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REGENERATIVE Case Study #3 You are encouraged to use extra resources to research your answers in addition to the base understanding of this system that you have gotten through the course work

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REGENERATIVE Case Study #3

You are encouraged to use extra resources to research your answers in addition to the base understanding of this system that you have gotten through the course work.

Scenerio:

Stella is an outgoing 25-year-old engineer who is terrified of the dentist, hence she regularly avoids checkups. She recently supported advocacy to ensure that the city didn’t put fluoride back into the water – her Great-Aunt Sally fought hard to have it removed afterall. As a busy academic starting out in a competitive work force she doesn’t make much time for dental hygiene and doesn’t pay attention to her diet – she considers it a win to brush her teeth once a day. As she has gotten older her teeth have been getting progressively more yellow, they are sensitive to heat and cold and her gums and teeth frequently ache.  As a result she avoids eating foods that require intense chewing, electing for a softer diet.

Stella was at a work event and was offered an apple, despite rarely eating apples she accepted this time. As she bit into it, she felt intense pain that she could no longer ignore. Stella made her way to the dreaded dentist.  Fortunately for her, you are a young dental student with a background in regenerative medicine working with the 80-year-old dentist who her family has seen for decades.

When she arrives the dentist quickly assesses that she has progressive gingivitis, that has weakened the alveolar bone and surrounding tissues. Her enamel on all teeth is very eroded and weak. Biting the apple resulted in her tooth cracking clean through into the tooth pulp, something rare for a person of her age. 

The dentist recommends to remove the affected tooth and replace with an artificial tooth, to educate her on tooth health and to offer a laser based tooth whitening procedure that he is excited to use on as many people as possible. 

Questions:  

1. When you are discussing tooth health with Stella you include a discussion of her diet – why would her diet make an impact in the health of her teeth? (2 marks)  
2. If she made dietary changes could that strengthen her teeth now – why or why not?  (2 marks)
3. How would the absence of fluoride in the water affect her tooth health? (3 marks)
4. What would the possible reasons for her to have heat and cold sensitivity? (3 marks)
5. What would be your concerns with the tooth whitening procedure being offered? (2 marks) What is known about the effects of these procedures on the overall health of the tooth (dig into the literature) (5 marks)
6. Enamel does not regenerate, why is this?  (1 mark) Is there anything that can be done to prevent her enamel from eroding further? (2 marks)
7. For Stella’s damaged tooth, Stella is not happy about having her entire tooth removed and is looking for options.  You convince the dentist to let you use some cutting edge regenerative techniques to help her out. What are 3 different directions that you could take, briefly describe (6 marks)  – which would you select and why? (3 marks)