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There's a ton of evidence in the literature supporting that gum disease and cavities are, obviously, a bacterial issue. Flossing is an obvious way to disrupt p
by nextos 10y ago
There's a ton of evidence in the literature supporting that gum disease and cavities are, obviously, a bacterial issue.
Flossing is an obvious way to disrupt pathogenic bacterial colonies by abrasion. I think irrigation is much better, as it reaches deep pockets below gums. But it doesn't replace flossing entirely.
Those two, coupled with regular brushing of teeth, gum and tongue, plus oral probiotics should keep issues at bay.
In particular, my experience with probiotics is that tartar calculus fell apart within a few months. I have never had a cavity.
Sadly most dentists don't place too much emphasis on these as it goes against their business model: drill, fill and bill.
- ronjouch 10y agoCan you expand on which probiotics?
- nextos 10y agoBlis M18 and K12 strains. There are many brands using these. I prefer pills straight from Blis or Life Extension. If your mouth has an unhealthy microbiome, you might need to place a lot of emphasis on killing bad bacteria initially. For this purpose, salt water or mild antibiotics (chlorhexidine) for 2 weeks combined with double dose of probiotics should do the trick. Obviously, sugars feed bad bacteria, which metabolize it into acids to erode your enamel. Avoid entirely.
- danwills 10y agoI reckon milk kefir is pretty good, apparentiy it has a particularly broad and strong co-operative of micro-overlords, ahem, micro-organisms! Dental-protection? probably? No studies to back that, but in my opinion, it's one of the best cultures for your insides.
- greggman 10y agoWhere is this research that flossing is "an obvious way to disrupt pathogenic bacterial colonies by abrasion". Here's some research that claims flossing actually causes problems. "Dental flossing can produce bacteraemia in periodontally healthy and periodontally diseased individuals at a rate comparable with that caused by some dental treatments for which antibiotic prophylaxis is given to prevent IE." http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-051X.2008.01372.x/abstract;jsessionid=11BFC86BA85966197AB1385127F26733.f01t01?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage&userIsAuthenticated=false http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-051X.2008....
- nextos 10y agoThanks. This is a good point, which I agree on. But in general, interdental flossing is very good against contact cavities [1]. Perhaps deep flossing is leading to bacteraemia. I have always found hard and awkward to perform deep flossing, and that's why I use oral irrigators instead. However, maybe irrigation also leads to bacteraemia. I've seen some references supporting that too. [1] http://jdr.sagepub.com/content/56/6/574.short http://jdr.sagepub.com/content/56/6/574.short