ABSTRACT
Dental caries is the term used for tooth decay or cavities. It is caused by specific types of bacteria which produce acids through the conversion of sugar and carbohydrates. The acids destroy the tooth's enamel, dentine and cementum by dissolving minerals in the hard enamel that covers the tooth's crown resulting in pits which get larger over time. Palaquium gutta or gutta-percha tree is a medium-sized to tall tree from the family Sapotaceae found in Southeast Asia, particularly in Malaysia and Indonesia. Gutta-percha was initially used as an insulator for cables including the trans-Atlantic cable and also for items like the golf ball. In the past, they were also used as splints for holding fractured joints and as handles of forceps, catheters, and so forth as well as to control hemorrhage in extracted socket wounds. Gutta-percha is a trans-isomer of polymer of isoprene or polyisopropene.
