Fortunately, keeping your gums and teeth healthy requires relatively low-tech means: Daily brushing and flossing plus regular trips to your dentist for cleanings and checkups. Now we know that maintaining good oral hygiene could help prevent more serious conditions. This should be a great incentive for both young and old.

• Ventilators, an infectious pathway~

When hospitalized patients are connected to a ventilator, their risk of pneumonia can increase 20 times. This is a leading killer among hospital acquired infections. Oral bacteria in dental plaque can travel down the ventilator tube and into the lungs and begin to grow. Healthier gums and teeth will reduce this risk.

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Dr. Steven Offenbacher, director for Oral and Systemic Diseases at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says, “When oral bacteria in the mother’s blood reaches the placenta and then reaches the fetus, it triggers an immune and inflammatory response, stressing the unborn child. Infections may account for up to 50 percent of premature births.” In the United States one in 10 babies are born too early, nearly double the rate in other industrialized countries. There are many risk factors, which include race, smoking, alcohol and drug use, etc., and more than 255 of complicated pregnancies occur for no know reason. However, it is known that the chemicals and hormones that mediate the inflammatory response can also dilate the cervix and trigger uterine contractions.

Heart health and inflammation:

 Researchers believe that there is a link between heart disease and gum disease due to bacterial pathogens or inflammatory chemicals carried by the blood from the mouth to the heart. One study of 10,000 Americans between ages of 18 and 74 found that people with gum disease were much more likely to by diagnose with heart disease than those without gum disease. Doctors know that the inflammation that causes gum disease is the same that narrows coronary arteries. Everyone should be conscientious about treating gum disease, but it is not yet clear that doing so will protect you from heart disease.

Gum disease, obesity, and diabetes are linked:

Two decades of biomedical research has shown that the three are linked. It is believed that obesity intensifies infections, including gum disease. Fat cells release elevated levels of cytokines into the bloodstream. It is now known that elevated levels of cytokines accelerate gum disease. Once a diabetic patient has gum disease, their sugar control worsens and they suffer further complications, including nerve damage and kidney disease.

At St. Louis Hills Dental Group, if we can help with further information on these or other topics please call us at 314-644-0440 or leave us a message on this website.