Q: Once oral bacteria have embedded themselves throughout my body, is it permanent?

A:  It depends on how you choose to treat your condition. Generally, your lifestyle determines the outcome. Gum disease should be considered a symptom of body-wide inflammation, as well as a contributor to it. Some professionals propose a pharmaceutical approach to gum disease treatment. They suggest localized delivery of an antibiotic agent. If you have read Mouth Matters, you know the conditions under which topical antibiotic use can work and that by themselves, they can only work in the short term. If successful and you are optimally healthy, your immune system can eventually take care of a systemic bacterial invasion.  
Long-term success of treating a localized symptom with a localized approach will fail if you do not also treat underlying causes. Treating localized surface damage does you no favors. While not wrong, be aware that it masks causes and does not deliver the long-term health and vitality you want. Learn about and address the causes of rampant inflammation and learn how to support your immune system. Know your overall inflammatory load and risks.

Q: How do I know what my overall inflammatory load is?

A: As presented in MOUTH MATTERS, knowing your hsCRP level is probably more important than knowing your cholesterol numbers. Elevated hsCRP values in conjunction with elevated fibrinogen numbers are highly predictive of heart attacks. If you have read the book, you know heart attacks and other poor outcomes are also a symptom of chronic, unaddressed inflammation. Many healthcare practitioners can offer these and other blood tests that help determine risk and monitor health improvements. 

Dentists, ophthalmologists, and other health care practitioners are beginning to join the ranks of physicians that provide treatment based on verifiable lab-based analysis of health status. Many doctors are understandably resistant to becoming lab-based for a number of reasons. For instance, the pitfalls of using even a simple over-the-counter glucose test, requires practitioners to obtain a CLIA lab license. This license subjects them to complex rules and opens their offices to time-consuming and intensive government inspection more appropriate to a large scale lab. Further, malpractice insurance does not cover practitioners in the event of a lawsuit when using these tests.