Ot. Gum disease

[scaredyclassic]

My gums disease has gotten worse recently. I could brush and floss more. But my recent research informs me that diet may make a big difference. Some periodontists believe carbs, refined flour esp, create a nasty mouth environment that fills with plaque for susceptible people like me.

I have to take some action or this will be bad in a decade or so
..or maybe much sooner. I want my teeth.

So I am trying a 90 day experiment until my next cleaning…no carbs, no bread or rice or sugars just olive oil salads beans and meat, and see if it gives my gums a chance to heal. … also going to drink green tea all day as some research says this helps gums heal.

This gum disease is related to plaque, the same crap in our arteries. I have a feeling my crappy mouth is related to internal crap.

Anyone else had any gum disease success stories? I feel like I need to make some changes. My mom has bad dental problems.1

[NotCranky]

You should take huge bites, chew with your mouth open and eat like a pig. I do that and I don’t have gum disease. I think it works your gums harder and keeps them strong. Our food is too soft that’s the problem, eat harder.

[njtosd]

Not the same as plaque in your arteries – but inflammation from gum disease is bad for lots of reasons. May even contribute to premature labor and therefore birth defects (not an issue for you, I know). In Brian’s world, failure to brush would necessitate higher health care insurance premiums.

“Arterial plaque is a deposit of fat, cholesterol, calcium and scar tissue that develops in the artery wall. Plaque in the mouth is a bacterial film that builds up on teeth. While the two types of plaque are very different, patients with gum disease do seem to have nearly twice the risk of also having heart disease.”
https://www.sharecare.com/health/vascular-disease/plaque-arteries-same-dental-plaque

Your decision to cut out sugars should help a lot. Fish oil is good for you and is also anti inflammatory.

[scaredyclassic]

It’s a little tricky for me, as I eat 2 slices of toast pretty much every morning of my life…but I am sufficiently scared and therefore ready to make a change.

[scaredyclassic]

[quote=Blogstar]You should take huge bites, chew with your mouth open and eat like a pig. I do that and I don’t have gum disease. I think it works your gums harder and keeps them strong. Our food is too soft that’s the problem, eat harder.[/quote]

I’ve been chomping on twizzlers forvyears, hasn’t worked.

[svelte]

My teeth are pretty healthy, but I’ve always had problems with my gums. As far as I can tell, it is from me brushing my teeth too hard. I try to do it gently now, but if I don’t focus I go back to my old habit.

I hadn’t thought about the diet aspect. We’ve pretty much cut out breads, pasta and rice from our diet. I haven’t noticed much difference in my gums, but I’ll check next time I’m at the dentist to see if he has noticed. What we have noticed is that we did not get a single cold or flu this past winter, in spite of the fact we have to 5 year olds running around our house weekly. That is such a drastic change from last year when one or the other of us had a cold almost the entire winter that we are curious as to whether our diet played a role. If we go through a second winter sans cold/flu, then that will convince me that diet did play into it.

[FlyerInHi]

I wore out my gums a little from overzealous brushing in my younger years. Manly brushing is not the way to go.

Keep you mouth clean. Gargle after you eat, especially if something sugary or carb. I gargle with hydrogen peroxide once a day. During the day I gargle with green tea because green tea is less strong. hydrogen peroxide kills all the bacteria, good and bad, but it’s a bleach agent to remove stains and keep white teeth.

As you can see I’m obsessed with health and longevity. I tell my friends who don’t believe me to meet up when we’re 80. Just stand in front of the mirror and look at ourselves.

[bearishgurl]

scaredy, if you have gingivitis bordering on periodontitis, you can help yourself by visiting your dentist 3-4x per year instead of 2x per year. Unfortunately, dental insurance only pays for two prophylactic visits per year, so you will likely be “out-of-pocket” for the other 1-2 visits for a total of $120 – $220 each, depending on length of your exams and what is done. These exams will likely be with a dential hygenist & dentist as opposed to a dental assistant & dentist where your teeth will be hand-scraped for at least 45 minutes and your gum pockets measured every other time you visit, to see if they are resolving themselves. This routine really does work but it could take up to 3 years in combination with cutting sugar and starch out of your diet.

