COMMON ORAL HEALTH DISEASES AND TREATMENT

AS we continue to commemorate world oral health month we got to discuss the common diseases that affect people s oral health and the common treatments.

We once again sit down with dental surgeon Sydney Hamusonde to discuss the topic and help us understand and be aware of the common oral health diseases and how they can be treated.

QUESTION: What is oral health in general Dr?

ANSWER: Oral health is ensuring that you take care of the mouth which is the tongue, the teeth as well as the upper and lower floor of the mouth and using the proper tooth paste and that is the best way to take care of one’s oral health and also ensuring that you use clean water as you go about it.

QUESTION: How many times should one clean their teeth?

ANSWER: So you are supposed to clean your teeth twice every day that is standard, you first clean your teeth after breakfast and not after waking up as people usually do, we have for a long time have had the tendency of cleaning our teeth before we have breakfast, no that is wrong, you should brush your teeth after you have had your breakfast and the second time should be after your last meal in the evening before you retire to bed.

And as you wake up you will have the good bacteria in your mouth and then after eating your breakfast you can then brush your teeth but then people do not listen , they brush before eating breakfast and they never brush before they go to bed and in the end they end up having all these oral health diseases.

QUESTION: What are the common oral health diseases?

ANSWER: Firstly we have oral cancers and for oral cancers we always advise people to be vigilante and be careful with any growth in the mouth as this may be cancerous and some may need chemotherapy or surgery depending on the type of cancer that one may have.

And also one of the major contributors to oral cancers is the use of tobacco commonly known as insunko. Just tobacco itself makes you susceptible to having cancers in the mouth and it’s even worse when people go further and sniff it or even worse put it in the mouth , on the teeth to be specific and this may also labial cancer which ism cancer of the lips.

Then we have tooth which is the most common which refers to dental carries.

Dental carries is simply a hole on the tooth caused by cavities and when they are untreated they affect more than one tooth and even other structures such as the ligaments that hold the tooth.

These structures once they are injured so instead of the gums looking pick they turn red and start to bleed which is gingivitis.

Bad oral hygiene, hormonal imbalance and other factors cause gingivitis and that is why it is important to be very mindful of our oral health because bleeding gums and it may lead to transmission of diseases whenever such a person kisses another one.

Bad breath is also another oral health disease that is very common and most people have it and they make it worse by taking substances that they think is going to help them when in the actual sense it is worsening their situation.

When a person has bad breath what they need to do is to immediately seek medical attention and s not resorts to taking substances that may make it worse.

Stained Teeth is also another oral health condition and this one takes away peoples self-esteem and it is good that people seek medical attention early but please note that there are different shades of teeth color. Some are a shade of light white while others are a darker shade of white that is different from stained teeth.

For stained teeth there is inside and outside stains and the outside one is worse and people need to seek medical attention and I emphasize make it a habit to have regular dental checkups.

Dental· Abscess is as a result of untreated cavities and they are busy putting pain killers on the tooth which offers them temporal relief but when in the actual sense is harboring the cavities and leads to Ludwig angina and this one is an emergency because people actually die.

The key point is that people need to stop self-treating cavities at home, stop putting pain killers on your tooth ache because you are just making the situation worse and it may eventually lead to death.

Trauma is also another oral health condition caused by accidents, maybe when one falls and their tooth comes out so my advice is that when you have an accident and your tooth comes out and you find it, quickly put it in water or milk and rush to the dental clinic so that you can be checked and the tooth can be put back.

So these are some of the common oral health diseases especially here in Zambia and let me mention that we are sensitizing people to be doing regular dental checkups and also inform people that dental services are everywhere and very accessible to the people.

QUESTION: What are the common treatments for oral diseases?

ANSWER: We have a lot of treatments and let me mention that removing a teeth is the last resort…After we have tried and everything has failed that is when we reach the point of concluding that a tooth be removed And among the common treatments we have teeth cleaning which we recommend for every six months, Veneers which we recommend when teeth are crooked or discolored they are very popular solutions to common tooth problems.

We also have Fillings mostly to treat Cavities and Crowns for much bigger cavities then we also have braces and for these The goal is to straighten and correct crooked teeth, as straighter teeth are often healthier and easier to take care of. Classic braces use metal and other materials to slowly tighten teeth back into place.

Last but not the least we have Dentures which are usually associated with ageing, but a lot of people may need dentures as they are meant to replace teeth in a natural way, and they’re typically removable.

QUESTION: Can you chew with dentures?

ANSWER: Dentures are artificial teeth and yes you can chew with them they are totally safe and the only thing you need to be doing is removing them when cleaning them especially if they are just new

QUESTION: Does oral sex affect oral health?

ANSWER: Yes Oral sex is very bad for oral health and it is shocking why people want to use the mouth meant for eating for other purposes such as oral sex, this is unacceptable and leading cause of some oral diseases. We have cases where the mouth has diseases that are found on the private parts such as sexually transmitted diseases because the mouth was being used for the wrong functions. As a result people tend to develop sexually transmitted infections in the mouth because they wanted to be adventurous.

You may clean your mouth and observe all the proper oral health practices but if you are suing your mouth for oral sex you are exposing your oral health to diseases that are not even meant to be in the mouth and as dentists we know..,.when people come with oral diseases we can tell to say this is as a result of oral sex and we always take time to talk to the people and counsel them to avoid such but bottom line is oral sex is very bad for oral hygiene.

Use the mouth for eating and you have the body parts for sexual intercourse, use them and avoid avoidable oral diseases because no matter how one cleans their teeth and does all the right things they will still have oral diseases because they wanted to be adventurous.

QUESTION: What are the common myths and beliefs around oral disease?

ANSWER: The most common of course is that when you put pain killer on an aching tooth it gets better, that is a belief and has no truth to it... People should understand that whatever relief offered by putting pain killers on a tooth cache is temporal and should not encouraged.

QUESTION: What is important about oral health that people need to know?

ANSWER: Let us brush our teeth, floss and please when brushing do it properly be gentle, do not injure your gums and use the proper tooth paste and clean water.. Let’s take care of our oral health and please use the mouth for its intended purpose which is eating food and nothing else.