An Important Step Forward Towards a Vaccine for Periodontal Disease

The various types of gum disease and periodontal conditions create insidious forms of damage, caused by the presence of unwanted but very persistent species of bacteria found in the mouth. Most people suffer inflammation of the gums to some degree, and this is due to the activities of bacteria such as Porphyromonas gingivalis. While it is true that there are a large number of ways to remove the bacterial species found in the mouth, the challenge is that they always return, and do so very quickly, often within days. This is obviously important from the point of view of the quality of your teeth over the long term, but arguably the real reason to pay attention here is because inflammation and damage in the gums directly correlates with inflammation and damage to the heart and the rest of the cardiovascular system. Research has shown that the presence and prevalence of bacterial species associated with gum disease correlates with mortality rates, while gum disease itself correlates with cognitive decline and the presence of amyloid in the brain, to pick a few examples. If you don't keep dental health under control, your risk of suffering all of the cardiovascular diseases that are driven by chronic inflammation increases significantly, and it appears that your chances of suffering dementia get a boost as well. Unfortunately, for the whole of human history, dental health has proven to be a real challenge: gains have been incremental and still require a fair amount of ongoing work...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs