Chemotherapy Associated with Oral Health Care Problems

Chemotherapy Associated with Oral Health Care Problems

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Article Featured on Oral-B

The Bad Side of Chemotherapy

For a number of medically important reasons, it’s important that cancer patients not neglect their dental health.

Chemotherapy, which involves drug treatment to kill cancer cells, can promote a range of oral health problems. The medications used in chemotherapy can promote dry mouth, which can be part of the overall picture of tooth decay.

In addition, chemotherapy drugs can affect the blood’s ability to clot, and patients may experience bleeding gums or be more prone to oral ulcers. Most patients can continue to brush and floss their teeth safely. Your dentist or dental hygienist may suggest a soft toothbrush or soft floss to make tooth care more comfortable during chemotherapy.

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Gum Disease

Understanding Periodontitis: A Progressive Form of Gum Disease

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Gum disease, also known as periodontal disease, exists in two forms: gingivitis and periodontitis. Both types of gum disease arise from a bacterial infection that is usually brought on by poor dental care. Gingivitis is a milder form of gum disease that causes irritated, bleeding gums. If left untreated, it can progress to periodontitis.

Like gingivitis, periodontitis causes gums to bleed and become inflamed. Other signs and symptoms of periodontitis can include:

  • Mouth sores
  • Gum pain
  • A sour taste in the mouth

Many people with periodontitis experience few symptoms. But even in the absence of obvious symptoms, untreated periodontitis can cause teeth to loosen and fall out or need to be extracted.

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Healthy Snacks for Kids

Nutrition and Your Child’s Teeth

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What your child eats affects his or her teeth. Too many carbohydrates, sugar (for example, from cake, cookies, candies, milk, and other sugary foods and beverages), and starches (for example, pretzels and potato chips) can cause tooth decay. How long carbohydrates remain on the teeth is the main culprit that leads to tooth decay.

The best thing you can do as a parent is to teach your child to make healthy food choices. Here are some tooth-friendly foods to serve your children along with some other tips:

  • Fruits and vegetables: Offer fruits and vegetables as a snack instead of carbohydrates. Fruits and vegetables that contain a high volume of water, such as pears, melons, celery, and cucumbers are best. Limit banana and raisin consumption as these contain concentrated sugar or if you serve these fruits, try to brush your child’s teeth immediately after they are eaten.
  • Cheese: Serve cheese with lunch or as a snack, especially cheddar, Monterey Jack, Swiss, and other aged cheeses which help to trigger the flow of saliva. Saliva helps to wash food particles away from teeth.

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7 Nighttime Tips for Improving Your Oral Health

7 Nighttime Tips for Improving Your Oral Health

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A lot can happen to your mouth in eight hours — especially when you’re sleeping and bacteria are gathering on your teeth. But don’t let the thought of nasty plaque, cavities, tartar, or gingivitis stop you from getting a good night’s rest. There are many ways to maintain your oral health while you sleep. Here are seven tips to get you — and your mouth — through the night.

1. Brush before bed. Brushing your teeth before you go to sleep at night helps protect against plaque buildup, tooth decay, and gum disease. If you are particularly susceptible to cavities and gum disease, dentists recommend that you brush immediately after dinner, then again right before bedtime.

2. Use good form. According to dentists, the best way to clean your teeth is to brush back and forth gently in short strokes. Brush the outer tooth surfaces first, then the inner tooth surfaces, followed by the chewing surfaces. To clean the backs of your front teeth, use the tip of the brush and stroke gently up and down.

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Detecting Oral Cancer

Dentists Play Key Role in Detecting Oral Cancer

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Ask for screening as part of your general checkup, experts say.

Not only do regular dental exams help keep your teeth and gums healthy, they can help detect oral cancer, the Academy of General Dentistry says.

As part of Oral Cancer Awareness Month in April, the group recommends that people get a dental exam from a general dentist every six months.

“The next time you visit your dentist, ask about an oral cancer screening,” academy spokesperson Dr. Seung-Hee Rhee advised in an academy news release.

