The Numbers Don’t Lie: Your Oral Health Matters
As Dr. Nelson regularly covers in our Salmon Creek Family Dental blog, your oral health matters more than you might think. When most of us think about getting into shape, we imagine working out as the key to helping lower our risk for cardiovascular disease and hypertension. Rarely do many patients consider getting into shape when it comes to their oral health, or what that would even mean. Unfortunately, poor oral health directly correlates to an increased risk for a variety of serious health problems. Studies have shown that individuals who experience tooth loss, gum disease, and tooth decay have a significantly higher risk for developing conditions that include heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, dementia, and even cancer. A direct link connects our oral health to our overall health. For example, some studies have determined that by treating gum disease, patients can help to lower their blood pressure. Additionally, treating gum disease can also help patients with diabetes better manage their blood sugar levels. Despite the outsized influence our oral health can have on our overall health, over 100 million Americans neglect to see a dentist each year despite how important regular care is to maintaining their overall health. Regular dental care allows Dr. Nelson to spot the signs of dental decay and disease early on while still easily treatable. Not only does early prevention and treatment lead to an increased success rate for repairing any damage done, it’s also significantly cheaper when compared to the more complicated procedures required to fix serious oral health issues. If you don’t think that visiting Dr. Nelson and our team at Salmon Creek Dental really matters, here are a few facts that may help to change your mind. The Numbers Behind the Need for Dental Care Regular dental care matters to not only the health of your teeth and gums, but also to your overall health as well. Don’t believe us? Take a look at the following statistics: 92 percent of adults in the U.S. will develop at least one cavity during their lifetime as a result of practicing poor oral hygiene. One in seven kids in the U.S. between the ages of 6 to 12 will have suffered from a toothache within the last six months. Studies have shown that kids with poor oral health miss more school and receive lower grades when compared to kids who enjoy quality oral health. 90 percent of all systemic diseases (diseases that impact the entire body) first develop in the mouth, beginning as oral ulcers, swollen gums, and dry mouth. Just 49 percent of men in the U.S. brush at least twice a day. Conversely, 57 percent of women brush twice a day. Approximately 33 percent of adults in the U.S. never floss their teeth. Individuals who don’t floss have a higher risk for developing persistent bad breath, cavities, and gum disease when compared to those who floss even semi-regularly. Nearly 4 billion people worldwide have their health impacted by oral disease. These oral issues have contributed to the development of serious pain and discomfort that impacts their daily lives. Don’t Become Another Statistic The key to enjoying a healthy, great looking smile is simple – brush and floss daily and schedule regular exams and cleanings with our team at Salmon Creek Family Dental. Neglecting your oral health can have serious consequences that can last a lifetime. To live with regret when you can have a smile that dazzles. Contact our office today to schedule your next exam with Dr. Nelson, and start enjoying a smile you can have confidence in showing.
Oral Bacteria Linked to Pancreatic Cancer
As a Vancouver family dentist, Dr. Nelson makes it a priority to help educate patients on how their oral health can impact the overall health of their bodies. While you might think that your oral health only relates to your teeth and gums, a significant amount of research has found compelling connections between common oral problems such as dental disease and decay with a host of chronic health problems that include heart disease, stroke, diabetes, dementia and cancer. Even though researchers still don’t fully understand what connects oral diseases with such serious health problems, they suspect the primary culprit being oral bacteria that moves throughout the body. One recent study found further evidence strengthening this potential connection. The presence of oral bacteria in cystic pancreatic tumors is associated to the severity of the tumor, according to researchers. Researchers hope that by identifying this type of bacteria as a potential risk factor they can provide quicker, more aggressive treatment to pancreatic cancer patients in risk of developing an aggressive tumor. The results of the study were published in the journal Gut. Discovering a Further Connection Pancreatic cancer has one of the highest mortality rates of any cancer. The primary reason why pancreatic cancer has such a high rate is due to how late in the disease’s progression that a diagnosis is usually made. Additionally, not every type of cystic pancreatic tumor is cancerous. This makes it even harder to quickly identify which type of tumor requires immediate treatment and which are benign. In order to fully rule out any chance of cancer, many patients elect to undergo surgery, which places an unnecessary strain on their bodies if the tumor proves benign. Now, researchers have discovered that the presence of bacteria inside the cystic tumor is connected to the severity of the tumor. “We find most bacteria at the stage where the cysts are starting to show signs of cancer,” wrote researchers. “What we hope is that this can be used as a biomarker for the early identification of the cancerous cysts that need to be surgically removed to cure cancer, this will in turn also reduce the amount of unnecessary surgery of benign tumors.” As part of their study, researchers examined the presence of bacterial DNA in fluid collected from pancreatic cysts in over 100 patients and compared the severity and type of the tumors. After conducting this comparison, researchers discovered that the fluid from the cysts with high-grade dysplasia and cancer contained much more bacterial DNA when compared to fluid from benign cysts. As a way of identifying the bacteria, researchers sequenced the DNA of 35 samples that were tested with having high amount of bacterial DNA. The team discovered significant variations in the bacterial composition between different individuals, but also an increased presence of a specific bacterial composition in tissue and fluid in cysts with high-grade dysplasia and cancer. While researchers were surprised to find oral bacteria in the pancreas, they team wasn’t totally caught unaware. The bacteria they identified has already been shown in an earlier study to be found in higher amounts in the saliva of patients with pancreatic cancer. Protecting Your Health As researchers continue to find new and unexpected connections that link our oral health to our bodies, it’s become clear that protecting our health requires making a serious commitment to maintain and improving our oral health. Daily habits like brushing and flossing can help to remove harmful oral bacteria before it has the opportunity buildup, spreading throughout the body and causing the types of dental disease and decay that threaten our long-term health. Regular visits to see a Vancouver family dentist like Dr. Nelson can greatly improve your ability to reduce the risk for developing oral or overall health problems. Don’t neglect your oral health. Make it a point to receive the outstanding dental care you need to enjoy a healthy body and smile for a lifetime.
