Smoking and Pulpitis

Smoking creates all sorts of oral health and aesthetic problems. That’s probably not news to you, but we at Elite Dental Arts in Midtown are interested in new research that shows smoking has other dental effects that were not previously understood. One of those effects is the suppression of the immune system in dental pulp, which could put patients at risk for recurring toothaches.

Dental pulp is highly sensitive and can become inflamed in response to injuries or infections. When tissue is inflamed, it becomes more permeable to antimicrobial peptides. These tiny acids latch onto invading bacteria and kill them, making them a crucial part of the immune system. But new research has shown that smokers lack antimicrobial peptides in their pulp, meaning that infections are able to last longer and are harder to treat. If left untreated long enough, a pulp infection could develop into a facial abscess and cause sepsis.

Root canals are the standard treatment for pulp infections, but there’s a possibility that some bacteria could be overlooked and cause the infection to return. An infected tooth may ultimately have to be pulled and replaced with an implant or partial denture. Although we provide high-quality prosthetics at Elite Dental Arts, we hope our patients will take this research as additional inspiration to avoid smoking.

Nick M. Mobilia, DDS
ELITE DENTAL ARTS
9 East 45th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

Gum Disease and Cirrhosis

We offer comprehensive treatment at Elite Dental Arts in Midtown, including restorations for people who have been impacted by gum disease. More evidence is emerging of how closely gum disease is tied to other conditions, establishing a possibility that periodontal treatments could benefit a patient in unexpected ways. One of the new areas of research is into a connection between gum disease and cirrhosis.

The liver filters toxins out of the blood. But it can become inflamed, and when long-term inflammation results in scarring, the patient develops cirrhosis. People with cirrhosis suffer from inflammation throughout their bodies, including in their brains, with cognitive fog and mood swings resulting. Gum disease is also unusually common in people with cirrhosis. Scientists had thought this was because both can be caused by smoking and alcohol use, but gum disease is also common in people with non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which isn’t directly related to either.

An experiment at Virginia Commonwealth University split patients with both diseases into groups to determine how they would respond to gum treatment. They found that after periodontal therapy, cirrhosis patients had significant cognitive improvements and higher counts of anti-inflammatory gut bacteria than untreated patients. We’re excited to see more research into the importance of fighting oral bacteria, and we want people suffering from gum disease to know how much treatment could help them.

Nick M. Mobilia, DDS
ELITE DENTAL ARTS
9 East 45th Street, 6th Floor
New York, NY 10017