Oral Diseases
There are three stages of gum disease: gingivitis, periodontitis, and advanced periodontitis. In its more advanced stages, periodontitis can lead to chronic inflammation, infection, and even bone loss. The American Dental Association (ADA) reports that gum disease affects, in one way or another, half of the people over the age of eighteen, and three out of four adults over the age of thirty-five. People who have some form of gum disease are twice as likely to acquire coronary artery disease. Gum disease can also lead to an incresed risk of heart attack or stroke because of the bacteria traveling through the blood stream and attaching to fatty plaques in the vessels of the heart. Some researchers even think that the bacteria in the oral cavity can travel through the cranial nerves attached to the jaw and contribute to the plaque that has been blamed for causing Alzheimer's disease. Gum disease has also been linked to respiratory diseases such as pneumonia and COPD. Women who had moderate to severe gum disease during gestation were more likely to have premature babies or babies with low birth weight.
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Another serious illness that occurs in the mouth is oral carcinoma, or mouth cancer. This type of cancer is abnormal, uncontrollable growth of cells in the oral cavity. Oral cancers include cancers of the lips, tongue, cheeks, hard and soft palate, floor of the mouth, pharynx, and sinuses. The majority of oral cancers begin in the squamous cells in the mouth. Squamous cells are the thin, flat cells that line the oral cavity and lips.
As the squamous cell carcinoma grows, it may spread into deeper tissues and become leukoplakia, which is the white patches of cells in the mouth often associated with this cancer. This can be a life threatening illness if not treated early. In 2009, the death rate due to oral cancer was expected to be three times higher than that of cervical cancer and twice that of liver cancer. |