According to the headlines from the Dental Tribune keeping your gums healthy may actually lead to healthier lungs. There was a new study that came out that suggests that gum disease may increase the risk for different respiratory infections including but not limited to pneumonia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The authors of the study did say that more studies are needed to fully understand the link between gum disease and the lungs. Others studies have shown associations between gum disease and other chronic inflammatory diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and rheumatoid arthritis.
Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory disease. The key word here is inflammatory. You can check it out on the internet, read my previous posts or just ask your dentist about the human body and inflammation; the body hates it. And anything you can do to prevent inflammation is key to long health. (HINT Brushing and flossing properly goes a long way here.)
Conscious Prevention is how I describe how I choose to live. I am not to the point where everything has to be by the book (by the way there is no single book, the more I read I realize that there is no 100% system on the market today) but I just try to make decisions based off of my long term health goals. How I exercise, how I eat and YES how I brush and floss my teeth. Its great being a dentist because prevention has long been the cornerstone of dentistry and it is really what its all about.
I also just wanted to mention that I went to a lecture on Ozone therapy in both dentistry and medicine yesterday. Some pretty interesting stuff. I went just to find out about it since it is not main stream in the United States today. I got enough of a taste that I want to learn more.
Now let’s see if we can get the tree in the backyard trimmed up before we lose it to the rain and high winds today.