Caries and Pulp Disease

Dental caries is the most frequently occurring disease of the dental and oral tissues. On average by the age of five years, children will have at least four or five teeth affected by the disease. By 15 years as many as 10 permanent teeth may be decayed, missing or filled as a result of carious involvement. The relative importance of the disease, however, is not only the severity of the destructive processes, although these can be extremely harmful, but that it attacks nearly all the population, thereby creating a major public health problem besides much discomfort for the individual.