary to brush your teeth twice a day.
