My understanding is that the bacteria that causes gum disease is very different from the bacteria that causes?

Question

decay. Can someone please explain the differences between the two bacterias and how that works. I have a friend and we both use excellent hygiene, however he has decay and his gums are exquisite, even though he is elderly. I, on the other hand have very progressive gum disease and no decay. So, where do these different strains of bacteria come from? And how are they different?

Answer 1

The VERY short answer is that these two disease states involve different bacteria. Strep. mutans is far and away the leading cause of tooth decay. In fact, there are "Caries Susceptibility" tests that look specifically for S.mutans.

S.mutans can cause some localized inflammation, generally called "Marginal Gingivitis" and it might be implicated in some more advanced stages of perio disease, but it's not the biggie. When you have "hard core" periodontal disease, we find a few anaerobic bacteria present doing their thing. To be honest with you, it's freaking LATE where I live and I'm not going to look up the taxonomic names, but there are 4 specific bugs that I used to screen for with DNA testing when a patient had "refractory" periodontal disease. I stopped doing this test, because it was expensive and it ended up simply confirming what I knew in my gut to be true, so I just prescribed "empirically." This means, when a patient had 8-10 mm pockets that just never got better, I wrote the prescriptions and then they got better. Or at least improved.

Where do the germs come from? That are in most people's mouths all the time. Most are considered "facultative anaerobes," which means they can deal with oxygen, but they really prefer it where there is less oxygen. (This is one reason why peroxide rinses or flushes are effective in treating perio disease.) Once a pocket starts to form, these bugs begin to thrive, because there are not so many germs that do so well without oxygen. In other words, there goes the neighborhood. Once the pocket gets deeper, the not-so-nasty germs don't thrive and the really nasty ones have less competition for survival, so they begin to thrive and grow in larger numbers. The more there are, the more damage they can do.

The good news for patients is that the really bad guys need to be present in a decent quantity in order to really do some damage. They also need to be organized (for the most part) in colonies. Disrupting their colonies - even though you do not remove every single individual bacterium - will greatly slow down the damage that they can do. (Dentists, I know about free-floaters and I suppose they play a large role in refractory disease...) Although the 6 month recall interval was dreamed up on Madison Avenue, the actual fact is that a 3 month recall IS supported in the literature. A "pretty good" cleaning every three months will do much to disrupt and (hopefully) remove most of the bacteria that are so harmful in deep pockets. If you just can't afford or just can't stand the thought of "gum surgery," going in every three months will go a long way towards slowing the progress of periodontal disease. The thing is, three months is THREE MONTHS. I have had trouble with "Snowbirds" who start spending longer and longer winters in Florida and, guess what... Their 3 month interval stretches out to 4 or 5 months. It is so very hard to convince them that this is the reason they are starting to have trouble again after so many years being relatively trouble-free. The bacteria can count months apparently and actions speak louder than the best intentions. There IS a reason for the 3 month recall in periodontal patients and if you try to stretch it out any longer than that, you are taking one step forward and two steps backwards.

Answer 2

1. You need to understand: Bacteria are not the only reason for gum disease or tooth decay. They are one of the reasons.
2. There is no single drug for all diseases of gums and decay.
3. Both of you must have been prescribed a common antibiotic does not mean the bacteria are the same.
4. Above all, you need to realize that diseases are only caused by bacteria; bacteria are not responsible for diseases.
5. If bacteria were responsible for disease everyone should have been infected.
6. Bacteria cause disease, we have to prevent ourselves.

Specific answer to you question has two parts pls. go thru

Part -1. Gingivitis is inflammation of the gums (gingiva).

Gingivitis is an extremely common disease in which the gums become red and swollen and bleed easily. Gingivitis causes little pain in its early stages and thus may not be noticed. However, gingivitis that is left untreated may progress to periodontitis, a more severe gum disease that can result in tooth loss. For more details visit:
http://www.merck.com/mmhe/sec08/ch115/ch115b.html

Part: 2. How does tooth decay form?
Earlier we defined tooth decay is a location on a tooth where enough of its mineral content has been lost that a hole has formed. The process by which this occurs is called demineralization and it takes place because of the presence of acids on a tooth's surface. For more details visit: http://www.animated-teeth.com/tooth_decay/t2_tooth_decay_caries.htm

Have pleasant and good smile. Good luck.

Answer 3

Obviously you have parodontitis. Such condition is often hereditary and demands professional dental care. Make sure you floss regularly, brush at least 2 times a day and use mouth wash (not more than 14 days in a row). That's the regular stuff. I will advise you to visit the dentist for professional cleaning once in 3-4 months. Do the calculus removal and air flow polishing. Such conditions should be regulated by a dentist. Antibiotic will help you a lot - Spiramycin + Metronidazole.

Answer 4

I am not a dentist and so know very little about the differences in the types of bacteria. However, I found several links that you might find interesting and helpful. the first three relate to gum disease or periodontal disease and the last three are about tooth decay or cavities. Hope the information helps.

http://www.perio.org/consumer/2a.html

http://www.ada.org/public/topics/periodontal_diseases.asp

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periodontal_Disease

http://www.ada.org/public/topics/decay_faq.asp

http://www.animated-teeth.com/tooth_decay/t1_tooth_decay_cavities.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tooth_decay