Month: July 2011

Take care of your mouth and avoid diseases in other parts of the body

The mouth to the body much more to ensure a beautiful smile, teeth look closely reflects health in the four corners of the body. And then, the portal through which nutrients enter and where the words come out aisles not open to serious problems in the stomach, lungs and heart

Who’s mouth can go to heaven or hell. And this fate depends only on the attention paid to it in day-to-day. Those commandments that we know so well recorded in the box, but not always followed to the letter, are not only indispensable to the preservation of the tongue, gum and every tooth. They also help prevent other mishaps in the vicinity of the body. No exaggeration. A poor oral health affects in full in the blood vessels, joints and organs that apparently do not maintain close contact with the teeth. Only apparently.

We can not see his mouth in an isolated manner, the dentist says Juliana Villalba, State University of Campinas, Unicamp, in S�o Paulo. The idea summarized by the phrase inspired the expert to organize the newly released General Dentistry and Health, the work aimed at health professionals, especially physicians and dentists. It brings together papers that explore the direct relationship between the teeth and the rest of the body. Juliana alert, in fact, for the importance of designing your own dentist to look beyond the oral cavity. At first, the book would be titled The mouth also has a body he says.

Just flip through the book to note that most of the damage hatched in the mouth is led by a multitude of bacteria. Now the oral cavity is a true Olympian for these microorganisms. And to be fair, not all of them are bad here there is a bacterial flora is essential to digesting food, for example. The problem is when brushing and flossing are left corner. Then the harmful microbes behind the cavities, gingivitis and periodontitis, proliferate and lead to chaos. Even in a healthy mouth, there are 200 million microorganisms in one gram of plaque, the periodontist has Sallum Antonio, professor Faculty of Dentistry of Piracicaba (FOP), linked to Unicamp. If it is the road to ruin, then the number could hit the house of the billion. And the threats are also multiplying.

If we kill the hungry and forgets oral hygiene, a few hours are sufficient for the formation of the infamous plaque. In a continuous process, microbes and more microbes come together to monopolize the teeth and gums. And that’s how the card, also called biofilm becomes thicker, reaching sometimes to the point of being seen with the naked eye. With the wind in their favor, the bacteria begin to subdue the villains of the species as well. The card allows the emergence of two problems: caries and periodontal disease, says Professor Antonio Sallum. The first, devised by the bacterium Streptococcus mutans, gradually undermines the tooth itself. But the second, which begins as gingivitis and progresses to a periodontitis, is more frightening. It blows all the structure that connects the tooth to the gums and bone tissue.

Periodontal disease is more frightening, because decay causes pain and it does not. At first, only produces bleeding gums, Sallum alert. That is, just give it due attention. There are over 100 types of microbes involved in the pathology, which if not treated in time, makes your teeth crumble. She is silent and their bacteria are more aggressive, says Elaine Escobar periodontist, a professor of United Metropolitan Colleges (FMU) in S�o Paulo. Jaw-dropping is also the estimate of the incidence of the problem in the country. Eight out of ten adults have provided a Brazilian to his advanced gingivitis, periodontitis, says Elaine.

Bacteria make the treacherous lesions on the gums and corrosion of the space between tooth and bone his gate into the bloodstream. Some types buy more terrible then the ticket to travel to the heart, where you simply park. Periodontal disease increases the risk of cardiovascular problems, notes Elaine. Worse still for those with a faulty heart valve, for example this guy is, then, extremely susceptible to endocarditis. When we see, in ten patients with this disease, high mortality, four or five have bacteria in the oral cavity, dentists calculates Itamar Neves, the Heart Institute of S�o Paulo (INCOR).

Another recent finding is that people with cholesterol and triglyceride levels may be hostages of these microbes to attack the arteries. There are recent studies showing that some bacteria collaborate in the formation of plaques in blood vessels, aggravating the clogging caused by the fat, says Juliana Villalba. The aggressors, therefore, become the trigger for the eruption of a heart attack or stroke (see infographic on the side).

DOUBLE DOSE IN DANGER
The conflict begins in the mouth sow the punishment on the entire body, especially if the owner thereof is a diabetic or a pregnant woman. For pregnant women, periodontal disease stimulates premature delivery. That’s because when the defense cells flock to the mouth to fight bacteria also release some substances into the circulation cytokines and prostaglandins that disrupt some functions in other parts of the body. And these substances tend to accelerate labor, summarizes Sallum.

Diabetics are a special case. They live in a doubly difficult situation. The sugar that accumulates in the circulation because of the disorder favors all kinds of problems from inflammation to abscesses in the mucosa. And if none of this is handled, the production of inflammatory substances is such that once triggered a series of mechanisms in the body, including one that makes insulin use law. Professor Sallum is categorical: Problems like diabetes periodontal disease feed. There is evidence that when it resolves, blood glucose is under control with greater ease.

Everyone knows, but it never hurts to reinforce, in addition to prevention everyday, the dentist is a prerequisite of a mouth in order. As there are problems such as tooth decay and restorations badly positioned, which can only be solved in the office. And know that, if not remedied, they only offer more of a headache in your life. Literally. Seventy percent of temporomandibular disorders (TMD) are related to poor positioning of the teeth, says expert in oral rehabilitation Lauro Delgado, Sao Paulo. And, in turn, to the DTM is that often drives the continuing embarrassment to the head (follow the infographic on the left).

Doctors of the Headache Clinic Hospital of Belo Horizonte (HCUFMG) analyzed 53 patients who lived with pain and concluded that 80% of complaints were associated with TMD. There is no point to determine a cause and effect relationship between the two problems, says neurologist Antonio Teixeira, an author of the study. But the treatment of TMD can help relieve the torment, he adds, a professor at the Federal University of Minas Gerais. After all the evidence already given to realize that healthy teeth away evil from head to toe. And that, yes, it is cause for endless smiles.