Your Teeth & YourHeart
Your Teeth, Your Heart and What No One Has Ever Told You About Dental
Care
by Brian Sholder, DDS
8920 Wilshire Blvd. Suite #305
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
(310) 659-4820
If keeping your breath from being bad, keeping your smile nice, and
keeping your teeth in your head at night instead of in a glass of water
are not enough incentive for taking care of your teeth the right way,
here is another: Proper daily tooth care MAY SAVE YOUR LIFE!
Recent medical research indicates that your risk of a heart attack
at least doubles if you have periodontal disease. That puts periodontal
disease right up there with cholesterol as a risk factor for heart
attacks, the leading cause of death in America.
How Teeth Can Kill You
Periodontal disease is a severe infection of the gums caused by plaque,
a sticky film composed of bacteria that have clumped together. Plaque
continually builds up on your teeth. Get rid of it by brushing in the
morning and by tomorrow more plaque coats your teeth.
Even brushing correctly will not remove plaque everywhere in your mouth. Toothpaste and toothbrush ads that claim brushing "correctly" morning, noon, and night will remove plaque are deceiving. They fail to really describe the "correct" method. So, in the places where it lingers, it hardens into tartar, which no amount of brushing can remove. That's where periodontal disease usually starts.
Plaque burrows under your gums and migrates down teeth to their roots. The plaque bacteria infect your gums, making them pull away from the teeth, causing perpetual bad breath, exposing the roots and making your mouth look, feel, and taste awful. Meanwhile, plaque destroys the bone that holds your teeth in place, loosening them so that you eventually lose them.
New research now connects plaque bacteria to heart disease. Streptococcus sanguis clings to teeth with a tenacious glue, one and two cells deep. An even nastier sort of bacteria, Porphyromonas gingivalis, grasps that base with tough tendrils, building layers 500-cells deep. The infection these bacteria cause forms lesions in the surrounding gum tissue, introducing the bacteria into the bloodstream, where they set about their deadly cardiovascular mischief.
Plaque bacteria and heart
attacks
The blood flowing through your coronary
arteries feeds oxygen to your heart tissue just as other arteries
feed the rest of your body. Cut
off the flow of blood in a coronary artery, and the heart tissue
it feeds begins to die.
Heart attacks occur when fatty deposits build up on the inside wall of a coronary artery, narrowing the passage - called the "lumen" - through which blood flows. As the lumen narrows, angina pains may warn that the heart tissue is not receiving enough oxygen. But even before that, a blood clot may get wedged in the narrowed lumen, suddenly shutting off all blood, killing the heart tissue that the coronary artery feeds. If enough tissue dies, the heart stops and you die. The result is a potential death from a heart attack.
Killer bacteria
New studies at the State University
of New York, University of Minnesota, and elsewhere, show that Streptococcus
sanguis causes dangerous abnormalities
in the heart function of laboratory animals. It also produces enzyme
that clumps blood platelets together to form blood clots. Porphyromonos
gingivalis not only encourages the formation of blood clots that may
clog a narrowed lumen, but it also encourages irritation of the lining
of the coronary artery walls, provoking the fatty deposits that narrow
the lumen. These killer bacteria almost certainly will enter the bloodstream
of anyone who has enough bacteria-laden plaque to seriously infect
gum tissue. That's why researchers now that that your risk of heart
attack doubles if you have periodontal disease.
How to Protect Yourself
Statistics show that about 50% of Americans over the age of 13 have
some form of gum disease. In its early state, called "gingivitis," the
gums are inflamed; they bleed easily, and start to pull away from teeth.
Treatment and proper brushing can reverse gingivitis with no serious
damage. If not reversed, the condition worsens into periodontal disease.
About 45% of those over age 60 suffer from some stage of periodontal
disease.
How come?
American spent 1.5 billion dollars on toothpaste last year. Antibiotic
ingredients in many toothpastes kill some bacteria, which helps retard
plaque formation. Despite what their ads try to suggest, even the very
best toothpastes do not prevent all plaque from forming. Once it builds
up, toothpastes do virtually nothing to remove it. Even when plaque
is soft, as it first forms, you can remove it by brushing in readily
accessible areas. Since interproximal spaces between your teeth cannot
be reached by a toothbrush or toothpaste alone (as ads make you believe)
the plaque remains. This is where gum disease usually begins.
