Several years ago, I started having a bit of trouble with one of my back teeth. So, I did the usual thing and made an appointment with my dentist to have it checked out. My dental health had always been good, I had visited the dentist and hygienist twice a year and apart from a bit of plaque, there was nothing to note – my oral health appeared to be in good shape.
At the appointment the dentist suggested that the offending tooth needed to come out. When I asked her why, she informed me that I had “periodontal disease” and because of this it was better for this tooth to be removed. This was news for me and, naturally, I was shocked. For a start, I’m a person who understands health and I was being told that I had a disease which I was completely unaware of. Even more embarrassing was that I didn’t have any idea what “periodontal disease” was. Once the appointment had finished, I charged off home to investigate, firstly, what periodontal disease is and, secondly, what exactly were the consequences for me of having it. That’s where things changed!
My post diagnosis investigations led me to discover that periodontal disease (more commonly known as gum disease) is not only a disease of the mouth, rather, it acts as a gateway for many diseases of the body to develop. The scientific literature is overwhelming, linking gum disease with almost every chronic inflammatory disease from rheumatoid arthritis to cardiovascular disease to type 2 diabetes to IDB to Alzheimer’s to breast cancer. I was blown away not only by discovering this new information but by how ignorant I was to it.
Without going into enormous detail, the link between oral health and these diseases is about:
- The host/bacteria relationship i.e. how we, as individuals, host microbes (bacteria) both good and bad.
- How we, as individuals, control our barriers/borders from the outside world i.e. the response of our immune system.
- Loss of barrier control within the mouth (which is what happens in gum disease). This results in the movement of bacteria (bacterial translocation) from the mouth to distal sights within the body where they contribute to systemic disease development.
Having had time to study the literature, I often reflect on past patients, when I failed to ask the question about their oral health. Why would I? At the time, I wasn’t aware of the connection. I am now and it is standard practice for me at Functional Medicine Associates to not only ask about oral health history but to go much deeper. We have a commitment to our patients as we can no longer ignore the strong links between local disease (in the mouth) and systemic disease.
This personal journey connecting the health of the mouth to the health of the body has led us to develop a genomics panel called DNA Smile. The panel and its’ training was developed to help healthcare practitioners, dental hygienists and dentists to get a more in-depth understanding of the genetics that predispose an individual to gum disease. Armed with this additional information we can create individual lifestyle plans that give patients the opportunity to understand and reduce their gum disease risk and therefore alter their systemic disease risk. Armed with this new test we are consistently showing improvements in patients by having a better understanding of the health of the mouth.
In addition, we are making more connections with the dental industry and developing a collaborative approach between functional medicine and dentistry. One of our patients who has rheumatoid arthritis had an almost complete remission of symptoms as a result of predominantly treating the health of her mouth. So successful was her treatment that she remains almost symptom free. This case was presented at the recent IFM annual international conference.
