The Psychological Issues of Poor Dental Care

Having bad teeth can bring with it a lot of psychological issues, such as insecurities and lack of self esteem. Can repairing your teeth improve your mental health as well? The answer seems to be a resounding “yes.”

Your Mouth and Your Body

For years, medical professionals have warned that poor dental health can affect your overall physical health. They have established links between poorly-maintained teeth and heart problems, as bacteria from your mouth can slip into your bloodstream. They have also uncovered links between gum disease and pregnancy complications, like premature birth. Immune system disorders are another common concern for people with oral health problems.

Researchers have even started to explore how poor dental health can affect the brain. The Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York discovered that there may be a link between bad teeth and cognition ailments. In their study, elderly people who suffered from gum disease performed worse on memory tests than those without gum trouble. That same group also struggled more than the rest with subtraction tests.

Your Mouth and Your Mind

Beyond physical problems, having bad teeth can cause psychological issues. After all, your mouth is usually a point of focus when socializing, whether you are talking, flashing a smile, or twisting a scowl. Given the mouth’s importance, it makes sense why feeling self-conscious about your teeth can be especially damaging. Here are some ways bad teeth can trigger psychological issues.

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• Anxiety, Especially when Socializing:

If you’re self conscious about one of your most important communication tools, it can ravage your ability to socialize comfortably. People who think they have bad teeth may want to avoid doing anything to expose them, which can start an unhealthy cycle of self-monitoring and criticism. It impedes a person’s ability to speak clearly, and it eliminates one of the most effective nonverbal ways to strike up rapport: cracking a genuine smile.

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• Low Self-Esteem:

Confidence stems from feeling good about yourself. If you are always worried about your teeth, it is difficult to feel confident, and that can seriously strip away at your self esteem. Having bad teeth can also trigger self esteem issues that extend beyond how others think; in some cases, people begin to feel guilty about the state of their teeth, engaging in a lot of self criticism about their ineffective oral hygiene habits, which can exacerbate issues about self image.

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• Depression:

Anxiety, poor social experiences, low self esteem, and guilt are a recipe for depression. Not only can they all contribute to isolation, which comes with its own share of problems, but they establish a psychological state that is both self-loathing and reluctant to engage with the world. While not everyone will experience all those symptoms, those who do could sink into deep depression unless they get help.

Studies from different countries in Europe suggest that poor dental care and psychological issues can develop into a vicious cycle. Those with high self esteem tend to take better care of their teeth, and the resulting bright smiles contribute right back to the high self esteem they hold. On the other hand, people with low self esteem tend to brush less often, and then the poor state of their teeth can make them feel even worse.

That means it is important to get serious about dental care. Not only does commitment to oral hygiene contribute to better physical health, it seems to significantly influence mental health, too.

publichealthbugle.com

Tooth Anatomy

What Are the Different Parts of a Tooth?

Crown— The top part of the tooth, and the only part you can normally see. The shape of the crown determines the tooth's function. For example, front teeth are sharp and chisel-shaped for cutting, while molars have flat surfaces for grinding.

Gumline— Where the tooth and the gums meet. Without proper brushing and flossing, plaque and tartar can build up at the gumline, leading to gingivitis and gum disease.

Root— The part of the tooth that is embedded in bone. The root makes up about two-thirds of the tooth and holds the tooth in place.

Enamel— The outermost layer of the tooth. Enamel is the hardest, most mineralized tissue in the body — yet it can be damaged by decay if teeth are not cared for properly.

Dentin— The layer of the tooth under the enamel. If decay is able to progress its way through the enamel, it next attacks the dentin — where millions of tiny tubes lead directly to the dental pulp.

Pulp— The soft tissue found in the center of all teeth, where the nerve tissue and blood vessels are. If tooth decay reaches the pulp, you usually feel pain.

What Are the Different Types of Teeth?

Every tooth has a specific job or function (use the dental arch in this section to locate and identify each type of tooth):

Incisors— The sharp, chisel-shaped front teeth (four upper, four lower) used for cutting food.

Canines— Sometimes called cuspids, these teeth are shaped like points (cusps) and are used for tearing food.

Premolars— These teeth have two pointed cusps on their biting surface and are sometimes referred to as bicuspids. The premolars are for crushing and tearing.

Molars— Used for grinding, these teeth have several cusps on the biting surface.

