MEN AND MIRROR: DENTAL DRIFT

posted by admin in Women's Health

Next time you shave, take a close look at your teeth in the mirror. If you are like most Australian men and are over thirty-five you may well see signs of periodontal disease. In the early stages, this disease is painless and you won’t even know you have it. If it progresses, however, it can give you bad breath, make your gums recede and cause your teeth to drift, loosen and, at worst, fall out.

In the mirror you should see firm, pink gums that are stippled (like orange peel) rather than smooth and shiny. If they are puffy or red in places or if they bleed on brushing, flossing or on biting into an apple, you know you have gum problems: either gingivitis (inflamed gums) or periodontitis, the later stage of periodontal disease.

In Australia today, four times as many teeth are lost through periodontal disease as through decay. Dentists say that men are less dentally aware than women and less assiduous about cleaning their teeth.

One of the problems of this disease is that it is caused by something you cannot easily see – plaque. This is a sticky, colourless film of living bacteria that forms on the teeth and contains bits of food debris and saliva. Plaque bacteria produce toxins which inflame the gums and travel down between the tooth and gum. The inflammation destroys the bone and tissues that anchor the tooth.

If the mirror shows you yellowish brown deposits between or around the base of some teeth, you are seeing old calcified plaque that has been allowed to accumulate in stagnant areas of the mouth and has grown hard.

Treatment can be simple for the gingivitis stage of the disease. First, your condition must be professionally assessed and your teeth cleaned. This involves removing all plaque and hard deposits from your teeth above and below the gum line.

Second, you must learn to keep your mouth clean yourself. It’s recommended that you brush twice daily. As toothpaste can be abrasive, a dab no bigger than a pea should be used. Floss, wooden sticks or specially designed interdental brushes should be used daily to clean between teeth, and a mouthwash containing chlorhcxidine or triclosan may also be used.

When friends tell you your breath smells and you see gaps appearing between teeth, your gums are receding and your teeth feel wobbly, you know you have periodontitis. This means the infection has spread beyond the gums into the bone and caused it to recede away from the tooth.

Don’t panic. It is not inevitable that you will lose teeth. New techniques can now save teeth previously regarded as doomed. One new technique, guided tissue regeneration, uses a special membrane to encourage new tissue to replace that lost by disease. Surgery is not always necessary – periodontitis can be treated with a thorough cleaning of the tooth and its roots, and sometimes with antibiotics.

Resistance to periodontal disease varies between people but is mostly preventable with correct daily brushing and flossing and a balanced diet. But you should remember that brushing alone cleans only about 60 per cent of each tooth. Regular check-ups are essential to ensure sound periodontal health, too.

You don’t have to brush and floss all your teeth, only the ones you want to keep.

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