I don’t eat sugar or white flour but just a little on holidays (homemade pie) and have never drank soda with sugar in it. However, I did not receive any dental care at all until I moved to SD in my early 20’s and obtained union benefits through my job. Fortunately, I have had the very best dental care since then (incl a few restorations in the past 25 years) but gingivitis and periodontitis runs in my family so I have to stay vigilant with it.

If left untreated, periodontitis can cause all kinds of health problems, including deadly cardiovascular problems such as heart attack and stroke. I saw this first hand when one of my beloved cats (7 yrs old) suddenly died in my arms of a heart attack (her siblings eventually lived to be 18 and 20). I wanted to understand why this happened to her, so I had the county autopsy (necropsy) her and that is when I found out that a deadly blood clot had traveled from the severe periodontitis beneath her gums to her artery, blocking blood flow to her heart. Bacteria from periodontitis in the mouth can also travel to the heart causing an inflammation/infection of the heart called endocarditis.

https://www.sharecare.com/health/blood-clot-thrombus/blot-clots-and-heart-attacks

http://www.periodontalhealth.com/procedures/periodontal-disease/periodontal-disease-heart-disease-and-stroke/

http://dentistry.about.com/od/issuesandemergencies/a/heartdisease.htm

Of course, pets can’t tell us what is wrong with them or if they are in pain. That is why they need a checkup with a vet at least once per year and I fell down on my responsibilities with this cat due to being overwhelmed by “life” at the time.

You don’t want to go there, scaredy. If you’re not doing so already, brush your teeth after lunch during the business day.

And btw, “Twizzlers” are made of 95% sugar … in case you didn’t know :=0

[end of frightening warning]

[scaredyclassic]

I am scared.

I plan to go ever 3 months, but 10 months elapsed since last visit.

Ayurvedic treatment involves mustard oil and turmeric . Also rinsing with oils. I’m gonna try that too.

Inflammation.

I don’t think one can wear out gums and still have teeth. When the gums go the teeth fall out.

Twizzlers was a bad joke. I eat loads of sugar though. I thought burning it off with exercise was OK. Well, no more. I love twizzlers, cookies, cake, candy, caramel, popcorn, rice, juice, smoothies, pie, jam, jelly, ice cream, esp. Ice cream..

It’s over. I’m old.

[Balboa]

CloSYS mouth rinse has really helped my gums. It’s not cheap, but I buy it on Amazon in 32 oz. bottles and only use 1 oz. at a time instead of the recommended 2 oz. I think you can also get it at some drug stores and Walmarts in nicer areas. (There was a whole thing about Walmart wanting to carry it and the company that makes it debating whether they could/should scale up for that, especially when it would be competing with much cheaper options on the shelves.)

[FlyerInHi]

[quote=Balboa]CloSYS mouth rinse has really helped my gums. It’s not cheap, but I buy it on Amazon in 32 oz. bottles and only use 1 oz. at a time instead of the recommended 2 oz. I think you can also get it at some drug stores and Walmarts in nicer areas. (There was a whole thing about Walmart wanting to carry it and the company that makes it debating whether they could/should scale up for that, especially when it would be competing with much cheaper options on the shelves.)[/quote]

What is inside cloSYS?
Oftentimes the active ingredient is just peroxide or other simple common ingredients.
People often are taken by marketing and believe whatever they are using is “super duper proprietary stuff”.

[bearishgurl]

[quote=scaredyclassic]I am scared.

I plan to go ever 3 months, but 10 months elapsed since last visit.

Ayurvedic treatment involves mustard oil and turmeric . Also rinsing with oils. I’m gonna try that too.

Inflammation.

I don’t think one can wear out gums and still have teeth. When the gums go the teeth fall out.

