Diabetes and Periodontal Disease
It's important for your dentist to know if you have diabetes, and how you're controlling it. Good control of your diabetes affects your oral health as well as your overall health.
Diabetics tend to be less resistant to infection than non-diabetics, have more fragile bones, and take longer to heal after an operation.
An oral infection can make diabetes worse, which makes the infection worse, which makes the diabetes worse - and so on into a major medical problem.
Diabetics develop severe gum disease more often, too, especially over the age of 40. Once gum inflammation - gingivitis - sets in, it can erupt into periodontal disease or even infection in the jaw. In undiagnosed or uncontrolled diabetics, this could mean tooth loss.
How to hang on to your teeth?
Practice preventive dentistry and follow the medication, diet, and meal schedules recommended by your physician. This, with balanced rest and exercise, will bolster your resistance to disease, including oral infections and cavities.
If you're taking insulin injections, you may want to schedule appointments around your medication times. The stress of an examination or procedure can change the way your body uses insulin. Your dentist will want to be prepared to help you in case you have a reaction. And let him or her know if you are taking any other medications. Drug interactions can be serious.
You may want to have your gums examined (and have a dental cleaning) by a dental hygienist more often than twice a year - just to make sure nothing suspicious gets started.
And on the home front, good dental hygiene - controlling plaque, the invisible bacterial film that undermines teeth - is crucial. Home care rules to live by: brush at least twice a day and floss at least once a day. The more, the better.
+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.
Laser Gum Treatment of Periodontal Disease
Periodontal disease is a leading cause of adult tooth loss in the U.S. today. It can progress destructively, often unnoticed, just like undiagnosed hypertension or diabetes.
What if a magic wand or automatic treatment upgrade made a new gum disease treatment available, allowing your periodontist to provide more successful care? A treatment that would eliminate the need for periodontal surgery? What if that care could be provided comfortably and what if it was more easily affordable?
Periodontal procedures like that actually exist today. One is called the dental laser. The laser is an instrument that uses the energy provided from a focused beam of light to very selectively and gently remove delicate infected gum tissue. In the process, the laser's focused beam of light effectively seals off tiny blood vessels (so no bleeding gums!) and nerve endings while instantly stimulating healing. The bacteria causing the infection are actually vaporized!
The dental laser is extremely safe. Protective eyewear represents the chief safety precaution.
Healing is very rapid and uneventful. Secondary infection is nonexistent. There are no dressings to wear or any open wounds. The laser can be used most often with nothing more than topical anesthesia and never more than local anesthesia.
Today in dentistry, a laser is simply the source of a focused beam of light, but maybe it's really actually more of a high tech magic wand.
Ask your dentist about laser gum treatment of periodontal disease today!
+Jim Du Molin is a leading Internet search expert helping individuals and families connect with the right dentist in their area. Visit his author page.