What a dream to be delivering good news during a time of worldwide wackiness where simplicity is routinely syphoned off like cut-price lipo in Thailand. Critical thinking has taken an extended holiday in a megalithic stone jar in the lower foothills of the Xieng Khouang Plateau, Laos, frantically writing love letters to truth.

They will, of course never be posted – on account of waning self-belief, and being in the province with the dubious distinction of being the most bombed place on Earth.

Eighty million unexploded Vietnam war cluster bombs still litter this little landlocked country. Non-ticking, ticking time-bombs that have forgotten what they were ticked off about since it’s been fifty years now. But people have been known to hold longer grudges, as if there’s prize at the end.

Maybe there is.

Maybe there’s a life-long supply of grudge fudge to win. Which wouldn’t amount to much: firstly, it’s fudge. Secondly, there’s nothing to say the award is the noun, not the verb. And thirdly, after decades of protracted pique, not only is that not much of a life, there’s not much life left.

Imagine being fudged out of grudge fudge. After such intense interminable ill-will. That’d have to feel like 80 million bombs going off in your head.

Was dreaming of good news mentioned? Unfortunately, that’s as much a dream as becoming insanely rich and not having to work out whether people really like you or not. Generally they don’t. They like just themselves a whole lot more for knowing someone who’s insanely rich, rather than simply insane. Everybody knows someone in that category. And if they don’t, it’s them.

Just as everyone knows someone with gum disease.

It stands to reason. Almost half the worldwide population of 30-year-old-plus adults have some form of it – from gingivitis to mild, moderate or chronic periodontitis. Contracting severe gum disease has many risk factors. Sufferers of diabetes are particularly prone; along with people with autoimmune deficiencies, and those undergoing cancer treatment. Genetics has a role in it – as it does with everything we are. Research has proven that nurture holds more influence than nature though, so depending on the condition (obviously) there’s always an element of hope.

Science is full of good, bad, and indifferent news.

The good news, is the overriding evidence that twice-yearly dental check-ups are the best way to avoid becoming a gum disease statistic.

Only a dental health professional has the knowledge and expertise to identify the early stages: beginning with gingivitis. Easily treatable, it’s a condition that arises from not having bacteria-laden dental plaque regularly removed. Toothbrushing is no guarantee of eliminating it, and the value of flossing is in debate. Some dentists swear by its necessity while others claim it that it damages the soft tissue of the gums.

That’s why it’s imperative to see your dentist every six months to let them decide how your oral health’s going.

When plaque has the chance to build up and harden, it becomes tartar. Both these unwanted tooth coatings irritate the gum line (gingivae) and result in swelling, tenderness and bleeding. Gingivitis is a bacterial infection that your dentist will cure with a professional clean, antibiotics and a bacterial mouthwash.

Easy.

Not so easy if it develops into periodontitis. Which it most certainly will if it’s left untreated. And that’s where the bad news of science elbows its way in.

Although there is much global research in finding an antidote with breakthroughs being made, at this point there is no cure. It can only be managed, with a few choices in how that’s done. From scaling and root planing, to laser therapy gum flap surgery and bone grafts, it’s heavily reliant on how far the disease has advanced and how much money and time the patient has to invest in halting its further progression.

Other scientific news is indifferent only if you really don’t care. As in really don’t care; not pretending to not give a rats like truth would, having not received so much as postcard from absent critical thinking.

Adding to the extensive inventory of systemic health issues created by gum disease – some reciprocally – Chinese researchers at Anhui Medical University in Hefei have pinpointed alterations in brain region connections between sufferers of gum disease, and those with good oral health. It is the first study to compare cognitive changes with differing severity levels of the disorder in the elderly.

(Are you dialling the dentist right now? Gum disease doesn’t just start in your later years, you know.)

The team’s findings suggest that periodontitis negatively affects even normal brain function, with associated impairments amid the neurological network. The results also highlight the potential risk of brain damage.

With bacteria colonised in diseased gums able to infiltrate brain tissue, the resultant inflammation promotes an immune response. It’s this that is likely responsible for the distinct dissimilarities between the subject groups.

Research from NYU College of Dentistry and Weill Cornell Medicine published in 2021 also found evidence that poor gum health is detrimental to the brain. Adults 65 and over, harbouring more harmful than healthy bacteria in their periodontal tissue were more disposed to having a key biomarker for Alzheimer’s disease (amyloid beta) in their cerebrospinal fluid.

It’s another signature molecule to the previously discovered tau.

That these types of studies contribute to finding new approaches for the early prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s is all well and good – but the true message is to not have your gum health at risk in the first place.

There are aspects of our health and wellbeing that are pretty much taken for granted. We wear seatbelts. We’re au fait with food safety. And even if we don’t do them all, we’re aware of the things that keep us physically, emotionally and spiritually connected to the life we have.

What often seems to slip through this net of nurturing, is being just as diligent with our dental health: the thing that makes all of the above fall into a big hole when our pie hole does. You don’t much feel like going anywhere in your car, eating delicious food or staying socially connected when your teeth are falling out. Spiritually, you might pray for a miracle, a mountain of money for dental treatments, or to have the strength to forgive yourself for the mighty oversight concerning your oral health.

All, of course, if you have the cognitive function for that sort of thing.

Think about it while you still can. See your dentist at least twice a year. Otherwise critical thinking’s not getting to the truth, and there’s no message for you either.

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