Diseases of the dental nerve
Almost every person suffers at least once in his life from a disease of the periodontium. In most cases, these are bacterially caused inflammatory processes that spread in the tissue of the gums due to a lack of or simply unclean oral hygiene. In the absence of appropriate dental treatment, these inflammations spread from the gums (lat.
gingiva) to other parts of the periodontium. The consequences are inflammatory diseases of the jawbone (periodontitis), which in turn can spread to the dental nerve and irritate, damage or “kill” it. An inflammation of the dental nerve (pulp) is called pulpitis (tooth marrow inflammation) in dental terminology.
There are two different types of inflammation of the dental nerve: reversible (able to regress) and irreversible (not able to regress) pulpitis. While the reversible dental nerve inflammation usually subsides without permanent damage, the irreversible pulpitis exerts a strongly damaging influence on the affected tooth. An irreversible dental nerve inflammation can only be treated by removing the pulp and the nerve fibers embedded in it.
In addition, calcifications can occasionally occur in the area of the dental nerve (technical term: denticle). Even with this type of disease, the calcified pulp tissue must usually be completely removed, i.e. a so-called root canal treatment must be performed.