Our Oral Health May Determine Our Stomach Health
As your local dentist in Salmon Creek, Dr. Nelson strives to help educate his patients on the surprising ways that connect our oral and overall heath. Regular readers of our Salmon Creek Family Dental blog will know that we regularly highlight studies that show how the health of our teeth and gums impacts the health of our bodies as a whole. A recent study helps to further illustrate this connection by finding that chronic gastrointestinal problems may actually start due to what’s in a patient’s mouth. Published in the journal Science, the study – conducted by a panel of international researchers – reported on strains of oral bacteria that, when ingested in the 1.5 liters of saliva the average person consumes a day, can root in the stomach and cause the development of inflammatory bowel conditions like ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. “For some time now, we’ve noticed that when we look at the microbiome of patients with inflammatory bowel disease, or IBD, we’ve found microbes there that normally reside in the oral cavity,” wrote researchers. Researchers have spent many years attempting to identify genes associated with inflammatory bowel disease and determine which genetic variants increase a patient’s risk. Researchers discovered that certain types of bacteria can exist harmoniously when they stay in their natural environments. However, when those bacteria travel to foreign parts of the body – such as from the mouth to the stomach – they can become pathogenic. Identifying Troublesome Bacteria Researchers believe that have successfully identified two strains of the potentially problematic bacteria, Klebsiella, which is commonly found in the mouth. In the study, researchers administered saliva taken from two patients with Crohn’s disease to two groups of healthy mice. While one of the groups did not become ill, the other developed a strong immune response normally associated with Crohn’s. Examining the bacteria in that group’s saliva samples, researchers identified a strain of Klebsiella as responsible for the immune system response. Another follow up experiment using saliva samples taken from two patients suffering from ulcerative colitis identified another strain of Klebsiella as responsible for causing inflammation. By comparing the results of their study with a database that contained information on thousands of IBD patients at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, researchers discovered that patients suffering from inflammatory bowel conditions had significantly higher levels of Klebsiella in their stomach microbiomes when compared to healthy patients. To explain this connection, researchers hypothesized that oral bacteria – including Klebsiella – transitions to everyone’s stomach through the saliva they swallow each day. While the bacteria usually pass through harmlessly, patients with a genetic susceptibility to IBD that alters the microbiome of their stomachs, the bacteria have the opportunity to take hold in the intestine and begin to grow, causing an immune response that causes the disease to develop. Researchers also discovered that Klebsiella bacteria is often extremely resistant to a variety of antibiotics. That helps to explain why the use of antibiotics have only limited success in helping to treat patients suffering from ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s. In fact, researchers noted that the more resistant the bacteria becomes to antibiotics the more likely it is to cause an immune response. This supports the conclusion from a 2014 study that found patients who took antibiotics early to treat their bowel disease actually suffered from more severe outcomes. Improving Future Treatment Methods While more research is needed to confirm the results of this latest study, researchers believe this opens a useful path for the further investigation into the treatment of inflammatory diseases. “This is a direction that research on the role of the microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease – and many other diseases – should take,” commented researchers. “Once you identify these types of bugs, then you have a target.” Other studies are currently underway working on therapies designed to eliminate or remove these two strains of Klebsiella bacteria from the microbiome. So while the prevention of oral bacteria related disease usually starts with better oral hygiene, this appears a case where causation has more to do with nature than it does nurturing quality hygiene habits. Either way, this study further illustrates what your local dentist in Salmon Creek has been saying, what happens in the mouth really matters.