5 Questions Dental Patients Frequently Ask

Alvin H. Danenberg, DDS     January 30, 2016  

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5 QuestionsI’ve been consulting with patients as far away as Australia, Switzerland, and England. They all seem to have similar questions. They’ve told me that their local dentists either can’t answer their questions or don’t want to answer them.

 

Are some of their questions your own? Here are the five questions most frequently asked:

 

  1. Why do I have gum disease since I brush and floss everyday?
  2. Why hasn’t my dentist been able to give me the answers?
  3. Can my advanced gum disease be treated without surgically cutting my gums?
  4. Are my kids destined to suffer as I have?
  5. Can I spread gum disease to my partner like the germs of a cold?

 

Here are my thoughts:

 

  1. Why do I have gum disease since I brush and floss everyday?

 

Although brushing and flossing are important, there are many other not-so-obvious causes of gum disease:

  • Certain foods we eat affect the bacteria in our gut, which in turn affect the bacteria in our mouth. Processed foods like grains and sugars create an increase in unhealthy bacteria in our gut. When bad bacteria get out of control in our gut, they increase the bad bacteria in our mouth. Bad bacteria that become dominant in our mouth cause bad bacteria to overgrow in the dental plaque around the teeth. When these bacteria predominate, they ferment the refined grains and sugars that we eat to form acids and inflammation. A vicious cycle begins between the foods we eat and the bacteria in our body, which results in advancing tooth decay and gum disease.
  • Many of us don’t eat the foods that are necessary for health. We need necessary nutrients to fuel individual cells, and we need fiber to feed our healthy gut bacteria. When we don’t get the nutrients we need, our immune system suffers. If our immune system suffers, the health of our mouth suffers.
  • Our immune system also is affected by emotional stress. Cases have been reported where individuals under significant emotional stress developed severe inflammation and gum sores without the abundance of unhealthy bacteria.
  • Environmental chemicals that get into our body can disrupt our cell’s ability to function properly. These chemicals can be in the food we eat, the air we breathe, and the water we drink. If cells don’t function properly, chronic inflammation could occur. Chronic inflammation can cause havoc throughout our system including our mouth.

 

  1. Why hasn’t my dentist been able to give me the answers?

In dental school, dentists-to-be learn about the obvious causes of dental disease. They also learn traditional treatments to repair damaged teeth and gums. Unfortunately, they learn very little of the nutritional, environmental, and psychological causes of oral disease. Without this additional knowledge, they may not be able to answer some of your pressing questions.

 

  1. Can my advanced gum disease be treated without surgically cutting my gums?

Today, there are regenerative procedures that can assist the body to heal from advanced gum disease without using scalpels and without using stitches. In my office, I use the PerioLase® laser along with the LANAP® Protocol (Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure). They do not require scalpels or stitches, and they have been shown to kill bacteria causing periodontitis and to stimulate new bone to grow around teeth. HERE. HERE. You can watch this animated video showing the LANAP procedure in action.

 

  1. Are my kids destined to suffer as I have?

Your kids need to be taught good oral hygiene. Also, nutritional and environmental factors need to be controlled to help your children be healthy. You are their example. You, as an adult, set the rules. If you eat healthy foods and promote a healthy lifestyle, then your kids will be positively influenced. You must become educated in what is healthy and what is not. Your children do not have to suffer dental decay or gum disease. Our primal ancestors over the course of 2.5 million years hardly every experienced dental decay or gum disease. Primal societies today rarely have dental disease or chronic disease. Huge factors for health include never eating processed foods and living an active lifestyle without environmental toxic chemicals.

 

  1. Can I spread gum disease to my partner like the germs of a cold?

The bacteria causing gum disease are not airborne like the viruses that cause colds. However, they may be transmitted between partners through intimate kissing. Based on a person’s immune system, these unhealthy bacteria from one partner may or may not affect the other partner.

 

These are a few of the most frequently asked questions I get. If you can think of others that you need answered, drop me an email. I will try to respond in a timely fashion.

 

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What To Do About Your Gum Disease?

evolution rPeriodontitis is an advanced stage of gum disease that destroys the gum as well as the bone supporting the roots of teeth. It is the manifestation of a disease process where specific virulent bacteria are creating inflammation and byproducts that are destructive. These bacteria have gained dominance in the mouth because of various reasons.
 
One reason might be the unhealthy food choices that have affected the unhealthy gut bacteria to become overgrown and to affect the entire body. Another reason might be damage to the gut lining allowing undigested proteins to leak into the bloodstream causing chronic inflammation and autoimmune issues. Still another reason might be that necessary micronutrients that our individual cells require to maintain healthy function are lacking in the foods we eat. While all these might be contributing factors, there still is a virulent strain of bacteria in the mouth creating havoc. What can be done?
 
Technology today has significantly improved the comfort for the patient and the healing results. The LANAP® (Laser Assisted New Attachment Procedure) protocol using the PerioLase® Laser effectively will destroy these harmful bacteria without harming healthy gum, tooth, or bone tissues. It also will assist the jawbone surrounding the teeth to repair and regenerate. There is no cutting with a scalpel and no sutures. Patients generally return to their normal routines the next day. You will find several research articles on LANAP here.
 
For long-term control and prevention, good oral hygiene and healthy food choices are critical. Eliminating the offending foods that started the problem in the first place will go a long way in preventing disease in the future. Eating the foods that can support the health of individual cells is just as important. As I have indicated in previous blogs, our primal ancestors hardly ever had gum disease. In addition, today’s hunter-gatherer societies around the world who have never consumed these modern-day processed foods are relatively free of gum disease as well as the types of chronic diseases plaguing most westernized societies.
 
Research has shown that xylitol, a sugar alcohol derived from the bark of birch trees, not only can help to prevent tooth decay but also may be able to turn off the biochemical processes that allow this virulent bacteria to cause destruction of the gum and bone tissues around the teeth. Using xylitol while brushing the teeth might help to calm down this disease process in the future. Some xylitol is manufactured from corn products. I recommend xylitol that is made from birch trees.
 
I completed a study in my offices with several of my patients that had active advanced gum disease to determine if specific nutrient-dense food supplements would improve their infection. The results have been positive, and you can read them here.
 
So, a good program that could eliminate advanced gum disease and prevent its return might include:
 
• Destroying the offending bacteria that are causing the disease and assisting the body in regeneration through the treatment of the LANAP protocol
 
• Eating a Paleolithic-type diet, which avoids the unhealthy foods and replaces them with healthy ones
 
• Performing good oral hygiene daily that might include the use of xylitol, and consuming specific nutrient-dense food supplements