Did you know that gum disease is contagious? It's true. The bacteria can be tranferred in saliva. So if you are planning on kissing your Valentine, you could be giving more than love.
If you share utensils, drinking glasses, or if you have a cough, if you sneeze or like to kiss, you can transfer gum disease to other family members including children. How can you avoid this?
- Have your entire family evaluated for gum disease
- Follow through with periodontal treatment
- Follow up with your recare visits recommended by your hygienist. Sometimes more frequent recare is recommended because the bacteria can repopulate within 30 days.
- Make sure your hygienist is checking your gum health at each visit.
Did you know that 75% of tooth loss is from gum disease? It's true. Gum disease can also cause or complicate the following illnesses:
- Diabetes
- Stroke
- Heart Disease
- Osteoporosis
- Pneumonia
- Pre-term births
- Reduces effectiveness of medications
Give the greatest gift this holiday: the gift of health. Arrange for your family visit your dentist this month.
Dear Flossie Posse,
I have good news. We are changing the blog format. See, what happened was that the Internet Marketing Company told us that the blog should be totally informational. They said we can't really talk about our office and what's going on around here because that would mean we were being "self promotional." Blogs are supposed to be "informational." But then, Dr. Johnson was watching the movie, Julie and Julia with his wife and he thought that Julie's blog was much more fun and interesting than ours. Ours was pretty boring to write and therefore would have been EXTREMELY difficult to read were it not for the impeccable writing skills. Getting the other team members to help me come up with topics was like pulling teeth. (C'mon, corny is the new clever.) I had to agree with Dr. Johnson because all of the hours I worked on writing that blog, I dozed off a few times and whacked my head on my computer keyboard, leaving an imprint of the keys T, Y, G and H on my forehead. So he gave me permission to write something that people might actually like to read.
So, I am asking for some dentistry topics from our WAY smarter and funnier than average readers. It can be anything from how your smile changed your life to stories that start out with, "You know what is so gross..." Believe it or not, we have a few of those and we look forward to sharing them with you in the future. Don't worry, you'll get the same great content, but maybe not so tightly wrapped.
Ciao!
Kristine
PS Thanks for sticking with us during our uncharacteristically "boring phase" which I will now refer to as The Dark Ages. Don't ever let an Internet Marketing Company tell you how to write. Have you ever read their blogs? YAWN.
Patrick Swayze was a long time smoker and still had not kicked the habit in January 2009, just nine months before his death. Many people know and understand that smoking increases the risk of gum disease, but what most people do not know is that gum disease increases the risk for pancreatic cancer, as well.
Pancreatic cancer is slightly more common in men than in women. The risk increases with age, obesity and smoking.
Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly cancers. In more than 80% of patients, at the time of diagnosis, the tumor has already spread and cannot be completely removed
Chemotherapy and radiation are often given
after surgery to increase the cure rate. For pancreatic cancer that
cannot be removed completely with surgery, or cancer that has spread
beyond the pancreas, a cure is not possible and the average survival is
usually less than 1 year.
This cancer has a 5-year survival rate of less than
5%, meaning 95% of the people diagnosed with it will not be alive 5
years later.
How can good dental hygiene impact your risk for pancreatic cancer? By treating the mouth, you are taking positive steps toward preventing systemic diseases. Though pancreatic cancer does not exclusively affect smokers, smoking increases the risks of other diseases as well. Regular hygiene appointments, like those we recommend at Johnson Dental, will help prevent the infections that smokers are more susceptible to. In addition, your hygienist should be performing regular oral cancer screenings. If you are not getting screened for oral cancer at each dental visit, request a screening. Visual inspection is still the most efficient and cost effective detection method for oral cancer. Early detection increases survival rates and decreases the invasiveness of treatment necessary.
Did you know that maintaining healthy gums boosts your immune system by removing the biofilm that forms in the mouth? Biofilm is made up of micro organisms that sticks to a surface or to each other. In the mouth, this biofilm causes gum disease which is recognized by the presence of blood or pus. Untreated gum disease wears down the immune system by creating systemic and ongoing infections in the mouth.
Recognizing and treating gum disease through regular dental hygiene visits and check ups can not only minimize or even eliminate infections, but also boost your immune system by removing harmful bacteria.
Dentistry has an important obligation that has received more
and more media coverage over the last five years. Did you know that more than 80% of adults
suffer from some form of gum disease? Eighty percent is an overwhelming
number. Did you know that gum disease
has now been linked to dozens of diseases and conditions including: low birth weight babies, heart
disease, pneumonia, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, even wrinkly skin
and erectile dysfunction? It seems more
and more systemic illnesses are being connected to gum disease.
Does your dentist take your measurements? Not your body measurements, but the depth of the pocketing in your gums? If you hear numbers at the dentist like "Two, two, one, two, three" then your dentist is measuring the health of your gums. If you have bleeding points or if you hear any numbers greater than three, you should have more frequent cleanings and check ups because that means an active infection exists in your mouth.
Are you thinking, "What does that have to do with my heart?"
A large portion of the population still believes that it is normal for gums to bleed. It is not. Gum disease spreads via the blood stream or inhalation into the lungs and spreads throughout the body causing the systemic diseases, or at the very least, aggravating existing ones.
The fact is, gum disease causes a shorter life expectancy. If your dentist or hygienist is not measuring your gum health, then request that it be done. If they don't do it, find a new dentist. If you have an active infection with measurements over three or bleeding, you should be at the dentist more frequently. Your life depends on it.