How gum disease effects your health
Heart attack
Several studies have shown that periodontal disease is associated with heart disease. While a cause-and-effect relationship has not yet been proven, research has indicated that periodontal disease increases the risk of heart disease.
Scientists believe that inflammation caused by periodontal disease may be responsible for the association.
Periodontal disease can also exacerbate existing heart conditions. Patients at risk for infective endocarditis may require antibiotics prior to dental procedures. Your periodontist and cardiologist will be able to determine if your heart condition requires use of antibiotics prior to dental procedures.
Stroke
Additional studies have pointed to a relationship between periodontal disease and stroke. In one study that looked at the causal relationship of oral infection as a risk factor for stroke, people diagnosed with acute cerebrovascular ischemia were found more likely to have an oral infection when compared to those in the control group.
MEDICATION
May medication affect my oral health?
Yes, medications can have adverse effects to your oral health.
Dry mouth - which is the most common. We all need saliva to moisten and cleanse our mouths and digest food. Saliva also prevents infection by controlling bacteria and fungi in the mouth. When you don't make enough saliva, your mouth gets dry and uncomfortable
Causes of dry mouth include:
certain medications: drugs used to treat depression, anxiety, pain, allergies, and colds (antihistamines and decongestants), obesity, acne, epilepsy, hypertension (diuretics), diarrhea, nausea, psychotic disorders, urinary incontinence, asthma (certain bronchodilators), and Parkinson's
certain medical treatments: damage to the salivary glands, the glands that make saliva, can reduce the amount of saliva produced. For example, the damage could stem from radiation to the head and neck, and chemotherapy treatments. Dry mouth can also be a side effect of muscle relaxants and sedatives.
Tooth discoloration
The antibiotics tetracycline and doxycycline are known to discolor teeth when given to children whose teeth are still developing (before the age of 8). Mouth rinses and washes containing chlorhexidine and cetylpyridinium chloride can also stain your teeth. Antihistamines , antipsychotic drugs, and antihypertensive medications can also cause teeth discoloration.
Diabetis
Diabetic patients are more likely to develop periodontal disease, which in turn can increase blood sugar and diabetic complications.
People with diabetes are more likely to have periodontal disease than people without diabetes, probably because people with diabetes are more susceptible to contracting infections. In fact, periodontal disease is often considered a complication of diabetes. Those people who don't have their diabetes under control are especially at risk.
Research has suggested that the relationship between diabetes and periodontal disease goes both ways - periodontal disease may make it more difficult for people who have diabetes to control their blood sugar.
Severe periodontal disease can increase blood sugar, contributing to increased periods of time when the body functions with a high blood sugar. This puts people with diabetes at increased risk for diabetic complications.
Halitose
Halitosis called bad breath, is a symptom in which a noticeably unpleasant odor is present on the exhaled breath. In about 90% of genuine halitosis cases, the origin of the odor is in the mouth itself.
The most common location for mouth related halitosis is the tongue. Tongue bacteria produce malodorous compounds and fatty acids, and account for 80 to 90% of all cases of mouth-related bad breath
Advanced periodontal disease is also a common cause of severe halitosis. Waste products from the anaerobic bacteria growing below the gum-line have a foul smell and have been clinically demonstrated to produce a very intense bad breath. Removal of the subgingival tartar or plaque has been shown to improve mouth odor considerably.
However, not all patients with periodontal disease have halitosis, and not all patients with halitosis have periodontal disease
Not all who think they have halitosis have a genuine problem. Of those who feel they have halitosis, significant percentages 5?72% have been reported to have no genuine halitosis when professionally examined. Of those who have genuine halitosis, often the odor is caused by bacteria present below the gum-line and on the back of the tongue. The remaining 10% is accounted for by many different conditions, including disorders in the nasal cavity, sinuses, throat, lungs, esophagus, stomach or elsewhere.
Very rarely, halitosis can be one of many symptoms of a serious underlying medical condition such as liver failure; but, in the vast majority of cases, the cause is minor and can often be reduced by adjustments to oral hygiene, including brushing or gently scraping the back of the tongue and improving the health of the gums by using dental floss. Occasionally, however, especially if the origin of the odor is not in the mouth, halitosis can be more difficult to diagnose and to manage successfully.