Daryl E. Malena DDS
  Periodontics
10838 Old Mill Road
Omaha, Nebraska 68154
402 330 4100

Gingivitis may be the most common disease affecting humans.  In most cases, the cause is the accumulation of ordinary oral bacteria at the gum line between the teeth and the gingiva in the natural groove called the sulcus, between the tooth and the gums.  This cluster of bacteria is known as plaque or biofilm, a colony consisting of many types of bacteria, each interdependent not just on each other, but also on the characteristics of the patient.  

After a period of only a few days, the body's immune system responds to the potential threat of invasion by sending white blood cells to the area. They accumulate in the gingiva next to the teeth and release protective chemicals that prevent worse diseases such as Necrotizing Gingivitis (Trench Mouth), but unfortunately cause damage to the gingiva that we recognize as redness and swelling--gingivitis.  

If gingivitis is allowed to remain long enough, bone damage results--the condition known as periodontitis which can cause loose teeth and abscesses.

The relationship between gingival inflammation and cardiovascular disease is not simple.  The diseases are clearly associated with each other, but both have a number of contributing factors that make it very complicated to sort out.  The notion that some other diseases are associated with oral disease is by no means new (and for awhile, between about 1950 and 1990 the idea was almost universally rejected!), but modern research methods have identified many of the biochemical components that are produced by gingival inflammation and there is no longer much doubt about the relationship.  

How does it work?  Inflammation is a protective reaction by the body's immune system that protects us from a wide variety of diseases and stimulates healing after damage has occurred.  The chemical and cellular components of this response are not completely without side effects (otherwise our body might as well produce them all of the time), and after extended periods of chronic inflammation this well-meaning response can cause damage.  Sometimes the damage is local, as when gingivitis leads to bone destruction around teeth--periodontitis, and sometimes it is distant, as in the disturbance of the plaques in our arteries and veins that lead to heart attacks and strokes.  

Check these links for more information:
http://www.perio.org/consumer/mbc.top2.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/

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