General Practice & Primary Care

Biography

Biography: Omid Tavakol

Abstract

Today, despite of modern oral and dental care and preventive dentistry, the prevalence of partial and total edentulism is increasing every year. According to Micsh’s dental implant text book, there are more than 20,000,000 patients in the United States who suffer from complete edentulism. The consequences of edentulism can vary from lack of ability to chew, to psychological effects which affects all aspects of patient’s life and patient’s appearance in society. The effect of edentulism on general health and psychological health of patients is of great importance. Inability to take hard foods, vegetables, not only induces the feeling of disability but also induces nutrition deficiency which causes serious problems like avitaminosis which could lead to depression or other disease like GI problems. The role of prosthodontics in replacement the missing tissues and structures of dentomaxillofacial area is so important in reconstruction of both the appearance and the function of oral and maxillofacial area. There are several methods to replace missing teeth and surrounding structures such as old removable dentures or new implant supported prosthesis. The field of maxillofacial prosthesis is gone under big revolution by introducing dental implants. All these prosthesis are to be maintained by oral hygiene procedures that are different by the type of prosthesis. In this lecture, author is going to explain the consequence of edentulism on general health and psychological health of patients and the relationship of edentulism and the relevant diseases introduced by. Then he is going to introduce new methods in prosthodontics which improves oral care. After that he is going to introduce the new methods in maintaining prosthesis, which includes new appliances, new materials and drugs and the way the patients should use.