National Institutes of Health
- The primary NIH organization for research on Tooth Decay is the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research
You call it a cavity. Your dentist calls it tooth decay or dental caries. They're all names for a hole in your tooth. The cause of tooth decay is plaque, a sticky substance in your mouth made up mostly of germs. Tooth decay starts in the outer layer, called the enamel. Without a filling, the decay can get deep into the tooth and its nerves and cause a toothache or abscess.
To help prevent cavities
References and abstracts from MEDLINE/PubMed (National Library of Medicine)