Teeth and Gums

How to Live; Rules for Healthful Living
by Irving Fisher, Eugene Lyman Fisk, M.D.

(Page 9 of 12)

Section IV

There is one source of poisoning and infection so universal as to need special mention. This is infection through the mouth. Considered from the standpoint of efficiency, the modern mouth is out of adjustment with modern conditions - or, perhaps we should say, modern conditions are out of adjustment with it. Notwithstanding the numerous bacteria that flourish within its portals, mouth secretions and the mucous membranes do not seem to have the protecting power which is often manifest in other regions of the body and which protects an animal in a state of nature. Wild animals are not subject to caries or dental decay, as are man and domesticated animals.

Mouth-dangers

There are two forms of mouth-danger that should be clearly differentiated. Dental caries, or decay, is at first largely a chemical process and affects the tooth proper. Pyorrhea, or Riggs's disease, affects the tissues surrounding the root of the tooth, and is accompanied with infection by pus bacteria, and possibly also by animal parasites, termed endameba. Scrupulous cleanliness of the mouth largely prevents both of these maladies.

Dental Decay

In caries, or dental decay, plaques or films of mucin from the saliva form on the tooth-surfaces and enclose bacteria and particles of carbohydrate food, which undergo fermentation with the formation of lactic acid, which dissolves the lime salts on the surface of the teeth, leaving only the organic matter. This organic matter is then attacked by bacteria. Putrefaction sets in, and you have a cavity. This cavity is, of course, a menace, as it harbors various forms of bacteria, which may infect the general system through the root canals, or the digestive system by being swallowed with the food, and also gives rise to abscesses at the root-tips.

Pyorrhea

Pyorrhea is an infection of the gums or tooth-sockets. It begins beneath the edges of the gums that have been injured and especially where there has been an accumulation of tartar or lime-deposit. As the infection progresses and destroys the membranes that attach the root of the tooth to the socket, a pocket is formed around the root, and the tooth becomes loosened. It is said that this disease is responsible for far more loss of teeth than is decay.

Systemic Injuries from Mouth Infection

But this is not the only evil. In the pocket pus is continually being formed and discharged into the mouth and swallowed. Also, as the teeth rise and fall in their diseased sockets in ordinary chewing, bacteria are forced into the circulation and may be carried to distant parts, where they work harm according to their nature, selecting tissues for their operation in which they can best thrive.

Focal Infection

It was formerly supposed that the ill effects from such conditions as dental abscess and other pus foci were wholly due to the toxins or poisonous products thrown into the blood-stream by the bacteria at the focus. It is now known, however, that the bacteria migrate into outside tissues through the blood- and lymph-streams. In joint affections, they clog and obstruct the small blood-vessels, interfering with the nutrition of the joint-tissues, causing deformity and enlargement, as in arthritis deformans, as well as in acute inflammation, such as rheumatic fever. Indeed, this condition of subinfection, or "focal infection," is coming to be recognized as a far more important cause of disease than the time-honored autointoxication, a term which has been greatly abused and misused.

Autointoxication

The term "autointoxication" should properly be restricted to conditions where poison arises from changes in the tissues or in the activities of cells or organs, whereby substances are released into the circulation in quantities harmful to the organism; in other words, where the secretions of the body are altered, either in character or quantity, to such a degree as to cause injurious effects, such as overactivity or underactivity of the thyroid gland, or suprarenal gland.

The poison from undigested food, or from decomposing intestinal contents, should be termed "intestinal intoxication," or "toxæmia," rather than "autointoxication," or "self-poisoning," as it is actually due to infection from outside sources. Intestinal toxemia is, no doubt, a fairly frequent cause of illness, but it has lately been shown that stagnant bowels may cause true infection by micro-organisms that penetrate the tissues, and that many conditions ascribed to intestinal stagnation and the resultant chemical poisoning may actually be due to focal infection, or subinfection, arising in other regions.

The light that has lately been thrown on chronic sources of focal infection has cleared up many of the mysteries surrounding the causation of certain obscure affections - chronic rheumatism, arthritis deformans, certain forms of anemia, goitre, chronic heart and kidney troubles, diabetes, ulcer of the stomach, duodenum, etc., and other forms of chronic disease, especially those that have proved resistant to known methods of treatment.

Lowered Resistance

There are many cases where the so-called focus has apparently become established because of general bodily neglect and a general lowering of resistance, in which the focus, even though it be the mouth, has participated, and permitted the successful activities of germs or parasites. After the focus has been established, however, it is often an important and may be a deciding factor in keeping up the general diseased condition of the body.

This principle of focal infection, well established as it is, should not be accepted too literally, or given too wide an application, but no one can question the importance of preventing the bacterial hosts of the mouth from getting into the system, or the importance of getting them out, if we have unwarily permitted them to enter.

All the ills that flesh is heir to are not caused by mouth-infection, but enough of them are to more than justify a vigorous and world-wide campaign for the better care of the teeth and for a thorough search for mouth-infection in every case of obscure disease.

Keeping the Mouth Aseptic Over-dentistried Teeth

Gum infection is not always due to conscious neglect. Some people do not know how to properly cleanse the teeth. Others have tissues of low resistance, and need to give extra care to tooth- and gum-cleansing under the closest dental supervision. Others have spent large sums for dental work that has filled the mouth with crowns and bridges difficult to keep aseptic or surgically clean. There are various means which the individual can use to prevent or cure these dental evils.

Copyright 1915 by Funk & Wagnalls Company
New York and London, 1916