Periodontitis (per-e-o-don-TIE-tis), also called gum disease, is a serious gum infection that damages the soft tissue and, without treatment, can destroy the bone that supports your teeth. Periodontitis can cause teeth to loosen or lead to tooth loss. Periodontitis is common but largely preventable.

Can periodontal disease affect other parts of the body?

If you have gum disease, especially if it is untreated, you are at a greater risk for developing coronary artery disease. Bacteria from your gums release toxins. Those toxins can travel in your bloodstream. The toxins can cause inflammation in your arteries, and can create a blockage there.

Can periodontal disease make you sick?

Fever, Chills, Bleeding Gums: Potential Periodontal Disease. As we mentioned when discussing dental abscesses, oral infections can present with flu-like symptoms. This holds true when you experience periodontal disease, also called gum disease.

Can gum disease affect your whole body?

Gum disease, also known as periodontal disease, is one example of an oral health problem that can affect the whole body.

Can periodontal disease affect the brain?

gingivalis can kill brain neurons and boost production of beta-amyloid plaques, clumps of tangled proteins that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's, an international team reported in 2019 in Science Advances.

Gum Disease affects other parts of the body

Can gum disease affect your nervous system?

The bacteria themselves that cause periodontitis have been found to invade the central nervous system (the brain), some cause the creation of amyloid. There is a statistically significant relationship between the main bacteria involved with periodontal disease, P. gingivalis, and dementia.

Does periodontal disease cause dementia?

The mouth is home to about 700 species of bacteria, including those that can cause periodontal (gum) disease. A recent analysis led by NIA scientists suggests that bacteria that cause gum disease are also associated with the development of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, especially vascular dementia.

Can periodontal disease cause inflammation in the body?

Based on well-designed epidemiological studies, it has been shown that people with periodontal diseases present a higher risk for systemic inflammation (12, 56). Periodontal disease is a chronic inflammatory condition that shares common mechanistic pathways with other systemic inflammatory diseases.

Can gum disease cause inflammation in the body?

Gum disease not only causes damage to the gums and bone around the teeth, but can also play a role in the inflammation present in other parts of the body. Current research suggests that the bacteria that causes gum disease can also cause inflammation of the heart and other organs.

What 5 Problems can gum disease cause?

White, sparkling teeth are not the only sign of a healthy mouth. Your gums are a barrier that helps prevent inflammation that may damage your body. In fact, gum disease has been linked to health problems such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke, and premature births or low-birth weight babies.

Does periodontal make you tired?

If you develop gum disease or oral infection, the pathogens contributing to a gum-related problem will also flow through your bloodstream. When this occurs, it can begin affecting other organs in the body. In turn, you will feel tired and worn out a good deal of the time.

What happens if you don't treat periodontal disease?

Periodontitis (also called periodontal disease) is gum disease. This infection damages the soft tissue around your teeth and wears away the bone supporting them. If left untreated, the disease eventually ruins the bone, loosening the teeth and causing them to fall out.

Can a tooth infection affect your whole body?

Without treatment, a tooth infection can spread to the face and neck. Severe infections may even reach more distant parts of the body. In some cases, they may become systemic, affecting multiple tissues and systems throughout the body.

Can you live with periodontal disease?

Living with periodontal disease can cause aesthetic complications and bone loss of a serious nature. Unlike other injuries, periodontal disease does not cause any pain. It is a silent disease when the teeth gum becomes inflamed and bleeds.

Can gum disease affect your kidneys?

Previous studies have shown a link between the severe oral inflammation caused by gum disease and chronic kidney disease (CKD) which demonstrated that those with worse inflammation of the gums have worse kidney function.

Is periodontal disease autoimmune?

Periodontitis is considered an autoimmune disease because your body's immune system is attacking your own tissues due to the ongoing chronic inflammation.

Can gum disease affect your stomach?

Gum disease leads to the increased presence of harmful oral bacteria in the mouth. When harmful bacteria build up, it can then be ingested and travel to the stomach. Once there, the bacteria can cause inflammation to develop in the stomach, reports the research team.

Can periodontal disease cause high blood pressure?

Recent evidence suggests a possible causal link between periodontitis and hypertension. Patients with periodontitis often present with higher arterial BP values and a 30% to 70% higher chance to also present with hypertension,¹⁰ especially when there is active gingival inflammation (ie, with gingival bleeding).

Can gum disease cause joint pain?

from the Johns Hopkins University Division of Rheumatology provides new evidence that a bacterium known to cause chronic inflammatory gum infections also triggers the inflammatory autoimmune response also found in the joints of patients with the chronic, joint-destroying autoimmune disease, rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

How does inflammation in the mouth affect the body?

In addition to oral bacteria negatively impacting your overall health, oral inflammation can have the same effect. Inflammation is your body's natural healing response to injury or infection. The inflammatory response releases chemicals from your white blood cells to heal the damage it senses.

Can periodontal disease cause elevated liver enzymes?

Periodontitis and liver disease. Periodontitis elevates ALT and GGT levels in patients with NAFLD.

Can rotting teeth affect your brain?

Tooth decay and gum disease can lead to serious health problems, including brain or heart infections.

Does gum disease affect your heart?

People with gum disease (also known as periodontal disease) have two to three times the risk of having a heart attack, stroke, or other serious cardiovascular event. But there may not be a direct connection. Many people with heart disease have healthy gums, and not everyone with gum disease develops heart problems.

Can gum infection affect brain?

But when you have chronic gum disease or other oral infections, this seal breaks down. “As oral bacteria breaks into the bloodstream, it can travel to organs throughout the body, including the brain,” Burhenne explained.

Can periodontal disease cause a stroke?

Research Highlights: Two studies raise the possibility that treating gum disease may help prevent the development of artery blockage, thus reducing stroke risk. Patients with gum disease were twice as likely to have a stroke caused by hardening of large arteries within the brain than those without gum disease.