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Posted on 7/16/2014 by Dr. Martha E. Rich |
 As a dentist, I work with the body's inflammatory responses nearly every day. Bacteria builds up around a tooth, and the gums swell with blood in an effort to fight the growing infection. This can happen for the simplest of reasons: a change in diet or home-care habits being the most common. But sometimes the mouth can have a more generalized reaction. Instead of inflammation developing in a single, localized area of infection, the gums swell and bleed uniformly throughout the entire mouth. Gingivitis like this may still be a reaction to too much bacteria all throughout the mouth, but sometimes gingivitis can develop even in a healthy mouth where plaque and bacteria are seemingly under control. Stress, dietary or environmental allergens and irritants, or an underlying systemic inflammatory disorder can all contribute to the development of chronic inflammation in the mouth.Inflammation anywhere in the body is never a good sign, but in most cases it is a normal response to a physical injury, a localized infection, or an allergen. Your body is trying to help you fix the problem by sending extra blood to the area to speed healing and fight unwanted intruders. In a healthy system, this inflammation subsides as soon as balance is restored to the area: the bone is set, the infection is under control, or the allergen has been removed and processed out of the body. Sometimes, however, the body can get stuck in an inflammatory response even though the allergens, infecting bacteria, or physical injuries have been resolved. When this happens, inflammation is no longer a helpful partner in defending and healing your body. Inflammation and the immune system that triggers it are now at odds with your body – seemingly attacking otherwise healthy systems for reasons we still don't completely understand. What we do understand so far is that inflammatory disease anywhere in the body seems to be multifactorial in nature. Stress, diet, environment, and physical activity all seem to have a role in the progression or stabilization of nearly all chronic inflammatory conditions. Systemic inflammatory conditions also seem to have a unique relationship with inflammatory conditions of the mouth. We still don't know if that relationship is actually causative, but the correlations between the two are extremely strong. Inflammation, like pain, is a message from your body that something is wrong somewhere. Understanding that message can be tricky sometimes, especially when the body's inflammatory response is the problem. To help you begin unravelling what your body may be trying to tell you, I've created a new resource article this month entitled Inflammatory Disease and the Mouth. It is my hope that anyone who has or suspects they may have a chronic inflammatory condition will read this article and share their concerns, questions, and self-observations with their medical and dental providers. As always, if you are a current patient of mine, or you would like to become a patient, please feel free to call my office during our regular business hours with any questions or concerns you may have about inflammation in your mouth or a suspected inflammatory disorder.  |
