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Hello, I'm Dr. Michaelangelo Aust and welcome to today's bite size bit. Today is and important one, because it's the connection between the mouth and the body. The first thing I want to start with is Diabetes. A lot of times the medical doctors will tell you to get your feet and your eyes checked. It's not because they can help you with the problems that you're having, but mostly to help you cope with the disease. If your not getting your mouth checked, and if the inflammation process is active in your mouth, say from gum disease, then you have a really difficult time controlling your blood sugar. So, by getting the gum disease and cavities taken care of, you can fight the inflammation process and help to control your blood sugar overall, when your a diabetic.
For Heart Disease, there's a lot of bacteria that live in our mouth that actually colonize the heart. So, what happens if the bacteria is really built up in your mouth and gets into your blood stream at all, it can colonize some of the flaps on our heart and some of our blood vessels and can cuse heart disease.
The American Geriatric Society published a study that said that patients that don't brush have a 65% higher likelihood of developing Dementia than those that brush on a regular basis.
When you look at Stroke, the American Journal of Medicine published a study that says that those who brush their teeth on a regular basis, and take care of their mouths better, have a decreased risk of stroke.
Respirator Diseases. This study was done by the Journal of Periodontology. They were talking about, if you get your mouth clean, you have a decreased risk of developing COPD. There's also a risk of respirator diseases like pneumonia being caused by the bacteria that live in our mouth.
I want to take a moment and talk about Healthy Babies. Ladies, you have to listen. When you're pregnant, whatever culture is in your mouth, your baby is going to be inoculated. A lot of times people come in and say, "I have horrible teeth and it's bad and my family...". I say you're right. It's about 30% genetics and 70% environmental. What happens when your feeding your baby and your mouth is not clean, you inoculate the child with whatever bacterial culture is in your mouth. It takes a couple of years to establish a culture, but once it's set up, it's really difficult to change. It can help you if you spend your entire life having a really good bacterial culture and keeping the kid's mouth and you own mouth, as a mother, clean. Or it can hurt you, if you're not keeping your own mouth clean, your children are going to be affected. There have been studies published that women with healthier mouths have easier deliveries and healthier babies.
Like I said before, when your an adult, your number 1 cause of tooth loss is gum disease. A lot of times when you're 65 you lose your insurance. All these years, your insurance company has convinced you that you just need a regular cleaning and essentially you've kicked the can further down the road by not treating your mouth appropriately. They drop you when you're 65 or you retire and you get rid of your insurance and essentially you're left holding the bill. By having gum disease ate the age of 65, it's a huge indicator that someone is going to have heart disease, as well. There's a major link.
There are some studies that correlate having an unhealthy mouth with erectile dysfunction. That's because all the bacteria that are in our mouth. I always say, if your breath is bad and you're married, you can forget about kissing your wife. Forget about anything else that's going on. If your a woman, if the guy lays down in bed and you can't tell if it's the family dog or your husband, he probably needs to get evaluated for his bad breath. There are some studies that show 90% of people that have bad breath can be cured just by having your mouth treated. Only about 10% comes from things other that your mouth. It's fundamental if you want to interact with people. I always think when people are doing their daily professions, it's extremely important how you interact. You can't have black teeth, bad gums and bad breath when your out and about dealing with society. It's very offensive and guys I'm telling you, because it's especially offensive to women.
Radiation and chemotherapy is on a more serious note. It is critical that you get your treatment done before you go into radiation or chemotherapy. Especially, if you're having radiation to the head and neck area, or if you know somebody going through it right now, they absolutely need custom fabricated trays with fluoride. I, or any dentist across the country, make the trays in the office. The fluoride goes into the tray and the patient sits with that for 10 minutes a day. If you're going through these kind of serious treatment, there's no home health care that you can do that would be enough to combat the damage that going to be done to your mouth. There are so many complications that occur from them. It's just imperative that you get in and get the trays, because it's going to save you so much work and so much pain and definitely losing some teeth.
This is Dr. Michaelangelo Aust of Modern Family Dentist and I certainly hope you enjoyed today's bite size bit. I'll see you soon.