ORAL HYGIENE

Dirty Mouths Lead to Broken Hearts

"Poor oral health can lead to pneumonia and cardiovascular disease as well as periodontal disease," even though these illnesses are not usually associated with the mouth. According to persons with dementia resist care when they feel threatened. In general, these patients cannot care for themselves and need help.

IDA team introduced an oral hygiene approach called Managing Oral Hygiene Using Threat Reduction (Mouth) specifically for dementia patients. Many of their strategies focus on making the patient feel more comfortable before and while care is provided, the researchers report in the current issue of Special Care in Dentistry.

"We have come up with 15 strategies -- techniques to help reduce threat perception,". These strategies include approaching patients at eye level if they are seated, smiling while interacting, pantomiming, and guiding patients to perform their own care by placing a hand over the patient's hand and leading.

People with dementia are often no longer able to distinguish low or non-threatening situations from highly threatening situations. This happens when the parts of the brain that control threat perception -- particularly the fight, flight or freeze responses -- begin to deteriorate. The amygdala is the part of the brain that houses the fear response. The hippocampus and cerebral cortex receive and send messages to the amygdala, telling it how to react.

"Think of the hippocampus, cerebral cortex and amygdala as being in the woods,". "In a person with dementia, the path in the woods is blocked with tumbleweeds and the message from the cortex and hippocampus can't get to the amygdala." In turn, patients with dementia often react to something as intimate as a nurse brushing their teeth as a perceived threat.

In the past 30 years the number of nursing-home residents who still have their own teeth has risen significantly. Many of these people need assistance with their dental hygiene, as well as with other hygiene.

Team conducted a pilot study with seven people who had either moderate or severe cases of dementia. The researchers used the Mouth technique on the subjects for two weeks, recording the state of the patients' mouths and how the patients reacted throughout the study.

DENTAL FACTS

Why Toothpaste Makes Orange Juice Bitter

What is it about toothpaste that transforms the sweet flavor of orange juice into something so bitter? 

answer: The mainstay ingredients in toothpaste include a detergent called sodium lauryl sulfate, or SLS for short. When you brush your teeth, SLS produces the foamy suds and gives toothpaste its distinct mouth-feel. SLS also influences the way your personal, powerful chemical sensor tastes food. 

That sensor is your mouth, with its 10,000 individual taste buds. Each consists of scores of receptor cells that respond to the basic tastes. Those are sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami (a pleasant, brothy or meaty flavor). Nerves carry the resulting signals to the brain, which registers tastes.

Prevent Cavities

    Cheese And Dairy Products May Prevent Cavities

Consuming dairy products is vital to maintaining good overall health, and it's especially important to bone health. But there has been little research about how dairy products affect oral health in particular. However, according to a new study published in the May/June 2013 issue of General Dentistry, the peer-reviewed clinical journal of the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD), consuming cheese and other dairy products may help protect teeth against cavities. 

The study sampled 68 subjects ranging in age from 12 to 15, and the authors looked at the dental plaque pH in the subjects' mouths before and after they consumed cheese, milk, or sugar-free yogurt. A pH level lower than 5.5 puts a person at risk for tooth erosion, which is a process that wears away the enamel (or protective outside layer) of teeth. "The higher the pH level is above 5.5, the lower the chance of developing cavities,"

The subjects were assigned into groups randomly. Researchers instructed the first group to eat cheddar cheese, the second group to drink milk, and the third group to eat sugar-free yogurt. Each group consumed their product for three minutes and then swished with water. Researchers measured the pH level of each subject's mouth at 10, 20, and 30 minutes after consumption.

The groups who consumed milk and sugar-free yogurt experienced no changes in the pH levels in their mouths. Subjects who ate cheese, however, showed a rapid increase in pH levels at each time interval, suggesting that cheese has anti-cavity properties.

The study indicated that the rising pH levels from eating cheese may have occurred due to increased saliva production (the mouth's natural way to maintain a baseline acidity level), which could be caused by the action of chewing. Additionally, various compounds found in cheese may adhere to tooth enamel and help further protect teeth from acid.

"It looks like dairy does the mouth good," says AGD spokesperson Seung-Hee Rhee, DDS, FAGD. "Not only are dairy products a healthy alternative to carb- or sugar-filled snacks, they also may be considered as a preventive measure against cavities." 

In the Mouth, Smoking Zaps Healthy Bacteria

According to a new study, smoking causes the body to turn against its own helpful bacteria,
leaving smokers more vulnerable to disease.

Despite the daily disturbance of brushing and flossing, the mouth of a healthy person contains a
stable ecosystem of healthy bacteria. New research shows that the mouth of a smoker is a much more
chaotic, diverse ecosystem and is much more susceptible to invasion by harmful bacteria.As a group, smokers suffer from higher rates of oral    diseases -- especially gum disease -- than do  nonsmokers, which is a challenge for dentists, according to Purnima Kumar, assistant professor of periodontology at Ohio State University. She and her colleagues are involved in a multi-study investigation of the role the body’s microbial communities play in preventing oral disease.

The smoker’s mouth kicks out the good bacteria, and the pathogens are called in, said Kumar.
So they’re allowed to proliferate much more quickly than they would in a non-smoking environment....