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Brush your teeth – postpone Alzheimer's

eurekalert.org

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Re: Brush your teeth – postpone Alzheimer's

#31

Post by vixen99 »

testvox wrote: post #11
hammock wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Please brush and floss. There's no downside. I wouldn't go as far as to say there's NO downside. Of course this makes me sound like a kook, but in the interest of full transparency: If you are using fluoridated toothpaste there are side effects of the fluoride, not to mention the other synthetic chemicals in there like sulfates that mess with your gut - and Oral-B Glide floss is made with teflon-like substances (PFA…

But then again brushing with fluoridated toothpaste is one of the few dental interventions with good evidence supporting it's effectiveness (unlike flossing for instance).

For sure, as always that which seems obvious may not be the case. On the face of it though, awaiting a definitive result as to the benefits or not of flossing and neglecting to remove that gooey matrix of dextrans on and around your teeth which certainly provides a happy hunting ground for a diverse collection of bugs, is possibly not the best strategy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_plaque

Re: Brush your teeth – postpone Alzheimer's

#32

Post by edmundsauto »

martinpw wrote: post #30
a_imho wrote: post #25

I've always wondered what is the order of importance when it comes to oral hygiene. Brush, paste, duration, technique. Further which is more important, brushing, flossing or a good mouthwash? Is there anything that survives a chlorhexidine rinse?

For what it's worth, my dentist told me he didn't care if his patients brushed their teeth or not, as long as they flossed.

My dentist always said, "brushing is for you, flossing is for me." (He meant that brushing is to remove the bad taste teeth fuzz, but flossing is what keeps my teeth and gums healthy.)

Re: Brush your teeth – postpone Alzheimer's

#33

Post by johnnycab »

fooey wrote: post #12
azangru wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ten years ago similar articles on prion-based infections causing Alzheimer's was the hotness, until it wasn't. I think it was not so long ago that I saw an article linking herpes viruses to Alzheimer's (which sounded much more plausible than an oral bacterium). Something must be causing those amyloid deposits...

I don't know where I picked up the idea, but I've long thought that it makes a kind of sense that oral plaque and gum disease would be linked to heart and brain diseases.

>I don't know where I picked up the idea

It is possible that you might have been pre-conditioned to think that way by the colossal dental industry; which has put out a fair amount of graphic imagery ranging from the saccharine to alarming, surrounding various aspects of oral hygiene and endorsing a variety of bacteria destroying toothpastes & mouth-washes to plaque-hunting rotating brushes in multitude of configurations etc., which compounded by this topic appearing with some regularity on HN might be reinforcing some of your preconceived notions.

Regardless, maintaining basic oral hygiene should be de rigueur, despite how feasible or tenuous the link(s) to other conditions might be.

Re: Brush your teeth – postpone Alzheimer's

#34

Post by mattmanser »

bluGill wrote: post #29
mattmanser wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to believe this sudden flurry of doubt about flossing, just based on my own experience. I have quite packed together teeth and find flossing very fiddly, so am very inconsistent with it. When I don't floss, after 3 or 4 months, my gums start to puff up and bleed when brushed. When I do floss at least once a week, they don't. It was especially obvious when I smoked, a few months after visiting the denti…

Yes, but that is all anecdotes. Nobody with any intelligence seriously believes flossing is useless, but we don't have science to prove it, and until we have science there is room for doubt. If you don't know any science it is reasonable to argue that a heavy object falls faster than a light one, but once you do some science it isn't reasonable. (it is also reasonable to argue the other way, but most people would lau…

Yes it was an anecdote, but perhaps I wasn't clear, my point is that almost anyone whose gums bleed can easily test the benefits of flossing.

A much better analogy would be that people are starting to claim that farts might not smell as there's no scientific studies that conclusively say so.

As dentists point out rather regularly since that meta-study came out, they can clearly tell who flosses and who doesn't. Puffy, bleeding gums? You don't floss.

You didn't have to labour the point about science quite so rudely, I am fully aware of the philosophy of science, thanks.

