Patients have multiple sources of information and often find it difficult to distinguish between good advice and uninformed advice.
Whether they get their information from the internet or their entourage contributes to it, patients often come to the dentist confused and somewhat skeptical about treatment solutions.
It is good for the patient to develop trust in the dentist over time, a trust based on results and good communication.
Among the doubts and myths that patients have when they go to the dentist, we will try to answer the most common ones:
If teeth don’t hurt, it means they are healthy. False!
This is a myth. Teeth are made up of several layers, the superficial one being the enamel that has no innervation. Therefore, any pathological process that is confined to the enamel does not cause pain until it approaches the dentin, a layer that has receptors for sensitivity.
Caries can also develop asymptomatically, because teeth are able to produce reaction dentine, which reduces sensitivity, in the event of slow-onset aggression. Thus, pathological processes progress without the patient being aware.
Often, by the time dental pain occurs, pathological processes have already progressed significantly to the pulp chamber and treatment modalities are also reduced.
The health of the body has nothing to do with oral health. Wrong!
The oral cavity and all the other systems and organs are closely linked. Whether they communicate directly or only through vessels, the components of the body form a whole and pathology in one segment can easily spread to another.
The mouth is the first segment of the digestive system and a multitude of bacteria can enter through this route from the external environment. Studies undertaken in recent years show that bacteria in the mouth may play a role in the development of heart disease, thus contributing to heart disease.
The loss of baby teeth is not a dangerous event for the later development of permanent teeth. False.
Milk teeth, also known as temporary teeth, appear from the first months of life and help develop the jaws and perform the first chewing movements.
Simply because temporary teeth will be replaced by permanent teeth at an early age, parents tend to neglect them.
In reality, things are quite different. Baby teeth that are lost early can lead to real disorders such as crowding and disruption of the eruption order of permanent teeth.
Pathological processes at the root of temporary teeth can also lead to damage to the crown of permanent teeth, which lie immediately below. Therefore, baby teeth should be considered as important as permanent teeth, as they dictate their development.
These are just some of the myths that patients of all ages face at some point.
But good communication with your dentist can help clarify these questions.
