424 Section 12/ Dental PharmacologyFluoride therapy and fluoridation of
drinking water has played a significant role
in deccreasing the dental caries. The
incidence of dental caries can be
significantly decreased by adding fluorides
into the drinking water supply. Fluorides
prevent decalcification of the structure of
tooth by inhibiting bacterial enzymes which
produce lactic acid. Fluorides also increase
the tooth resistance to acid decalcification.
Fluorides can be used prophylactically
as well as therapeutically. Prophylactically,
fluoride (in the form of sodium fluoride) can
be used in drinking water and one part of
fluoride to one million part of drinking
water is sufficient for reducing the
incidence of dental caries by 50%.
Therapeutically, 2% sodium fluoride
solution is applied locally to the teeth after
cleaning. The local application of fluoride
leads to the absorption of fluorine on the
enamel surface as calcium fluoride. But,
sodium fluoride must be used with caution
as it may cause nausea, vomiting and
abdominal pain and on chronic ingestion
it may lead to chronic fluoride poisoning
and also affects enamel and dentine of
developing teeth.
Antimicrobial agents— Certain
antimicrobial agents e.g. penicillin,
bacitracin, aeuromycin etc. are being used
to reduce the bacterial count which may
be beneficial in reducing the incidence of
dental caries.
Certain other agents such as
hexachlorophene, silver nitrate, chlorophyll
are also used to clean debris and decaying
material and incidence of dental caries.