Peridontal Disease - Control/Prevent

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Mary, My replies are interspersed within your message:

=====================================

, " Mary "

<mhysmith@e...> wrote:

> Tom,

>

> I liked your site. I wanted to make a few comments though. I

used baking

> soda and salt for many years, as well as the water irrigation.

All were

> suggested by a dentist back when my problems starting getting

serious. They

> helped but did not cure. In the problems with my teeth and

peridontal

> disease, I also started losing the enamel on my teeth a few years

ago. My

> dentist can't figure it out - says she has one other patient she

has that

> this has also happened to. I've found nothing on it to explain it

and

> suspect the salt and soda as possibly being too abrasive over too

long a

> period of time. I could be wrong but I no longer use them to

brush for this

> reason.

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Baking Soda is highly soluable in liquid (water, saliva) and is not

abrasive. Table salt is only slightly less soluable. Toothpastes,

however, contain silica for the purpose of abrasion and I would

consider them more abrasive than either baking soda or table salt.

On the tooth surface there is a constant demineralization and

remineralization taking place. For REmineralization to take place

(regaining enamel) there are six conditions which need to be present

to allow this ionization transfer. This is covered in an article at

our site: http://mizar5.com/demin.htm . Is it possible that you are

not meeting one or more of these conditions?

=========================================

> I have battled serious problems with peridontal disease for 15

years now.

> Peridontal disease also runs in my family as it does in the other

Mary's.

> My father lost a lot of teeth to it and not from lack of neglect or

> cleanliness. There is no way anyone will convince me that it is

simply a

> matter of good cleaning hygiene though I agree that is very

important. I

> believed it was only about hygiene until just recently. I

actually never

> had a cavity until I was in my twenties. At the time of my first

peridontal

> surgery, I don't think I had a total of 5 fillings in my mouth.

Very likely

> cleanliness was the reason for that but it didn't prevent the

peridontal

> problems. Microbes are there in everyones bodies, especially

mouths. You

> don't have to kiss, just open up and in they will come. What you

are

> implying is that peridontal disease is contagious - I don't think

you really

> mean to say that.

============================================

I absolutely mean to say that! You are not born with srep mutans or

p. gingivitis floating around in your mouth. They don't float

around in the air waiting for you (they are anaerobic, remember),

rather are passed from person to person. This is not NEWS to

periodontology. Monitor the dental hygienist or periodontal groups

right here at if you need some witnesses...

============================================

In those with peridontal disease, there is greater growth

> of particular bacteria. Smokers for example have higher rates of

it. There

> has to be something systemically that feeds the growth of this

particular

> bacteria and certainly, our immune system is there to fight such

growth so

> you need to consider it as a factor.

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I certainly consider the auto-immune system as a facter in fighting

this disease and a serious one at that. The AIS may have a big role

in how an individual is is affected by these microbes and smoking

could hinder that, along with a host of other things a person does

to or does not do for the body. Many drugs create an effect of

drying the mouth or hindering the flow of saliva, for example. This

is PERFECT for a lot of these microbes! Remember amphetamines back

in the 60's and 70's? They were notorious for drying the mouth.

Ever hear of 'cotton-mouth'? I'll tell you what, if you aren't old

enough to remember, just keep you eye out these days as they are

busting meth-labs left and right anymore... MANY prescription

medicines have the same effect!

============================================

We tend to think of sugar and teeth

> as the sugar getting on the teeth and causing decay because it

sits there on

> them. So just brush it off - keep them clean? No there is more

to it.

> Sugar actually does quite a bit more to the body's physiological

> functioning, and affects the immune system. It can cause higher

blood sugar

> levels and free radicals. What does this bacteria particularly

like to

> grow? It is there in the tissue - what does it get from the

tissues that it

> likes so much? What is in some's tissues and not others?

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The sugars alone do not cause decay. The microbes doing the damage

feed on the sugars and excrete acids. Acids cause the decay! Not

the sugars. What I'm trying to say is that we need to cut off the

supply - the source of nutrition to the microbe. As we get older,

certain starchy foods also convert to the complex sugars that the

microbes thrive on. I do not believe you are wrong in that certain

enzymes may be extracted from the tissues in SOME cases, but the

culprit is the microbe, excreting acids and causing decay.

=============================================

If you put

> diabetes and peridontal disease both into a search engine, you'll

find

> plenty to show correlation of the two problems occurring together.

Wounds

> actually don't heal well in diabetics - clean or not. Diabetes is

by the

> way, about sugar. I really don't think associating sugar and

peridontal

> disease is bullshit.

>

> Mary

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I did not say that associating sugar and periodontal disease is BS.

I meant that the 'party line': " brush twice a day, see your dentist

twice a year and avoid sugar " is BS. That is the propaganda we were

always taught. The key is proper cleaning of the surface of the

tooth, under the gumline and in the case of deeper pockets cleaning

with an oral irrigator, because you cannot reach down more than a

millimeter or two with the brush and floss.

 

Tom