For more than 65 years, fluoridation of public water supply has been a safe and extremely effective way of preventing tooth decay.
The history fluoridating public water supply goes way back in the 1930s when dental experts first started to notice that dental decay is not as prevalent among people whose water supplies contain elevated levels of natural fluoride.
In 1965, after conducting numerous bodies of extensive research and scientific studies, the city of Grand Rapids Michigan in the United States first added fluoride in its public water supply.
Since then fluoridation, the process of adding and adjusting one part fluoride to one millions parts water, has been continuously substantiated by prominent scientific studies as a safe, effective, and practical way of reducing the risk of tooth decay.
Most treatments for cancerous malignancy, such as bone marrow transplants, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, often cause adverse physiological side effects, which most commonly include nausea, loss of weight and appetite, and hair loss.
While these side effects are often common knowledge to the general public, not many people know that undergoing cancer treatments also have debilitating consequences to oral health.
Approximately 75% of patients who receive blood and marrow transplant experience adverse oral health complications. This is also true for nearly 40% of patients who undergo chemotherapy. The risk and severity of oral health complications largely depend on the cancer treatment regimen that a patient is subjected to.
Patients who receive minimal myelosuppressive or nonmyelosuppressive therapy, for instance, are usually at a low risk of developing oral health complications. Generally, the more aggressive the cancer treatment becomes, so too does the likelihood of developing adverse oral health reactions. Among the most common oral health side effects of cancer treatment include:
Dentin hypersensitivity, more popularly referred to as “having sensitive teeth”, typically results from the gradual exposure of the dentine to the surface. The dentine is softer part of the tooth that sits underneath the harder dental enamel.
There are many things that easily trigger episodes of dentin sensitivity. For most people, it is when they eat or drink something that is a little too hot, too icy, or too sugary. Dentin sensitivity is usually symptomatic of an underlying dental anomaly. Among the most common underlying causes of dentin hypersensitivity include the following:
Medically referred to as gingivitis, gum disease is the chronic soreness and inflammation of the gums that typically results from bacterial infection. If not treated promptly, gingivitis progresses to periodontitis, which causes aggressive damage to the soft tissues and supporting bone structures of the teeth. Among the most prominent signs of gum disease is the shooting dental pain that is often associated with having sensitive teeth.