Conservative dentistry

Conservative dentistry is a broad field of dentistry that deals with basic dental treatment while preserving the most natural shape of teeth and restoring proper function in the oral cavity.

The main task of conservative dentistry is to prevent and treat the most common dental disease, which is tooth decay.

Prevention in dentistry

These are measures aimed at preventing diseases of the teeth and periodontium (the tissues surrounding the teeth).

The treatment of tooth sensitivity involves eliminating pain reactions, which usually occur when eating and drinking (cold, sweet or sour foods) or when exposed to cold air, as well as during brushing.

Excessive reactivity to external stimuli results from irritation of nerve endings in the dentinal tubules, which are exposed when the hardest outer tissue of the tooth, the enamel, is damaged.

There are many causes of this damage:

• tartar and dental plaque (action of bacterial acids),
• improper tooth brushing technique,
• use of toothpastes that abrade tooth enamel,
• malocclusion, incorrect positioning of teeth in the dental arch, occlusal obstacles,
• parafunctions (e.g. biting pens, nails, clenching and grinding teeth),
• eating habits (acidic foods) and certain medical conditions, such as gastroesophageal reflux disease, bulimia (stomach acid),
• missing teeth, leading to excessive strain on the remaining teeth in the mouth.

Most often, there are several causes at once.

The most common methods of treating tooth sensitivity include:

• strengthening teeth with fluoride (teeth varnishing),
• protecting exposed tooth necks with special preparations or composite materials,
• appropriate prevention – avoiding highly abrasive toothpastes, learning the correct brushing technique,
• avoiding any stimuli that exacerbate hypersensitivity,
• in the case of significant loss of hard tooth tissue, prosthetic restoration (onlays, overlays, veneers, crowns) may be necessary.

Depending on the severity of caries, we distinguish between the following treatments:

• superficial caries (decalcification of tooth enamel) – in this case, we apply specialised preparations containing fluoride, hydroxyapatites and calcium compounds to the teeth – we perform a procedure to remineralise the hard tissues of the tooth,
• moderate caries, when the layer under the tooth enamel (dentin) has also been demineralised – we remove all the dentin tissue destroyed by bacterial acids and fill the resulting cavity with composite materials,

• deep caries, when the dentine close to the tooth chamber (pulp) becomes softened – after cleaning, if necessary, we use fillings with a high fluoride content (glass ionomers); the released fluoride ions stimulate the tooth tissue to remineralise,

• deep caries reaching the tooth chamber – due to bacteria entering the tooth pulp, even if there was no pain before (initial pulp inflammation is often asymptomatic), we perform root canal treatment.

Depending on the extent of the caries, i.e. the degree of loss of hard tooth tissue, we offer restoration using one of the following methods:

• direct method – we traditionally reconstruct lost tooth tissue using the latest generation of composite materials, which come in a wide range of colours, allowing them to be perfectly matched to the colour of the teeth,
• indirect method  – used in cases of significant tooth crown loss; after cleaning the decay and properly preparing the tooth, we take an impression with a plastic compound, on the basis of which a technician in a prosthetic laboratory casts a model and makes a so-called inlay or onlay/overlay; such an inlay is made of composite material with ceramic additive; after appropriate preparation in the laboratory, it acquires properties similar to those of hard tooth tissue, thus providing us with a ready-made restoration with:
  • maximum hardness and abrasion similar to tooth tissue,
  • accurately reconstructed tooth anatomy,
  • perfectly reconstructed contact points, which are so important for the protection of periodontal tissues and more,
  • we eliminate polymerisation shrinkage of the material, thus increasing the tightness of the filling.