Arthritis Sufferers May Find Some Relief in Periodontal Therapy

It may seem strange how some diseases are linked, but as more and more research is done, we find those links do exist. Take rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disease. 
Symptoms include pain, swollen joints and stiffness. Several studies examining the relationship between rheumatoid arthritis and periodontal disease have been made in the past ten years. Perhaps the strongest statement made by any of the studies was from Australia and reported in the Journal of Periodontology, "The results of this study provide further evidence of a significant association between periodontitis and rheumatoid arthritis." The researchers measured for periodontitis using probing depths, attachment loss, bleeding scores, plaque scores, and radiographic bone loss scores. Their measurements for rheumatoid arthritis included tender joint analysis, swollen joint analysis, and pain index, physician's global assessment on a visual analogue scale, health assessment questionnaire, levels of C - reactive protein (CRP), and erythrocyte sedimentation rate.

In both diseases, the inflammation destroys the soft and hard tissue. The inflammation is caused by the toxins from bacterial infection. Even historically, some treatments for arthritis were to pull teeth or give antibiotics to the patient to relieve their arthritic pain. Once the inflammation from their teeth was controlled, the patients got better. More recently, two studies in 2012 found that the fewer the teeth and individual had, the more severe the arthritis. Out of a normal 32 teeth, those with fewer than 20 teeth were eight times more likely to have swollen joints.

As with periodontal disease and other systemic diseases, rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic inflammatory disease. Chronic infection shows up in the blood by increased levels of CRP. One inflammatory disease that produces high levels of CRP exacerbates the other. And this is also true with arthritis. And those with rheumatoid arthritis tend to have more periodontal disease. Treating the periodontal disease often gives relief to the arthritis. And treating the arthritis with antibiotics often improves the gum disease. More studies are being conducted to ascertain more quantitative data on the association between the two diseases. The once thought of as myth, is slowly being proven as fact, that periodontal disease impacts total health.

The issue is more complex than just stating that arthritis causes periodontal disease or that periodontal disease causes arthritis. However, it is evident that there is a link. And more importantly, providing the best oral care possible and getting periodontal therapy if you have the disease, will also positively impact your arthritis and potentially reduce your pain.

Dr. Piero, a Holland, MI dentist for over thirty years, is the inventor of Dental Air Force® (http://www.dentalairforce.com). Articles published are on periodontal health related to heart disease, respiratory health, diabetes, strokes, and other systemic diseases. He is the Executive Editor for Journal of Experimental Dental Science, a contributing author to Hospital Infection Control: Clinical Guidelines and soon-to-be published book, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is.

1888pressrelease.com

Chewing Gum Improves Concentration

Chewing a piece of sugarless gum after lunch can not only help you protect your dental health, but also help focus to avoid that afternoon slump in productivity, according to researchers at Cardiff University in Wales.

 

The study, published in the British Journal of Psychology, evaluated the concentration of 38 participants who were given a short-term audio memory test.  Half the participants were instructed to chew gum during the 30-minute test. All of them listened to a list of numbers from 1-9 being read in random order and were scored on how accurately and quickly they were able to detect a sequence of odd-even-odd numbers. Participants also completed questionnaires on their mood before and after the test.  Researchers found that participants who chewed gum had quicker reaction times and more accurate results, especially during the later part of the test.  “It’s been well established by previous research that chewing gum can benefit some areas of cognition,” said Kate Morgan, the study’s lead author.” In our study we focused on an audio task that involved short-term memory recall to see if chewing gum would improve concentration; especially in the latter stages of the task.Interestingly, participants who didn’t chew gum performed slightly better at the beginning of the task but were overtaken by the end. This suggests that chewing gum helps us focus on tasks that require continuous monitoring over a longer amount of time.”

 

According to MouthHealthy.org, the ADA’s consumer website,clinical studies have shown that chewing sugarless gum for 20 minutes following meals can help prevent tooth decay.

Chewing sugarless gum increases the flow of saliva, which washes away food and other debris, neutralizes acids produced by bacteria in the mouth and provides disease-fighting substances throughout the mouth. Increased saliva flow also carries with it more calcium and phosphate to help strengthen tooth enamel.

 

Only sugarless gums have the ADA Seal, and are sweetened by non-cavity causing sweeteners such as aspartame, xylitol, sorbitol or mannitol. Of course, chewing sugar-containing gum increases saliva flow too, but it also contains sugar, which is used by plaque bacteria to produce decay-causing acids. Further research needs to be done to determine the effects of chewing sugar-containing gum on tooth decay.

 

Don’t let chewing sugarless gum replace brushing and flossing. It’s not a substitute. The ADA still recommends brushing twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and cleaning plaque from between your teeth once a day with dental floss or other interdental cleaners.

Look for chewing gum that carries the ADA Seal. The ADA Seal is your assurance that the sugar-free chewing gum has met the ADA criteria for safety and effectiveness. You can trust that claims made on packaging and labeling for ADA-accepted products are true, because companies must verify all of the information to the ADA.

