Posted by For my steam project I chose to look at the gomphoses joint, also known as the type of joints teeth are. More specifically researched the process of tooth damage/decay leading to needing root canal treatment.
Tooth Damage and Root Canal Treatment
Rylee’s objective for this project was to know the structure of the knee joint and compare it to five other joint types. To dissect this objective, Rylee chose to research root canals as they are a type of fibrous peg-in-socket joint. Specifically, teeth are Gomphosis joints and sit inside of a periodontal ligament and cementum that aids in holding the tooth in place. In the first Figure of Rylee’s art piece, a healthy tooth is snug in dental alveoli with the dentin underneath the tooth enamel that surrounds the pulp cavity. The pulp cavity is what houses our teeth’ blood vessels, nerves, and specialized cells keeping them healthy and alive, as well as leading down to our root canals.
Because teeth are unable to heal, an untreated damaged tooth can be painful and detrimental to the individual’s oral health. A damaged tooth is depicted in Figure 2 of Rylee’s piece, untreated and resulting in said complications with bacteria spreading throughout the dental pulp and building up in the root canal. This buildup is referred to as an abscess, a pocket of pus and bacteria residing at the root of the tooth that now must be treated by dental professionals as it cannot heal naturally. In Figure 3, Rylee illustrated a tooth after said root canal treatment, which aims to remove the damaged dental pulp and replace it with antibacterial material and a temporary filling. The temporary filling will be replaced by a permanent fill and finally a crown.