| Dental health key to other disease prevention | |
| By Leonard Hansen | |
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In the days before television variety programs catalyzed the demise of on-stage vaudeville, a popular joke was set in the dentist’s office. States the dentist to the patient slumped in the chair and with a mouthful of tools: "Mr. Smith, your teeth are fine; but your gums have to go." Yesterday it was humor; today extensive research reports that gum diseases are not only causes of problem teeth but also contribute to many chronic health diseases of mature adults. Your gums, therefore, should be a primary health concern and reason for at least an annual dental checkup, advise experts from both the American Dental Association and The American Academy of Periodontology. Periodontal disease affects the gums and supporting structures of the teeth. Gingivitis is an early stage of periodontal disease where the gums may become red, swollen and bleed easily. Most often, gingivitis is painless and, if not treated, can advance to periodontitis. At this stage, the bone and tissues surrounding the teeth deteriorate due to the disease and a pocket forms around the tooth. The pocket becomes infected, which destroys more bone and issue; and eventually the tooth becomes loose and falls out or needs to be extracted. The villain of the problem is bacteria which is present in the plaque normally removed by brushing and flossing the teeth daily. If not removed completely, toxins produced by the bacteria irritate the gums. Left in place, the toxins cause the gums to pull away from the teeth and periodontal pockets are formed which fill with more toxins and bacteria. New research shows that periodontal disease is only the start of the problem. An analysis of recent studies reveals that gum disease may represent a far more serious threat to the health of millions of Americans, most of them mature adults, than previously realized. As reported in the Journal of Periodontology, the studies found that periodontal infection may contribute to the development of heart disease, the nation’s number one cause of death, pose a serious threat to people whose health is already compromised due to diabetes and respiratory diseases, and increase the risk of premature, underweight births. How this happens is that the buildup of toxic bacteria in the gums passes into the bloodstream and is transported to the heart and other body systems. Infective endocarditis, for example, is a condition characterized by inflammation of the interior lining of the heart and the heart valves, generally caused by bacterial infection. Researchers believe that when an individual with periodontal disease, a normal task such as chewing or brushing can injure gum tissue, allowing bacteria to enter the bloodstream. The accumulation of bacteria on heart valves often leads to a fatal infection unless treated. Excess bacteria from periodontal disease is also indicated as the possible toxic source for respiratory disease, particularly "pneumonia, a life-threatening infection, especially in the elderly and immunocompromised patient," according to a position paper presented in the Journal of Periodontology. Bacteria are transported from the gums to the lungs during the normal process of breathing. Recent research also identifies periodontal disease as, if not the cause of diabetes mellitus, a contributing factor in transporting toxic bacteria to a body already in which the immune system has already been weakened, possibly increasing the pace and seriousness of the disease. The warning signs of periodontal disease include:
The long-held claim that dental amalgam — silver fillings - and its mercury component can be causes of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) has been proven false based on a new study reported in the Journal of the American Dental Association. The study is the first, thorough clinical pathological correlative research of both AD-afflicted and healthy humans, and shows that mercury in dental amalgam restorations does not appear to be a neurotoxic factor in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. The researchers measured mercury levels in multiple brain regions and performed full nervous system disease evaluations to confirm the normal status of the brand or the presence of Alzheimer’s disease. "This study demonstrates that dental amalgam is not a major public health risk factor for Alzheimer’s Disease," stated Stanley R. Saxe, D.M.D., lead study author and director of the geriatric oral health program at the University of Kentucky at Lexington. SMOKING AND TEETH When cigarette smoking was identified earlier as a cause of serious problems for both teeth and the supporting bone structure, many mature adults switched to smoking cigars and pipes. A wrong move, states Elizabeth A. Krall, Ph.D., M.P.H., of the Boston University Goldman School of Dental Medicine. "Cigars and pipes are perceived by many smokers to have fewer health risks than cigarettes; but our findings in a new study demonstrate that men who smoke cigars or pipes are at a greater risk of experiencing tooth loss than nonsmokers," wrote Krall in research recently reported in the Journal of the American Dental Association. The longitudinal study spanned years of monitoring 690 men — 50 who smoked cigars exclusively; 32 who smoked pipes exclusively; 131 cigarette smokers and 477 who did not smoke during the follow-up period. "The increase in risk related to cigar and pipe smoking provide a strong rationale for targeting smoking prevention and smoking cessation programs to smokers of all tobacco products," stressed Dr. Krall and her colleagues. More information about smoking and oral health care is available at the ADA Internet web site: http://www.ada.org. |
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