Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of the mouth, most commonly focused on dentition as well as the oral mucosa. Dentistry may also encompass other aspects of the craniofacial complex including the temporomandibular joint. The practitioner is called a dentist.
A dentist, also known as a dental surgeon, is a health care professional who specializes in dentistry, the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. The dentist's supporting team aids in providing oral health services. The dental team includes dental assistants, dental hygienists, dental technicians, and sometimes dental therapists.
Trigeminal neuralgia, also called Fothergill disease, tic douloureux, or trifacial neuralgia is a long-term pain disorder that affects the trigeminal nerve, the nerve responsible for sensation in the face and motor functions such as biting and chewing. It is a form of neuropathic pain. There are two main types: typical and atypical trigeminal neuralgia. The typical form results in episodes of severe, sudden, shock-like pain in one side of the face that lasts for seconds to a few minutes. Groups of these episodes can occur over a few hours. The atypical form results in a constant burning pain that is less severe. Episodes may be triggered by any touch to the face. Both forms may occur in the same person. It is regarded as one of the most painful disorders known to medicine, and often results in depression.
An oral medicine or stomatology doctor/dentist has received additional specialized training and experience in the diagnosis and management of oral mucosal abnormalities including oral cancer, salivary gland disorders, temporomandibular disorders and facial pain, taste and smell disorders; and recognition of the oral manifestations of systemic and infectious diseases. It lies at the interface between medicine and dentistry. An oral medicine doctor is trained to diagnose and manage patients with disorders of the orofacial region, essentially as a "physician of the mouth".
Osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ) is a severe bone disease (osteonecrosis) that affects the jaws. Various forms of ONJ have been described since 1861, and a number of causes have been suggested in the literature.
Dentin dysplasia (DD) is a rare genetic developmental disorder affecting dentine production of the teeth, commonly exhibiting an autosomal dominant inheritance that causes malformation of the root. It affects both primary and permanent dentitions in approximately 1 in every 100,000 patients. It is characterized by the presence of normal enamel but atypical dentin with abnormal pulpal morphology. Witkop in 1972 classified DD into two types which are Type I (DD-1) is the radicular type, and type II (DD-2) is the coronal type. DD-1 has been further divided into 4 different subtypes (DD-1a,1b,1c,1d) based on the radiographic features.
Talon cusp is a rare dental anomaly resulting in an extra cusp or cusp-like projection on an anterior tooth, located on the inside surface of the affected tooth. Sometimes it can also be found on the facial surface of the anterior tooth.
Focal infection theory is the historical concept that many chronic diseases, including systemic and common ones, are caused by focal infections. In present medical consensus, a focal infection is a localized infection, often asymptomatic, that causes disease elsewhere in the host, but focal infections are fairly infrequent and limited to fairly uncommon diseases. Focal infection theory, rather, so explained virtually all diseases, including arthritis, atherosclerosis, cancer, and mental illnesses.
Atypical trigeminal neuralgia (ATN), or type 2 trigeminal neuralgia, is a form of trigeminal neuralgia, a disorder of the fifth cranial nerve. This form of nerve pain is difficult to diagnose, as it is rare and the symptoms overlap with several other disorders. The symptoms can occur in addition to having migraine headache, or can be mistaken for migraine alone, or dental problems such as temporomandibular joint disorder or musculoskeletal issues. ATN can have a wide range of symptoms and the pain can fluctuate in intensity from mild aching to a crushing or burning sensation, and also to the extreme pain experienced with the more common trigeminal neuralgia.
Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw is progressive death of the jawbone in a person exposed to a medication known to increase the risk of disease, in the absence of a previous radiation treatment. It may lead to surgical complication in the form of impaired wound healing following oral and maxillofacial surgery, periodontal surgery, or endodontic therapy.
Cavitations are an area of dead or dying bone. They are caused by infections, physical trauma, or a dearth of blood flow to that part of the bone.
Trotter's syndrome is a cluster of symptoms associated with certain types of advanced nasopharyngeal carcinoma. The cause of pain is the mandibular nerve of the foramen ovale, through which the tumor enters the calvarium. Symptoms include the following:
- Unilateral conductive deafness due to middle ear effusion
- Trigeminal neuralgia due to perineural spread
- Soft palate immobility
- Difficulty opening mouth
The C-terminal telopeptide (CTX), also known as carboxy-terminal collagen crosslinks, is the C-terminal telopeptide of fibrillar collagens such as collagen type I and type II. It is used as a biomarker in the serum to measure the rate of bone turnover. It can be useful in assisting clinicians to determine a patient's nonsurgical treatment response as well as evaluate a patient's risk of developing complications during healing following surgical intervention. The test used to detect the CTX marker is called the Serum CrossLaps, and it is more specific to bone resorption than any other test currently available.
Atypical facial pain (AFP) is a type of chronic facial pain which does not fulfill any other diagnosis. There is no consensus as to a globally accepted definition, and there is even controversy as to whether the term should be continued to be used. Both the International Headache Society (IHS) and the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP) have adopted the term persistent idiopathic facial pain (PIFP) to replace AFP. In the 2nd Edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders (ICHD-2), PIFP is defined as "persistent facial pain that does not have the characteristics of the cranial neuralgias ... and is not attributed to another disorder." However, the term AFP continues to be used by the World Health Organization's 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems and remains in general use by clinicians to refer to chronic facial pain that does not meet any diagnostic criteria and does not respond to most treatments.
Osteomyelitis of the jaws is osteomyelitis which occurs in the bones of the jaws. Historically, osteomyelitis of the jaws was a common complication of odontogenic infection. Before the antibiotic era, it was frequently a fatal condition.
Orofacial pain is a general term covering any pain which is felt in the mouth, jaws and the face. Orofacial pain is a common symptom, and there are many causes.
Kurt H. Thoma was an American Oral Surgeon known as the founder of the American Board of Oral Pathology. He was also the Editor-in-chief for the Oral Surgery, Oral Medicine, Oral Pathology, and Oral Radiology Journal for 22 years. To many Kurt was recognized as the Father of Oral and maxillofacial pathology and the defender of Oral and maxillofacial surgery and a great teacher of Oral medicine.
Rüdiger Emshoff is a German oral and maxillofacial surgeon and associate professor at the Medical University of Innsbruck, where he is head of the Orofacial Pain and Temporomandibular Disorder Unit. Emshoff is known for his work in the field of chronic orofacial pain management with a focus on the development of non-invasive and minimally-invasive methods in the diagnosis and treatment of temporomandibular joint dysfunction.
Parish P. Sedghizadeh is a clinician-scientist, and a clinical and surgical oral and maxillofacial pathologist. He is a Professor of Clinical Dentistry, and Section Chair of Diagnostic Sciences in the Division of Periodontology, Diagnostic Sciences & Dental Hygiene at the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California. He is also the Director of the Oral Pathology and Radiology Distance Learning Program at the University of Southern California.
The ameloblastic fibro-odontoma (AFO) is essentially a benign tumor with the features characteristic of ameloblastic fibroma along with enamel and dentin. Though it is generally regarded as benign, there have been cases of its malignant transformation into ameloblastic fibrosarcoma and odontogenic sarcoma. Cahn LR and Blum T, believed in "maturation theory", which suggested that AFO was an intermediate stage and eventually developed during the period of tooth formation to a complex odontoma thus, being a hamartoma.