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

Implant Supported Dentures

An implant-supported denture is a type of "overdenture" that is supported by and attached to implants. A regular denture rests on the gums, and is not supported by implants.

An implant-supported denture is used when a person doesn't have any teeth in the jaw, but has enough bone in the jaw to support implants. An implant-supported denture has special attachments that snap onto attachments on the implants.

Implant-supported dentures usually are made for the lower jaw because regular dentures tend to be less stable there. Usually, a regular denture made to fit an upper jaw is quite stable on its own and doesn't need the extra support offered by implants. However, you can receive an implant-supported denture in either the upper or lower jaw.

You should remove an implant-supported denture daily to clean the denture and gum area. Just as with regular dentures, you should not sleep with the implant-supported dentures at night. Some people prefer to have fixed (permanent) crown and bridgework in their mouths that can't be removed. Your dentist will consider your particular needs and preferences when suggesting fixed or removable options.

How Does It Work?

There are two types of implant-supported dentures: bar-retained and ball-retained. In both cases, the denture will be made of an acrylic base that will look like gums.  Porcelain or acrylic teeth that look like natural teeth are attached to the base. Both types of dentures need at least two implants for support.

• Bar-retained dentures — A thin metal bar that follows the curve of your jaw is attached to two to five implants that have been placed in your jawbone. Clips or other types of attachments are fitted to the bar, the denture or both. The denture fits over the bar and is securely clipped into place by the attachments. 

• Ball-retained dentures (stud-attachment dentures) — Each implant in the jawbone holds a metal attachment that fits into another attachment on the denture. In most cases, the attachments on the implants are ball-shaped ("male" attachments), and they fit into sockets ("female" attachments) on the denture. In some cases, the denture holds the male attachments and the implants hold the female ones.

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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.*

Tooth Decay: The Primary Cause of a Toothache

Tooth decay is the primary cause of toothaches for most children and adults. Bacteria that live in your mouth thrive on the sugars and starches in the food you eat. These bacteria form a sticky plaque that clings to the surface of your teeth.

Acids produced by the bacteria in plaque can eat through the hard, white coating on the outside of your teeth (enamel), creating a cavity. The first sign of decay may be a sensation of pain when you eat something sweet, very cold or very hot. A toothache often indicates that your dentist will need to work on your teeth.

Self-care tips
Until you can see your dentist, try these self-care tips for a toothache:

• Rinse your mouth with warm water.
• Use dental floss to remove any food particles wedged between your teeth.
• Take an over-the-counter (OTC) pain reliever to dull the ache.
• Apply an OTC antiseptic containing benzocaine directly to the irritated tooth and gum to temporarily relieve pain. Benzocaine has been linked to a rare but serious, sometimes deadly, condition (methemoglobinemia) that decreases the amount of oxygen that the blood can carry. Don't use benzocaine in children younger than age 2 without supervision from a health care professional, because this age group has been the most affected. Never use more than the recommended dose of benzocaine. Direct application of oil of cloves (eugenol) also may help. Don't place aspirin or another painkiller directly against your gums, as it may burn your gum tissue.

Call your dentist

• When you have signs of infection, such as swelling, pain when you bite, red gums or a foul-tasting discharge
• If the pain persists for more than a day or two
• When you have fever with the toothache

mayoclinic.com

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.

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(480) 451-5435