“Your dentist will feel for lumps or irregular tissue changes in your neck, head, cheeks, and oral cavity and thoroughly examine the soft tissues in your mouth, specifically looking for any sores or discolored tissues. Although you may have already been receiving this screening from your dentist, it’s a good idea to confirm that this screening is a part, and will remain a part, of your regular exam,” Rhee said.

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A Guide to Flossing

A Guide to Flossing Your Teeth

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Brushing your teeth is not enough to maintain good oral health over time. Flossing should be a regular part of your oral hygiene routine.

Cleaning the spaces between your teeth and along your gums with dental floss is as important to your oral health as cleaning your teeth with a toothbrush. Just like you brush your teeth every day, flossing should be part of your daily routine.

To better understand why flossing is so important, Richard H. Price, DMD, spokesperson for the American Dental Association (ADA) and a former clinical instructor at Boston University Dental School, compares it to cleaning your home: “You cannot effectively vacuum a house with only one attachment,” he says. “You need other attachments to get into the nooks and crannies. That’s what floss does.”

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Vitamin D May Help Prevent Tooth Decay

Vitamin D May Prevent Tooth Decay

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The sunshine vitamin’s potential role in preventing tooth decay is the latest on its long list of health benefits.

Vitamin D might help prevent tooth decay, a new review of existing studies published in the journal Nutrition Reviews found.

The review includes data from 3,000 children enrolled in 24 clinical trials published from the 1920s to the 1980s. Overall, the trials showed that vitamin D supplementation led to a 50 percent drop in the incidence of tooth decay, perhaps because vitamin D helps the body absorb the tooth-building calcium it needs.

In the trials, the vitamin was delivered either via supplemental UV radiation or by diet products, such as cod liver oil, which contain it.

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Smoking & Oral Health

Tobacco Use and Your Oral Health

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It’s no secret that smoking is bad for your overall health but using tobacco products can have serious consequences on your oral health, too.

In addition to affecting your overall health, tobacco use and smoking can cause a number of oral health issues, ranging from oral cancer to discolored teeth.

“You can get yellow teeth [and] a yellow tongue,” says Thomas Kilgore, DMD, professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery and associate dean at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine. “You see a lot of staining on the tongue.”

Smoking and tobacco use can lead to more serious oral health complications as well, including gum disease and oral cancer.

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Foods that Mask Bad Breath

Foods That Mask Bad Breath

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These common foods can help hide halitosis — at least for a short while.

Maybe you shouldn’t have had those raw onions with your hamburger at lunch, because now you’re faced with bad breath all afternoon. Many people find they can’t hide what they ate because certain foods linger in their systems, causing bad breath. Onions and garlic are probably the most common and most well-known instigators of bad breath, or halitosis, but there are others.

The issue with foods like onions and garlic is that they contain pungent oils that get carried through your bloodstream to your lungs. When you breathe out, the pungent leftovers are exhaled too.

Fortunately, just as eating certain foods can cause your breath to be unpleasant, other foods can help mask bad breath — for a time. “It will only be temporary,” notes Gerald P. Curatola, DDS, clinical associate professor at the New York University College of Dentistry and an oral health and wellness expert for The Dr. Oz Show. The following foods could provide relief for an hour or two, until you are able to attack the underlying cause — odor-producing bacteria in your mouth.

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Healthy Teeth, Healthy Heart

Healthy Teeth, Healthy Heart?

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Experts say that your oral health could clue you in to the condition of your heart — so listen up! Here’s what you should know about the links between your teeth, gums, and ticker.

You brush, floss, and follow all your dentist’s commandments for healthy teeth and gums (kudos!). But did you know that those mouth-healthy habits may ultimately keep your heart healthy, too?

Research has found a surprising number of links between the state of your mouth and your heart. In fact, we now know that people who develop gum disease (either gingivitis, a milder form that results in inflammation and infection of the gums, orperiodontitis, which develops when the inflammation and infection spread below the gum line) are nearly twice at risk for heart disease.

And in one study of 320 adults — half with heart disease — researchers found that these participants were also more likely to have gum disease, bleeding gums, and tooth loss.

What’s the connection? Researchers are still figuring that out.

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