At some point or another, the dentist’s chair may have been fuel for your nightmares – but what if gum treatment did more than make you squirm?
If you are a sufferer of rheumatoid arthritis or gum disease, then dentistry may have some good news to make up for the regular reminders to floss.
In the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and the University Hospitals of Cleveland; it has been found that treatment for gum disease may prevent or ease inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis. Nabil Bissada, D.D.S. at the Dental School, noted that patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis felt that the pain died down when teeth were pulled out or when they were given antibiotics.
What this suggests is that there is an association with gum disease and inflammation.
Gum disease causes pain by releasing toxins (called tumour neurosis factor-alpha or TNF-α) which promotes infection and painful swelling. Rheumatoid arthritis is worse, since the body is effectively breaking down the joints, leading to chronic agonies. When they grind against one another, the pain is significantly unpleasant. As you might imagine, the combination is not a pretty picture – and that’s an understatement.
All is not lost, however.
When sufferers of rheumatoid arthritis took antibiotics, there was a significant reduction of the pain-inducing toxin, which meant that the pain decreased as well.
Bissada also noted that the majority of patients that suffered from rheumatoid arthritis were more likely to suffer from gum disease as a result.
The research was targeted at four groups of individuals. The results showed that by treating and preventing the symptoms of gum disease alongside a toxin-resistor, the symptoms of other inflammatory diseases were reduced significantly.
As such, the discovery has now been linked to the development of heart disease, diabetes and risk of premature death, yielding an exciting and revolutionary perspective into modern health.
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