Oral Hygiene

Oral Hygiene 

measures taken to maintain the health of the oral cavity and prevent stomatologic diseases. Oral hygiene is basic to stomatologic prophylaxis and must be carried out during the entire lifetime, beginning from early childhood.

Oral hygiene includes the examination of the oral cavity, the treatment of the milk and permanent teeth, the removal of the foci of infection and intoxication, the treatment of diseased mucosa, the correction of deformed teeth and jaws, and the use of prostheses. Preventive oral hygiene was developed by A. K. Limberg.

In the USSR and other socialist countries the state must provide oral hygiene for all children of school and preschool age; this is because the carious process is more acute in milk teeth than in permanent teeth and leads to the earlier formation of complicated forms of caries, which is a source of organic infection and allergization. Oral hygiene is especially important for women during pregnancy and lactation and for workers employed in industries where occupational disorders of the teeth and the mucosa of the oral cavity are a factor.

REFERENCES

Novik, I. O. Voprosy profilaktiki kariesa zubov i sanatsiia polosti rta u detei. Kiev, 1958.
Rybakov, A. I. Osnovy stomatologicheskoi profilaktiki. Moscow, 1968.

I. G. GINZBURG