Oral health is so important
I had my regular dental check-up earlier this week. I always feel relieved to know that I have little build-up of plaque. This is really rather important, you see, since the health of your mouth is quite a good reflection of the state of your body's defences.
Plaque has great significance for both your oral and your general health.
Let me take you back to the late 17th century when plaque was first discovered. Antony van Leeuwenhoek was an unlikely scientist and no dentist.
He was a tradesman in the Dutch town of Delft who had a passion for making simple microscopes. Having read the book Micrographia by Robert Hooke, he was inspired to study all sorts of specimens under his simple microscope.
Interestingly, his examination of scrapings of dental plaque from people's teeth preceded some recent medical research by more than three centuries.
In 1683 he wrote to the Royal Society about his observations on the plaque from his own teeth and that from several other people of different ages. He wrote: 'I then most always saw, with great wonder, that in the said matter there were many very little animalcules, very prettily a-moving.'
He went on to say that the specimens from the aged men showed 'animalcules in such enormous numbers, that all the water seemed to be alive'.
Antony van Leeuwenhoek had given the very first description of living bacteria. Not only that, but he observed that in the plaque from older people, there was a great deal more bacteria.
Very often in medicine we see instances like this. A scientific investigator may observe something, yet its significance is not apparent medically for a long time.
Penicillin is a good example. Sir Alexander Fleming discovered the antibacterial effect of penicillin in 1928, but it took another 12 years before scientists were able to put this to use medically. Similarly, Antony van Leewenhoek's discovery is being reaffirmed more than three centuries after he first wrote about his findings.
Modern research has demonstrated that elderly people living in nursing homes may acquire particular types of bacteria in the plaque that forms on their teeth.
Alarmingly, if their immunity drops, these bacteria could result in pneumonia.
This was shown in a study of elderly people admitted to hospital with pneumonia who needed mechanical assistance to breathe.
They found that in those patients who had microbiologically proven pneumonia, the same bacteria were also cultured from their dental plaque. The researchers suggest that patients with bacteria in their dental plaque are at greater risk of developing pneumonia than those without.
Essentially, good oral hygiene is a way of preventing serious infections.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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