Gum Disease Treatments

Chronic halitosis causes social agony for millions of sufferers. The psychological implications of being avoided or teased because of your breath has caused many to withdraw from public activities. Is there any way to treat this malady? What causes chronic halitosis anyway?

Bad breath is almost always caused by bacteria that live in nooks and crannies inside the mouth. If you have fissures in your tongue, or pockets under your tonsils, or similar hidey holes in your mouth, these sulfur producing microbes will find them and camp out. Gum disease, with the customary pockets it forms around the bases of the teeth, provides a haven for these bacteria. This is why chronic halitosis is one of the symptoms of gum disease.

Some factors increase the amount of these bacteria in the system. One is having a dry mouth. This is often a side effect of medication. Thick mucous and post nasal drip also contribute to this dryness. Drinking lots of water can make a big difference in chronic halitosis for several reasons. It washes away small bits of food or other impurities that can lodge in the teeth and it keeps the mouth moist.

Smoking causes bad breath, of course, and can contribute to gum disease. It is also thought that high protein diets can contribute to chronic halitosis. In fact, people on very low carb diets tend to develop a certain type of bad breath unique to that diet. Of course, onion and garlic, healthful foods otherwise, leave their own unique aroma, but they don’t cause a chronic bad breath problem.

Many people think that chronic halitosis comes from the digestive tract or the lungs. This is simply not the case. Another mistaken idea people have is that they can keep their breath fresh with very frequent brushing of their teeth. In reality, too much brushing can aggravate chronic halitosis by increasing the dryness of the mouth. Too much brushing can also be damaging to the gums.

The best way to treat chronic halitosis is to treat the underlying condition. If the cause of the bad breath happens to be gum disease, switching from conventional toothpaste to Oram Plus can help heal the gums, resulting in fresher breath.

Here’s an article entitled The Toxic Toothpaste. Fluoride is rated as being somewhere in the vicinity of arsenic and lead in toxicity. That’s why the experts all tell you to use a pea sized bit of toothpaste on your brush. The commercials on TV, however, show a long strip that’s curled up so you can get more on the brush! Looks like they want you to use a lot, doesn’t it?

The problem with using as much as the advertisements show is that it can be toxic, particularly to young children. Yes, fluoride in tiny amounts can protect teeth from decay, but it’s very easy to get too much. This is particularly true in areas where fluoride is added to the drinking water. In fact, it’s a good idea to use a water purifier, such as a reverse osmosis unit, with any city water supply.

A special blend of essential oils makes a safe natural alternative to toothpaste. Make sure your brush is clean and soft. Add a couple of drops to the brush. This is best done by simply letting the drops run out, rather than shaking the bottle. Be sure to angle the brush into the gum line when brushing to treat or prevent gum disease.

Having a handicapped child gives parents an array of problems to deal with. Often, dental and gum health are overlooked as the more urgent matters of health and behavior are dealt with. The result is that the special child often has severe dental problems. It can be no easy matter to deal with them, either. Sometimes general anesthesia is needed to still the child enough for the dentist or hygienist to be able to word on the child’s teeth.

These challenged children often have muscles of the lip, tongue, and cheek that do not move normally. These muscles work through natural chewing to clean off the teeth and gums, but special kids often can’t even do this much. Children with cerebral palsy or defects of the spinal column are some of the special kids affected this way.

Another factor that increases the risk of poor gum health for these children is that they have to be on special diets. Often their food is pureed and/or fed to them through a bottle. This causes the food to stick to the teeth, particularly if the food is sugary. The child’s physical limitations increase the risk of them not getting enough water, too. Drinking plenty of water could help wash that food away.

Finally, many medicines can cause damage to the gums. Anti-seizure meds are in this category, and can cause swollen, bleeding gums. Other drugs reduce the flow of saliva, which is also harmful to the oral health. Many liquid medications are produced in syrup form containing sugar, which of course leads to tooth decay.

Good oral health can help these kids learn to eat and talk. The best way to prevent problems is to start early. Sometimes a dentist will want to meet with the parents of a special child soon after birth, and yearly as the teeth begin to appear.

Diet plays a role in dental and gum health, too. It would be best to get these special kids started off on a non-sugary diet and keep it that way. Watch out for sugar hidden in processed foods, as well as eliminating sweet, sticky foods and snacks. Many sticky sweet foods are natural, like raisins and honey, so watch out about these, too. If sweet foods are served along with the other foods of a meal, they will do less harm.

Finally, by starting young, many parents can train these kids to tolerate having their teeth and gums brushed. Use a very soft brush, and angle it in toward the gum line. A natural essential oil gum treatment doesn’t require the rinsing that over the counter toothpaste does, and would make a great choice for that young ‘un.