Perhaps puffy, bleeding gums are perfectly healthy, but that seems unlikely as they hurt and are unsightly. On the upside, we know an easy fix for them, flossing. Do you honestly think that everyone here, or in any dentist's surgery, is going to laugh at me for claiming that?

Re: Brush your teeth – postpone Alzheimer's

#35

Post by _1tan »

awfully wrote: post #28
treerock wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you should never rinse with water This is going to be a stupid question. What do you rinse with?

You don’t. You spit it out and go about your day.

Seconded: https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2014.1057.

Re: Brush your teeth – postpone Alzheimer's

#36

Post by tenebrisalietum »

hammock wrote: post #5
Someone1234 wrote: post #2

P. gingivalis has been shown that it can migrate from the mouth to the brain. It is also found in the brains of Alzheimer's sufferers. But we don't know yet if it is THE cause of Alzheimer's. Which is to say "more research is needed to prove a cause and effect link." This is still fresh science, the ink is still wet. It might ultimately prove that the cause of Alzheimer's is P. gingivalis (which is Nobel Prize levels…

>Please brush and floss. There's no downside. I wouldn't go as far as to say there's NO downside. Of course this makes me sound like a kook, but in the interest of full transparency: If you are using fluoridated toothpaste there are side effects of the fluoride, not to mention the other synthetic chemicals in there like sulfates that mess with your gut - and Oral-B Glide floss is made with teflon-like substances (PFA…

You shouldn't be swallowing your toothpaste or your floss.

Re: Brush your teeth – postpone Alzheimer's

#37

Post by astura »

mattmanser wrote: post #20
testvox wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But then again brushing with fluoridated toothpaste is one of the few dental interventions with good evidence supporting it's effectiveness (unlike flossing for instance).

I find it hard to believe this sudden flurry of doubt about flossing, just based on my own experience. I have quite packed together teeth and find flossing very fiddly, so am very inconsistent with it. When I don't floss, after 3 or 4 months, my gums start to puff up and bleed when brushed. When I do floss at least once a week, they don't. It was especially obvious when I smoked, a few months after visiting the denti…

"There's no good evidence that flossing is effective for preventing dental carries and periodontal disease vs brushing alone" is not the same as "flossing is not effective for preventing dental carries and periodontal disease vs brushing alone." Just because evidence for something doesn't exist or is weak doesn't mean it doesn't work, it just means we haven't done the high quality randomized studies to prove it works. And I'm not sure we'll ever have that, since these sorts of studies are expensive and there's ethical issues with asking a control group to stop flossing for years.

When done properly flossing is a very low risk intervention, is cheap, has a plausible mechanism of action, has anecdotal evidence for effectiveness, and makes you feel nice and clean afterwards. So you probably should still floss, even if there is no high quality evidence of effectiveness.

Re: Brush your teeth – postpone Alzheimer's

#38

Post by germinalphrase »

awfully wrote: post #28
treerock wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> you should never rinse with water This is going to be a stupid question. What do you rinse with?

You don’t. You spit it out and go about your day.

Is this common advice? I would find having my mouth coated with toothpaste residue to be extremely off putting. You would also end up swallowing quite a bit, yes?

Re: Brush your teeth – postpone Alzheimer's

#40

Post by tcfunk »

bluGill wrote: post #29
mattmanser wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it hard to believe this sudden flurry of doubt about flossing, just based on my own experience. I have quite packed together teeth and find flossing very fiddly, so am very inconsistent with it. When I don't floss, after 3 or 4 months, my gums start to puff up and bleed when brushed. When I do floss at least once a week, they don't. It was especially obvious when I smoked, a few months after visiting the denti…

Yes, but that is all anecdotes. Nobody with any intelligence seriously believes flossing is useless, but we don't have science to prove it, and until we have science there is room for doubt. If you don't know any science it is reasonable to argue that a heavy object falls faster than a light one, but once you do some science it isn't reasonable. (it is also reasonable to argue the other way, but most people would lau…

I don't think I follow. I believe we have the science to prove that having food stuck between your teeth is worse than not having food stuck between your teeth.
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