Serious health threat but easy to prevent....

Today's post: Monday, 5-12-2008

According to data I saw last week, there’s a fifty-fifty chance you already have this health problem.

And, it is obnoxious, expensive to fix if it gets too bad, can make you look bad, & helps cause heart disease. Ouch !!

The good news is that it’s easy to prevent for the basic steps that get you 80 % of the way there & relatively easy to add the remaining 20 % protection to virtually ensure you prevent it totally. And these steps will also reverse mild gum disease that you might already have without knowing it.

This problem is gum disease. When I was younger, I thought the only way you might lose your teeth other than something striking you in the face was by tooth decay.

What I didn’t know then is that most people who lose teeth lose them to gum disease NOT to tooth decay.

In addition, though it’s relatively easy to prevent, you will get gum disease if you don’t prevent it.

But there is more to gum disease to that.

It also can cause bad breath that can only be turned off by curing it. Bad cases need specialized dental care that costs hundreds of dollars & can cost thousands when you add it the dentures you may need to get for lost teeth. Worse, the bacteria it grows in your mouth are now thought to help cause heart disease & other cardiovascular diseases.

The MUCH better news is that just a little bit of extra care once a day will both prevent about 80 % of it AND will reverse it if you have it but it’s still not too bad.

The prevention has four steps. The first three are easy, fast, & super cheap to do.

The fourth costs a bit but you only need to do it every 6 months or so.

Here are the 4 steps.:

You do these three at least once a day, ideally at the same time each day.:

1. Always rinse your teeth; use Stimudents or very carefully use a toothpick to remove any big chunks of food that don’t rinse out; & then FLOSS your teeth. (It’s Ok to skip this part once or twice a week if you are extremely rushed that day. But make an enormous special effort to NEVER skip more than one day at a time or more than twice a week.)



2. Always, repeat always, bush your teeth at least once a day. Even if you rush through the steps sometimes, make sure to NEVER miss a day.

3. Use this 3 step process to brush your teeth.:

First brush your biting surfaces on the flat part of your back teeth both top & bottom. (Using a fluoride toothpaste, that does fight cavities well.)

Then brush your teeth where you focus & center your brushing on the gumline between you teeth & gums; & do that both top & bottom.

Then make a third pass where you brush each part of your gums above the gumline on top & below it on the bottom.

If you start at one side & make one pass without stopping on each of these steps, you can do each one quickly enough to only take a bit longer than someone who misses part of their mouth & does a slap dash job.

But, the second two parts that remove the tiny stuff just under your gums & then massage them are critical to include. They are what keeps your gums healthy.

These first 3 steps are critical to do & get 80 % of the job done.

4. Get your teeth cleaned at the dentist every 6 months regularly as they recommend if you possibly can. And, make a very strong special effort to at least have it done once a year.

That removes the small bits of hardened stuff that even flossing & brushing right each day misses.

And, when you do the first 3 steps & add that step, your risk of gum disease virtually vanishes.

Taking at least 250 mg of vitamin C a day also helps your gums stay healthy.

And, if you do get gum disease or are over 40, it also helps to take 100 mg a day of CoQ10.

A good dentist knows this information & will even tell you about it.

But most doctors are not familiar with it & so won’t talk to you about it even if they cover preventive steps to protect your health.

Of most importance though is that YOU need to know about it & do these steps to protect your health.

That’s why I decided to do this post.