What is focal disease?
A foci is a long-standing and usually symptom-free inflammation, usually delimited by a connective tissue capsule, from which bacteria and the poisons produced by bacteria, the so-called bacterial toxins, can travel to a point in the body far from the foci and cause symptoms. Focal disease therefore refers to a disease caused by an inflammatory area present in a specific part of the body in another organ or organs. The focus is therefore the primary source of the disease, the symptoms appearing in the body are the so-called secondary symptoms, which can be:
- Joint inflammations
- Skin rashes, skin changes
- Inflammatory processes of the organ of vision
- Endocarditis
- Kidney inflammation
- Hair loss
A special group of foci is dental foci
Dental foci include caries, periodontal pockets, granuloma (most often a lesion around the tip of the tooth root), teeth that have not erupted (e.g. wisdom tooth, retained tooth root, bad (not wall resistant, not reaching the tip) root filling, etc. inflammatory pouches due to .
How can the existence or formation of a dental focus be detected?
Dentists and oral surgeons can diagnose the development and presence of a dental focus with the help of a clinical examination and X-rays (panorama, intraoral X-rays). The focal dental research therefore means the totality of clinical examinations and X-rays. Foci around the tooth are often cysts or granulomas around the root apex, which appears on radiographs as a dark X-ray shadow associated with the root apex. However, it is important to note that inflamed areas around the root tip can be considered foci, but the detection of such a phenomenon does not automatically mean that we are dealing with a foci. If we transfer the well-known saying to the relationship between inflammation and focus, we can say that Not all inflammations are foci, but all foci are inflammations. Nem minden gyulladás góc, de minden góc gyulladás.
How can the dental focus be treated?
In the majority of cases, the focus is dental with root treatment can be terminated.In this case, the doctor and the patient meet several times, because it may be necessary to change antibiotic and medicated fillings several times between the start and end of the root canal treatment. If the inflamed area does not heal even as a result of the treatments (for example, due to anatomical anomalies, the root tip cannot be reached with traditional root treatment methods, etc.), or we are faced with a granuloma to such an extent that the inflammation cannot be completely eliminated within the limits of the root treatment, root tip- resection may also be performed. The last and most drastic step in the treatment of focal disease can be the complete removal of the tooth.