Beltran-Aguilar Eugenio D, Beltran-Neira Roberto J
Division of Oral Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Chamblee, Georgia, USA.
Gen Dent. 2004 Jan-Feb;52(1):21-7.
This is the first of two articles providing an overall view of oral diseases and conditions, taking the oral cavity and its organs and tissues as integrated parts of the human body. This article provides an overview of three oral diseases and conditions that are associated directly with loss of tooth structure or loss of teeth and reviews their risk factors and preventive and treatment interventions. Two of these conditions, dental caries and periodontal diseases (or their sequelae), remain the main cause of tooth loss in the U.S. Prevention, treatment, and control of these diseases require many hours of training during dental education and many hours of treatment in dental practice. The profession has fragmented into specialties based on diseases; as a result, many dentists fail to see them as integral elements of the human experience. As primary care specialists, dentists must be reminded that they need to make prevention the first choice, provide the best treatment possible based on available scientific evidence, and keep informed of new advances in research while always remembering that the oral cavity is an integral part of the human body. The changes and trends observed in the epidemiology of oral diseases will demand new skills in our dental graduates. Future dental graduates may achieve a solid understanding of oral diseases at both the biological and population level by using oral tissues and saliva to diagnose systemic diseases, relying on medical facilities to order laboratory tests, and diagnosing and treating patients in close collaboration with their medical colleagues.
这是两篇文章中的第一篇，文章将口腔及其器官和组织视为人体的有机组成部分，对口腔疾病与状况进行全面概述。本文概述了三种与牙体结构丧失或牙齿缺失直接相关的口腔疾病与状况，并对其风险因素以及预防和治疗干预措施进行了综述。在美国，其中两种疾病，即龋齿和牙周疾病（或其后遗症），仍然是牙齿缺失的主要原因。预防、治疗和控制这些疾病需要在牙科教育期间投入大量时间进行培训，并且在牙科诊疗过程中需要花费大量时间进行治疗。由于该行业已按疾病划分成了多个专科，结果导致许多牙医并未将这些疾病视为人类生活体验中不可或缺的部分。作为初级保健专科医生，必须提醒牙医，他们需要将预防作为首选，根据现有科学证据提供尽可能最佳的治疗，并随时了解研究的新进展，同时始终牢记口腔是人体不可分割的一部分。口腔疾病流行病学中观察到的变化和趋势将要求我们的牙科毕业生具备新技能。未来的牙科毕业生可以通过利用口腔组织和唾液来诊断全身性疾病、依靠医疗设施进行实验室检查订单，以及与医学同事密切合作诊断和治疗患者，从而在生物学和人群层面上扎实地理解口腔疾病。
