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GREAT BATTLE of GINGIVITIS A fictional tale about the ongoing battle between the inhabitants of the Kingdom of Gingiva and the evil nation of Biofilm Story by: Jesse Kourakis, Victoria Abela, Rehka Akula and Brianna Carswell – 1st Year Advanced Diploma of Oral Health (ADOH) Students TAFESA.
THIS IS A creative writing piece written by first year ADOH Students from Gilies Plaines TAFE SA. Their task was to create a story, dialogue or video about the pathogenesis of gingivitis. Ensure that you include the histological stages of development of disease and provide and explanation for the clinical signs of the disease. CHAPTER 1
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Initial Lesion
nce upon a time there existed an evil nation, called Biofilm, that sought to expand their dominion in our great Kingdom of Gingiva. Due to a period of long-lasting peace, we began to neglect the care of our Kingdom and the nation of Biofilm began to grow in number and encroach on our epithelial borders. The first assault happened two to four days after they accumulated their army. They released a poison into our Kingdom which began to wreak havoc amongst our land. The sentries, called Neutrophils and Mast Cells, discovered this invasion and sent messengers for back up. This allowed the roads (blood vessels vasodilation) to be cleared to ensure back up soldiers could move quickly to the site of invasion. The flood gates to the Kingdoms surrounding moats were also ordered to open. These filled up with plasma fluid to create a protective barrier and flowed out beyond the Epithelial border in the hope to slow the enemy down.
The Neutrophils mobilised and gathered in force to form the first line of defence, otherwise known as, “Operation Chemotaxis”, and migrated directly to the site of insult. It was lucky that we were prepared for these kinds of attacks. All seemed to be going well, and so far, our defences were holding. As long as the Epithelial Junction at the border held, we would have nothing to worry about. CHAPTER 2
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Early Lesion:
nfortunately, things took a bit of a southward turn and things started to worsen. The Biofilm Nation was just too strong and began to build in number and accumulate further into our territory. They began to fortify within our land by building the foundations of a plaque wall near the Epithelial border and from here they continued to assault our Kingdom. At this point we were seven days into battle. While the Neutrophils continued to fight the invasion at the border, some Biofilm Bacteria soldiers had managed to break the defences and move into the Kingdom. We had no choice but to call on the PMN soldiers to bombard the site of invasion. Unfortunately, in doing so, it also meant we lost many important collagen structures along the way as a result of their destructive Enzyme powers – a price that had to be paid.