Remember that once plaque hardens into tartar, no amount of brushing removes it. Your dentist or hygienist must chip it off with metal curettes. That is what "cleaning" in a dental office normally means.
Then why not just visit your dentist periodically for cleaning? Because periodontal disease can get too firm a hold between even relatively frequent cleanings.
Numberless studies prove - as an article in the
professional journal, Dentistry Today, put it - "periodontal disease
management requires the necessity of thorough daily plaque control."
But how can you control plaque when, as we said, "even if you
brush correctly...brushing alone cannot eliminate plaque everywhere
in your mouth"?
The two danger spots
Plaque forms below the gum line in a pocket called "sulcus," which
extends from the top of your gums down to where the gum begins to adhere
to the tooth. A health sulcus ranges between 2 and 3 millimeters in
depth. Brushing "correctly" means inserting bristles into
the sulcus to remove plaque. Chances are, no one has ever explained
that to you. But even if your dentist or hygienist has explained it,
doing it is not easy. This means you probably do not remove all sulcular
plaque before it hardens into un-brushable, gum-infecting tartar. As
plaque builds, the pocket deepens, making plaque removal even less
likely with a toothbrush, which in turn means more plaque, which deepens
the pock more - and so on. A sulcus 5-12 millimeters deep signals full-blown
periodontal disease and the onset of bone loss.
And that is not the worst problem!
Plaque-forming bacteria reach every surface of every tooth in your mouth - including the surfaces in the spaces between your teeth, called "interproximal" areas.
Removing sulcular plaque is difficult. Removing all interproximal plaque is flat-out impossible with a toothbrush - again despite what the ads try to make you believe. That is true no matter how hard, how faithfully, and how often you brush. Even if you consciously attempt to insert toothbrush bristles between your teeth, they touch place at the wrong angle, merely sliding along it, lengthwise. They cannot brush or scrape it away. When you visit your dentist for cleaning, most of the time is spent chipping tartar from these interproximal surfaces.
Enter the misunderstood hero...
If you floss, you probably imagine the purpose is to remove particles of food. Less than 10% of us floss regularly and effectively - and some authorities peg that as low as 2%. The rest consider flossing superfluous, something "good little boys and girls" do that really is not necessary, given conscientious brushing. Using dental floss properly and effectively requires a dexterity many lack.
In fact, some forms of flossing are the only way you can remove interproximal plaque while it is still soft enough to remove, and before it causes trouble.
But even if used often and correctly, dental floss cannot do the job as periodontal disease begins to become more severe and advancing bone loss and gum recession occurs. This results in concave root surfaces and minute crevasses, which trap the plaque. The regular use of floss will never reach and remove plaque in these areas.
… And the Superhero…
You can get much better results using an INTERPROXIMAL BRUSH, which
is dramatically easier to use and markedly more effective. The Butler
and Oral B interproximal brushes feature small bristles like a tiny
bottle brush. You can force the wire between tightly spaced teeth and
maneuver the brush in and out. These bristles are positioned to brush
away plaque regardless of tooth surface and architecture, reaching
even into crevasses and concave areas. The wires are coated to reduce
change of galvanic shock, however they end in a fairly sharp point,
which can cause tissue punching.
And something even better: A word from
The Sponsor
AIT Dental makes a technologically advanced product called Proxi-Tip™,
a new and unique kind of interproximal brush that does an even better
job. At last, here's something that takes all the struggle out of
flossing. Instead of bristles on a wire, Proxi-Tip™ has a unique
conical head
made with flexible plastic flanges that act like many tiny squeegees,
scraping along any tooth surface, regardless of architecture. You
can see how the tiny, flexible squeegees are even better at scraping
off
interproximal plaque than bristles. At the same time, the soft plastic
is safe for stimulating gums without fear of puncturing them as the
tip of a wire might do. You can even use it to clean the sulcus.
For best results, give Proxi-Tip™ a try! You will see immediate
results
and it requires very little dexterity. Anyone can use it!
AIT Dental also makes a product called Proxi-Floss™, a fiber free floss that performs where regular floss does not. With flanges similar to Proxi-Tip™, Proxi-Floss™ can clean those hard to reach interproximal spaces that can threaten your health. Proxi-Floss™ is best suited for individuals with dental implants, bridges, and large interproximal spaces.
So order a Proxi-Tip™ or Proxi-Floss™ - call 800.762.1765 or visit our online catalog here and reduce your chances of developing periodontal disease and prevent predisposing yourself to heart disease.
800.762.1765