 

*Visit MouthHealthy.org to see and compare a list of sugar-free chewing gums that have the ADA Seal.*

Humans May Evolve To Grow An Endless Supply Of Teeth

 

In the future, you--like the pufferfish--could have so many teeth that you'll wear necklaces made out of your spares. It'll be weird.

Friendly Pufferfish Wikimedia Commons

The pufferfish is a very curious animal for lots of reasons; it swallows air or water to make itself larger and more threatening, it combines its combining pectoral, dorsal, anal, and caudal fins into one set of fins (like a seahorse), and it is often super poisonous. But Dr. Gareth Fraser of Sheffield University is focused on the puffer for a different reason: its teeth.

The puffer, like lots of bony fish (meaning, not cartilaginous), constantly regrows its teeth. The puffer doesn't have delineated teeth like most other fish, though; instead, after its first set of teeth have fallen out (like human baby teeth), it grows a solid structure that looks like a beak. This beak is made of horizontally growing layers of dentite, the usual tooth material for fish, but appears as a single band.

Fraser managed to map the specific cells responsible for the constant regrowing of teeth in the puffer. That's of great interest to us, because humans, unlike lots of other animals, only grow two sets of teeth. Your baby teeth fall out, then you grow your adult teeth, and then...that's it. That's all you get. And that's less than ideal, as most any professional hockey player can tell you (through gaps in their teeth).

Interestingly, Dr. Fraser thinks humans may evolve, in millions of years, the ability to regrow teeth past that second set. "With our extended lives and modern diets, the limited supply of human teeth is really no longer fit for purpose," he said. By figuring out exactly how fish regrow teeth, he may be able to accelerate that process of evolution.

So play hockey without fear! A fix for your broken grill may be in the works.

By: Dan Nosowitz
July 12, 2013

Dr. James B. Miller - Offering LANAP (Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure) for the Treatment of Periodontal Disease.

If you're like 100 million other Americans, you could be one of 50% of Americans who have periodontal disease, the major cause of tooth loss in adults. Periodontal disease starts off as plaque, an opaque film which eventually hardens, forming tartar or calculus.

Calculus deposits harbor bacteria which infect the gums. In early stages, this is called Gingivitis, characterized by red, swollen gums that bleed when you brush your teeth. Many people experience bad breath and an unpleasant taste in their mouths as well. Unchecked, Gingivitis progresses to Periodontitis, a much more serious form of the disease where periodontal pockets are formed, separating teeth from the gums and supporting bone structure. Without treatment, infection becomes severe and the pockets deepen, resulting in tooth loss.

The way to repair the damage is to get rid of the infection and close up the pockets. Until now, that meant surgery and sutures. But today, many dentists offer the LANAP® Protocol, a patient-friendly, minimally-invasive procedure that's a great improvement over standard gum surgery. 

WHY IS THE LANAP® PROCEDURE better for the treatment of gum disease?

• The LANAP® Procedure is about as easy as erasing a blackboard — there's no cutting and no suturing.
  
• There's much less discomfort with the LANAP® Protocol than with standard surgery -- during and after the procedure.
  
• It takes less time than traditional surgery. All it takes is two 2-hour visits to the dentist and two follow up visits. Traditional surgery requires four sessions of about one hour each, with subsequent visits for suture removal and additional check-ups.
• LANAP® gives better, longer-lasting results. In fact, 98% of LANAP® treated patients remain stable after five years.
• Your dentist will probably recommend a soft diet for a day or two, and common sense should prevail, but in most cases, patients feel good enough to eat anything they want right after the procedure.
• Following traditional surgery, recovery can take between to 2-4 weeks during which patients can experience considerable pain and swelling, where they may be restricted to liquid or soft diets.
• There's less than 24 hour recovery period, so you won't lose time from work.
  
• The LANAP® Procedure is safe for patients with health concerns such as diabetes, HIV, hemophilia, or those taking medications such as Plavix or aspirin.  lanap.com

For more information or to schedule a consultation to find out if you are a candidate for LANAP, contact our office at (480) 451-5435.

CAN CHILDREN BE AT RISK FOR DEVELOPING PERIODONTAL DISEASE?

 Periodontal disease is rarely found in children, and only sometimes found in adolescents. However, children should still learn the importance of keeping their teeth and gums healthy to prevent periodontal disease in the future. Children should brush their teeth twice a day and learn how to floss properly- if children learn how to floss at an early age, they will be more likely to make it a lifetime habit. These two simple acts will help protect their teeth and gums from periodontal disease.

 As a parent, you should also be aware of the warning signs of periodontal disease, which include red, swollen, bleeding gums or bad breath that won’t go away. If your child develops any of these symptoms, tell your dental professional right away. It’s also a good idea to ensure your dental professional knows your complete family history, as genetics can play an important role in the early development of periodontal disease. 

 perio.org