Ever notice a bit of blood on your toothbrush? The last time you flossed (probably when Moses was a boy), did your gums bleed, causing you to think you were doing it wrong? Do you frequently go at least three days without flossing? If the answer is yes to any, or all, of the above questions, then you have (play menacing music) . . . gum disease.
Now, if you’re like most people, you’re probably in denial. You think everyone’s gums bleed and it’s no big deal. And for some people it never will be a big deal. The problem is, by the time you notice there’s something wrong it’s too late to fix it easily. Imagine if any other part of your body bled when you touched it. Obviously, you’d be thinking something was wrong. And you’d be right. So what is gum disease? I’m glad you asked. That film that accumulates on your teeth if you don’t brush for a while is called plaque. It contains the bugs (bacteria) that cause gum disease. If the bugs get left close to the gum for two-to-three days then the toxins they produce seep into the gums and cause infection. That’s when the gums start to bleed. But it gets worse.
Say the plaque gets left there for an extended period of time. After a while it gets hard and forms ledges of stuff called calculus or tartar. Then more plaque accumulates. As hard as you try, you’ll never get rid of it all. Now the infection has really taken hold. But it gets even worse.
The colonies of bacteria that build up between the teeth and gums burrow down to feast on their favorite food—your jawbone. When this happens, the bone around the tooth is slowly dissolved by the infection until there is no bone left to hold the tooth. It then becomes loose and falls out, or it has to be pulled out. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Don’t worry though. This only happens in 47 percent of people over 30. OK, so I’m a little worried that I might have gum disease. It’s not like it can kill me, right? We used to think that. It seems, however, that the peskier the bacteria are the more likely they are to cross through the bleeding gums and into the bloodstream. Now they can set up shop anywhere in the body, causing even more inflammation.
We have known for a few years about the positive link between gum disease and artery disease. That means that if you have gum disease you are more likely to have a heart attack or a stroke. Even more recent research is linking gum disease to Alzheimer’s and cancer of the head and neck as well. That’s not so good.