Special kids require patience and love at all times. While you will need to be firm, don’t forget they need your love more than anything.

Caleb has been using Oram Plus faithfully over the past few weeks. He had an appointment today to have his extractions (wisdom teeth) checked. The dentist said they looked “Good! Very good!” Oram Plus is no doubt one reason that the extraction sites have healed so well.

Essential oils are powerful healers. Many people may think of them as little more than a perfume that puts you into a good mood. Afterall, “aromatherapy” doesn’t sound like serious health care. But the fact is, a pure, therapeutic grade oil contains the essense of the healing herb with no impurities. It takes only a drop or two of these power house medicines to make a difference.

Usually they are used topically or simply inhaled. Oram Plus is used orally, but isn’t eaten. It is used, two drops only, on a clean toothbrush. (Brush normally.) You can also put a drop in a little water and swish it around for mouthwash. This would be great if you happened to have sores in your mouth.

Did you know that women have special concerns when it comes to gum health? Throughout a woman’s life, hormones fluctuate and cause conditions that can irritate the gums. Even during puberty, it is not uncommon for a girl to gave swollen, tender, reddened gums. This happens in response to irritants like plaque and food particles.

During the child-bearing years, women can have a form of gingivitis that happens as part of the pre-menstrual syndrome. The gums can turn bright red and swollen, and tend to bleed. This condition may also include sores inside the cheeks.

Of course, pregnancy is a special time in life that takes a physical and nutritional toll on a woman. “Pregnancy gingivitis” is the term given to the swollen, tender gums that become noticable in about the third month of pregnancy and can continue to worsen. Sometimes, the gums even grow lumps known as pregnancy tumors.

Pregnant women with gum disease have been found to be as much as seven times more likely to have premature or small babies. And the effect of pregnancy on the gums can allso happen to women on birth control pills.

Finally, during menopause and beyond, women experience changes in oral health. Of course, gum disease tends to be more common in later years anyway. Still, menopausal women often experience a condition called gingiovostomatitis which causes their gums to look shiny and bleed easily. Bone loss is part of osteoporosis, which often develops during these years, but it is also part of gum disease. Research should help determine if treating osteoporosis can help protect the bones around the gums as well.

So what should you do? Brush and floss, what else?!

Gum Disease Information from the American Academy of Periodontology Click this link for a diagram of a tooth with gum disease as well as a wide variety of informative articles and other gum disease facts. I had a quiz posted earlier, but found out the link was broken. I hope that didn’t cause anyone any inconvenience.

Everyone knows that tobacco is bad for your health. But did you know that one of the most prevalent negative outcomes of tobacco use is periodontal (gum) disease? And not only does tobacco increase your risk, it also slows down healing when you have dental work or treatments for gum disease.

It doesn’t have to be smoking, either, because smokeless tobaccos are even worse! Just a pinch between the lip and gum, they say. And what’s it doing to the lip and to the gum? It’s up to no good, that’s what!

So if you need more reasons to quit your tobacco habit, add gum disease to your list.

Have you heard this one? How do we know that the person who invented the toothbrush was from Arkansas?

Because if he was from anywhere else, he would have called it a “teeth-brush.”

Seriously, we live in the Missouri Ozarks, so I can joke about toothlessness a bit. Many of the people in our rural area (hillbillies?) have missing teeth, even by the time they are 30 or so. The reasons are many, but tobacco is definitely one of them. Poor dental hygiene is another. And as for knowing about using an essential oil formula for healing of the gums - forget it!

But now that you know - forewarned is forearmed. How about making an effort to quit that tobacco habit and get on a program of gum health?

Last Wednesday, Cabe had to have his wisdom teeth pulled along with a few fillings. Of course, like a typical teen, he didn’t tell me until today that the dentist said his gums looked better. Might that be from a few days of using Oram Plus?

Cabe also mentioned something practical about using Oram Plus that I’d like to pass on. I noticed that when you try to apply the oil to your toothbrush, it’s hard to see the drops if you shake the bottle. Cabe figured out that if you just hold the bottle over your brush, the drops will fall out one at a time right where you want them. Of course, Mom couldn’t figure that out.

About our son’s mouth here - btw, his name is Caleb, but we call him “Cabe” all the time - that crooked front tooth happened probably because he knocked out a baby tooth when he was just a toddler. He was climbing up onto a piano in a home where we were visiting when he fell against the piano.

That kind of info is embarrassing for a big teenager, isn’t it? Oh, well, can’t help being a proud mommy!

Anyway, this is his “before” Oram Plus picture. It was taken a few days ago. He just had his wisdom teeth extracted Wednesday of this week. It will be nice to get all these visits to the dentist over with.