Are Your Gums Healthy?

- Roger Mason

     

Americans have epidemic rates of gum disease and it is estimated that 35% of us have some type of gum condition. If you are just talking about people over 40 these rates are much, much higher. In fact one in eleven people over 45 have no teeth at all and wear full dentures. Bad gums lead to losing your teeth.

What are some of the symptoms of gum problems? Receding gums and spaces between your teeth where there were no spaces before. Bleeding gums especially when you brush your teeth. Bad breath can have several causes but one major one is gum disease. Red and dark gums rather than nice coral pink colored ones are a major sign of problems. Loose teeth show a very advanced problem. But you may not have any visible symptoms at all like these and still have serious gum problems.

How can you tell? Have your dentist or dental hygienist measure the POCKETS between your teeth and gums with a metric probe. You must do this at least once a year when you have your teeth cleaned and preferably twice a year. Dentists are just tooth doctors and they are wonderful for diagnosis and repair like fillings, but do NOT let them treat you with their surgery and poisons unless absolutely necessary. You have a cuff of gum tissue around each tooth which is called a "sulcus". This should only be 1-3 mm deep in healthy gums. If it is more than this is becomes a POCKET and only gets worse with time. Bacteria become trapped in these pockets and breed causing deeper and deeper separation of the gum tissue from the tooth. Eventually your teeth loosen and fall out. What risk factors are here besides wearing dentures? You would think that is the only problem, but people with gum disease have more heart disease, more osteoporosis and simply die earlier on the average. Bad gums can actually indicate an early demise. What causes these gum problems? We didn't have this problem 50 years ago. Third world countries with their serious lack of dental care often have healthier gums and teeth than we do. That is a sad commentary on our culture when poor people who may never see a dentist in the whole life often have fewer cavities, less gum disease and less tooth loss. Some of the things that contribute to gum disease are: heredity, smoking, chewing tobacco, some prescription drugs, poor diet, low immunity, not brushing your teeth regularly, poor tooth brushing techniques, lack of flossing, diabetes, and eating red meat which sticks between the teeth and causes bad bacteria to grow and flourish. What does the dentist offer you? Being a tooth doctor your dentist is only going to offer you allopathic, symptomatic treatments that do nothing to address the CAUSE of your problem. He will probably offer you a tetracycline family mouthwash by prescription that doesn't do much good and causes your teeth to turn black. Mostly he will talk about "root planning" and "scaling". This is expensive, painful and very ineffective. Don't fall for this shuck and jive root planning pitch and talk to people who have had it. I have never once met anyone who recommended it. Lastly he will offer gum surgery which reduces the little gum tissue you have and exposes even more tooth surface.

What can you do to have healthy gums naturally? Eat better foods and stop eating twice the calories you need, five times the fat you need, 125 pounds of sugar every year you don't need at all, refined, nutrition less foods, and start eating healthy whole natural foods to bring your immunity up. Take lots of proven supplements for better immunity like beta glucan. Most of all take 200 mg of CoQl0 every day- 100 mg in the AM and 100 mg in the PM. After one year you can drop down to 100 mg maintenance doses.

You can also make your own 0.5% CoQ1O toothpaste by taking a standard six ounce tube of natural toothpaste (like Tom's, Nature's Gate, Rembrandt, Jason, etc.) and adding nine 100 mg capsules of CoQI0 and stirring well. You'll get a nice beige toothpaste you can put in a small covered jar to use every day. Swish the water between your teeth at least 60 times after brushing. Currently no one on earth offers a real CoQ10 toothpaste or CoQ10 mouthwash. Use a good antibacterial mouthwash regularly. I am currently developing one with folic acid, aloe vera, several key minerals like boron, tea tree oil and SOD. The only real CoQ10 face cream in the world is the one I formulated in February of this year which has a full 1% real CoQ10 and sold under the Young Again label. I am now working on making a 0.5% toothpaste. It would be nice to offer a CoQ10 mouthwash along with that, but it is very difficult to dissolve CoQ10 in water and alcohol with a dissolvent that is safe to use orally.

By the way, you can also make your own 1% CoQ10 cream by adding six 100 mg capsules of CoQ10 to any two ounce jar of your favorite face cream and stirring well. You'll get a pumpkin colored cream but the color will disappear when you apply it to your face. Use this once a day. Are there clinical studies to prove that coenzyme Q10 is really this effective for your gums? Yes, there is and is has been around for over a decade now. It is very difficult and expensive to synthesize this and only recently has the price come down to about $1,600 a kilogram (2.2 pounds). This now makes it practical to take 100-200 mg a day or put it in face cream, toothpaste and mouthwash in effective amounts.

WARNING: You may find supposed face creams, toothpaste and mouthwash with CoQ1O but the companies will never admit how much is in the product. This is proof there isn't any in there to amount to anything. Legally, when you claim an active ingredient you must state clearly on the label the exact percent contained. You'll notice on Young Again CoQ10 Cream, for example, "1%" is clearly stated on the label so you'll know this is an honest product. Now go to the drug store or health food store or internet site and see that their labels and their claims refuse to state the amount.