It's not hard to convince clinicians and dental hygienists that poor oral hygiene has a detrimental effect on oral health and a patient's overall health. After all, dental professionals see evidence of this link in health at each dental appointment.
Bacteria in the mouth develop a protection system in the form of biofilm to grow and thrive in a number of situations. Biofilm plays a significant role in not only the development of health complications but also in the exacerbation of many oral and bodily diseases.
Why is Biofilm a Concern for Dentists and Their Patients?
While biofilm is easily removed with daily brushing, poor oral hygiene allows the sticky substance to effectively protect bacteria, leading to periodontal disease. Biofilm helps the bacteria evade a body's defense mechanisms and even antibiotic treatment. When comparing the treatment of similar bacteria, whether found in a biofilm (aggregated and colony) or in a planktonic state (free-floating), the biofilm bacteria were between 10-1,000% more resistant to antibiotics than in the latter case.
If not sufficiently removed, oral biofilm leads to periodontal disease and other mouth infections due to tooth decay. Not only can periodontal disease result in the loss of teeth and bone, it also allow the bacteria to enter the bloodstream, sending it to other parts of the body, and further wreaking havoc on a person's overall health.
Another concern is the presence of biofilm in the oral cavity after a dental procedure. Bacteria prevent timely healing. To mitigate this, antibiotics are often prescribed before a procedure takes place to reduce the chance an infection develops. However, this is often a broad-spectrum antibiotic that may be ineffective against the bacterium in the oral cavity and may contribute to antibiotic-resistant strains. All of this without actually preventing an infection.
Desiccation products like PerioDT™ make removing necrotic debris and biofilm easy during periodontal procedures. The desiccant technology removes the water from these materials so that they rinse away with minimal manual instrumentation.
What are the Whole Body Implications of Uncontrolled Biofilm Exposure?
When the biofilm is left unaddressed, oral and whole-body health can suffer from a number of different systemic diseases and illnesses. A well-documented example of this is dental patients with chronic periodontal infections, who are twice as likely to suffer from heart disease. Excessive oral cavity biofilm has been found to initiate or complicate medical conditions such as:
- Endocarditis
- Diabetes
- Kidney disease
- Pulmonary disease
- Alzheimer's syndrome
The Impact of Oral Health
Understanding the unique challenges of treating oral biofilm in patients helps clinicians choose the right tools for the job. While PerioDT isn't recommended for every prophylaxis treatment, it is crucial for treating chronic periodontal disease without antibiotics or invasive surgery.
A healthy mouth is intertwined with general health. By effectively disrupting bacteria-filled biofilm from the deep pockets of a patient's gingival tissue using the power of desiccation technology, a patient's whole body health is impacted for the better.
Sources
Mirzaei, Rasoul, Rokhsareh Mohammadzadeh, Mohammad Yousef Alikhani, Mohammad Shokri Moghadam, Sajad Karampoor, Sima Kazemi, Alireza Barfipoursalar, Rasoul Yousefimashouf, "The Biofilm-associated Bacterial Infections Unrelated to Indwelling Devices." IUBMB, 9 Mar. 2020, https://iubmb.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/iub.2266
Kurtzman, Gregori M., Robert A. Horowitz, Richard Johnson, Ryan A. Prestiano, and Benjamin I. Klein, "The Systemic Oral Health Connection: Biofilms." NIH, 18 Nov. 2022, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9678577/
Prinzi, Andrea, Rodney Rohde, "The Role of Bacterial Biofilms in Antimicrobial Resistance." American Society of Microbiology, 6 Mar. 2023, https://asm.org/articles/2023/march/the-role-of-bacterial-biofilms-in-antimicrobial-re
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