Dental nerve

synonym

Tooth pulp, pulp, tooth pulp

introduction

An adult person usually has 32 teeth. There are 4 front (Incisivi), 2 corner (Canini), 4 pre-jaws (Premolars), 4 jaw (Molars) and 2 wisdom teeth per half of the jaw.

As the size of the human jaw is steadily decreasing, most people have their wisdom teeth removed in early adolescence. The individual teeth of the chewing organ are anchored in the jawbone via what is known as the tooth holding apparatus. From an anatomical point of view, both the gums (lat. Gingiva propria), the dental cement (Cementum), the tooth socket (alveolus), as well as the root skin (Periodontal disease or Periodontium) counted to this tooth support apparatus.

However, the individual teeth are not rigid and unyielding in their tooth socket. Rather, they are feathers suspended from collagen-containing fiber bundles and for this reason can absorb the pressure forces that prevail during the chewing process. Since the teeth are also "organs" whose survival depends on an optimal blood supply and a nervous network, they too have to have their own nerve fibers (Dental nerve) feature.

anatomy

Under the as Dental nerve Well-known term, in anatomy, one understands the inner part of every tooth. Basically, the term dental nerve is extremely unfortunate, because what is colloquially called dental nerve should be considered from a dental perspective Tooth pulp (from the Latin word pulp, Meat) or Pulp are designated. The dental nerve itself fills the entire inner area of ​​a tooth, the Pulp cavity (Technical term: Pulp cavum), out. The pulp cavity itself is solidified by hard tooth substance (Dentine and Enamel) and in this way fulfills a nerve fiber protective function.

Inside the tooth, the pulp cavity extends from the tooth crown to the tip (technical term: apex) of the Tooth roots. The main part of the Dental nerves (Tooth pulp) consists connective tissue, into which both lymph and blood vessels, and Nerve fibers are stored. Smallest proportions of this Nerve fibers (Technical term: Tomes fibers) even extend from the inside of the pulp cavity to the hard tooth substance, which they pass through fine channels (so-called Dentinal tubules) to reach. These smallest fibers of the tooth nerve are responsible for the transmission of pain stimuli that arise from supra-threshold mechanical, thermal and / or chemical stimuli.

The tooth nerve (tooth pulp) is anatomically divided into two sections based on the exact position inside the tooth, the crown pulp and the root pulp. Irritation and / or damage to the tooth nerve has considerable consequences for the patient concerned. On the one hand, damage to the tooth nerve sometimes causes severe pain, on the other hand, a "more dead“Tooth much heavier in the jaw and due to the lack of blood and nutrient supply, it tends to darken the tooth structure.

Diseases of the dental nerve

Almost everyone suffers from a disease of at least once in their lifetime Teeth supporting apparatus. In most cases, these are bacterial inflammatory processes that take place in the tissue of the Gums which can be traced back to poor or simply unclean oral hygiene.
If a suitable dental treatment is not carried out, this inflammation spreads, starting from the gums (lat. Gingiva), into other parts of the tooth support system. The consequences are inflammatory diseases of the jawbone (Periodontal disease), which in turn pass to the tooth nerve and can irritate, damage or "kill" it.

An inflammation of the tooth nerve (pulp) is called pulpitis (tooth pulp inflammation) in dental terminology. In the case of classic tooth nerve inflammation, two different types can be distinguished: reversible (recoverable) and the irreversible (non-reversible) pulpitis. While the reversible tooth nerve inflammation usually subsides without permanent damage, the irreversible pulpitis has a strongly damaging influence on the affected tooth. An irreversible tooth nerve inflammation can only be treated by removing the medulla and the nerve fibers embedded in it. In addition, calcifications can occasionally occur in the area of ​​the tooth nerve (technical term: Denticle).

With this type of disease, too, the calcified pulp tissue usually has to be completely removed, i.e. a so-called Root canal treatment be performed.