For centuries man has struggled with maladies related with oral health; tooth pain, bleeding, cavities, gum recession, malodor (bad breath), loose teeth and the list goes on. In the past, the rule of thumb was, “If thy tooth offends thee - yank it out!” Although this ‘treatment’ is still practiced more as a last resort, the dental industries and professions have developed a list of alternatives which are applied before resorting to extraction.

By far the best treatment is ‘prevention,’ but hygienists and dentists fight a continuing battle trying to get the rest of us to take better care of our teeth. Maybe the problem is our lack of understanding of what actually causes our tooth and gum problems.

Over the past thirty years the dental profession has slowly acknowledged that the cause of cavities, gingivitis and periodontal diseases stems from microbial infestation occurring in the mouth and that the infestation is contagious - it passes from person to person through various ways, including sharing eating utensils, tooth brushes and even kissing. Bacteria colonize wherever they can and those microbes missed by brushing can multiply into those hard-to-reach places, such as under the gum line - the perfect environment for anaerobic bacteria.

Once settled in, the bacteria continue to grow in population and feed on sugars from or diets and missed by brushing – or not brushing. The waste by-product of the microbes is acidic and that acid waste is what tends to do the damage to our teeth gums and connective tissue leading to the pain, loose teeth, bloody gums and abscesses.

Science is now revealing that, as this ‘disease’ progresses and these pathogens colonize and spread, they can begin to exit off into the super highway known as the circulatory system and can settle into the organs of the body - further colonizing and contributing to strokes, heart disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, pre-term and low birth weight births, pneumonia and oral cancers.

So what do we do? Stop kissing?

If that were the case, we’d be fighting a losing battle. Professional intervention can be important but few of us can afford to drop in for a thorough, 60 minute cleaning each week.

According to Tom Cornwell, founder of the OraMedia Site for Dental Self Sufficiency,' the right attitude and a common sense approach to oral hygiene can save not only our teeth but a great deal of money and unnecessary health problems down the road.

Under the right conditions the body undergoes a healing and maintenance process. Is the oral cavity exempt from these processes? No, and people can arm themselves with knowledge of the problem, perhaps add oral irrigation to their hygiene routine and go for something more effective than TV toothpastes.

Once a person simply understands the cause of the problem and how to deal effectively with it, it becomes an easy thing to adopt a few extra measures that will help prevent a lot of problems down the road and even solve some existing ones and avoiding costly surgical procedures. The key is getting a handle on the microbes.

Those extra measures can include brushing longer, more thoroughly and using an effective dentifrice. “People don’t realize that a $1.00 box of baking soda is probably more beneficial than over-marketed, gooey toothpastes costing up to ten times as much,” says Cornwell, “plus, it will last ten times as long.” In addition, using an oral irrigator to clean between the teeth and below the gum line will go beyond where brushing leaves off. Using a good antimicrobial irrigant adds to the benefit. “Even cranberry juice has excellent antimicrobial properties,” adds Cornwell. “People should put their attention on prevention instead of how white they can get their teeth, which doesn’t do much to protect the body from disease.”

More effective self-help information is on the OraMedia site at OraMedia.com