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Plaque and Gum Disease
Plaque is a biofilm that can start to reform about 30 minutes after removing it. Inside the plaque, bacteria find a nice place to hide and begin to multiply rapidly. The plaque provides optimalconditions for bacterial proliferation.The first type of bacteria that forms within the plaque are thegram-positive bacteria. They arenot deemed to be the bacteria responsible for gum disease. It is the second type, the gram-negative bacteria that is believed to cause gum disease. The gram-negative bacteria begin toinhabit and multiply in the plaque about two days after plaque forms. These gram negative bacteria produce an acid waste product that is detrimental to both tooth enamel as well as gumtissue.This is why flossing is so vitally important. It is an efficient mechanical way to remove plaquefrom between and around the teeth.The standard answer for how often you should floss is once-per-day. And this makes sense if youconsider that the gum disease causing bacteria take about two days to get going. If you flossdaily, in theory, you should be preventing gum disease.However, there are questions to consider. Are you really getting all of the plaque off when youfloss? Are you missing any? Do you miss the same spots all of the time?If you miss the same spots all of the time, then you aren't getting rid of the plaque in that area atall. It is able to facilitate the rapid growth and provide a breeding ground for the harmful bacteriathat causes gum disease.If everyone were flossing properly and efficiently, then there wouldn't be so many people withgum disease walking around. The truth is most adults do have gum disease, as much as 80% after the mid 30's. Yet, that is just a statistic. Gum disease can strike at any age, including children asyoung as 6 years old.Since so many people have gum disease it seems unlikely that regular brushing and flossing,regardless of the reason, is enough to stop gum disease. Perhaps people don't floss thoroughlyenough. Perhaps, they don't floss long enough. Whatever the reason, the statistics tell us that a lotof people are walking around with some form of gum disease.The question becomes, what does work to rid one's self of gum disease? I was told by a periodontist that a study conducted in Scandinavia indicated that getting a professional cleaningonce every two months cleared up a lot of problems associated with gum disease. Unfortunately,most insurance companies won't or don't recognize this as the standard of care that should bemaintained. I was also told that the once-every-six-month model of professional cleaning wasoriginally intended tofight dental cavitiesand not gum disease. Gum disease is a different ballgame that requires more frequent professional cleaning as well as good home care.
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