Twizzlers was a bad joke. I eat loads of sugar though. I thought burning it off with exercise was OK. Well, no more. I love twizzlers, cookies, cake, candy, caramel, popcorn, rice, juice, smoothies, pie, jam, jelly, ice cream, esp. Ice cream..

It’s over. I’m old.[/quote]You are correct in that when your gums recede due to periodontitis, your teeth don’t have as much tissue to hold them in your mouth and can become loose. There comes a time in life when what you did in the past can catch up with the current state of your health. Better to know now than a few years from now when you could end up with full-blown periodontitis. Be glad you have dental insurance, scaredy.

Also, another, even more frightening reason to cut refined sugar out of one’s diet, imho …. is the threat of being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (albeit too late and nearly always incurable). First of all, I’m not a medical professional and therefore not an “expert” on this subject. But over the past few months, I have been going over and over in my mind why I have managed to lose no less than FOUR VIP’s from my life (all aged 58-64 at the time of death) and ALL very athletic, muscular and in good shape (none drank or smoked or were anywhere near “obese”). When I started to compare these individuals (all male) with one another, they all had one thing in common and that was that they were all addicted to refined sugar (at least in front of me). They liked Cokes, pie and sweet rolls for breakfast (often buying their breakfasts from convenience stores on the way to work or machines at work), ate candy bars during the business day, went to fast food joints for lunch ordering shakes or another sweet soft drink with their meals and usually always had dessert again in the eves when they ate dinner at home. They had this type of diet nearly their entire lives. Their athleticism, even in middle-age, kept them from gaining weight. They ranged in height from 5’9″ to 6’1″. After diagnoses with this deadly disease, they lived 3, 4, 6.5 and 11 months. The one that lived 11 months elected to try a 5 month chemo regimen and radiation (cobalt) treatments at the time which adversely affected his quality of life for at least 5 months out of the 11 months he survived as well as burned his skin. All lost 1/4 to 3/4 lb of body weight per day (on avg) after diagnosis and weighed just 65-75% of their original body weight at the time of death with significant muscle wasting (cachexia). After diagnosis, their tumors seemed to double in size every 2-4 weeks and all suffered in pain in their last 3 months despite being given strong opioids both intravenously and orally.

This is just another reason to quit refined sugar, IMHO. At the very least, I believe a diet high in refined sugar (along with a high-fat diet) can contribute to pancreatitis, regardless of fitness level. Of course, YMMV. No one really knows the true causes of pancreatic cancer.

[end of preaching]

[bearishgurl]

scaredy, you can now purchase “specialty” mouth rinses both with and without a prescription.

see: http://www.colgate.com/en/us/oc/products/specialty

and: http://www.colgate.com/en/us/oc/products/prescription-only-products/colgate-periogard-rinse

[Balboa]

[quote=FlyerInHi][quote=Balboa]CloSYS mouth rinse has really helped my gums. It’s not cheap, but I buy it on Amazon in 32 oz. bottles and only use 1 oz. at a time instead of the recommended 2 oz. I think you can also get it at some drug stores and Walmarts in nicer areas. (There was a whole thing about Walmart wanting to carry it and the company that makes it debating whether they could/should scale up for that, especially when it would be competing with much cheaper options on the shelves.)[/quote]

What is inside cloSYS?
Oftentimes the active ingredient is just peroxide or other simple common ingredients.
People often are taken by marketing and believe whatever they are using is “super duper proprietary stuff”.[/quote]

Stabilized Chlorine Dioxide. The product is free of alcohol, dyes and flavoring (it comes with an optional packet), which doesn’t fit the mold of what most people think of or buy when it comes to mouthwash. I like it, I don’t like peroxide, which tends to dry my mouth out a little more.

Scaredy, if you are using a rinse, consider asking your dentist for a monoject syringe so you can make sure the liquid is getting to rear pocketing areas.

[scaredyclassic]

I’m gonna start making my own toothpaste of baking soda and coconut oil.

Tastes a little weird.

For mouthwash I’m gonna use mustard oil and turmeric. I’m going to floss with regular western floss. Gotta go find some mustard oil.

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