Gum Disease

On the left we have unhealthy pocketing, and on the right, we have healthy gums.

There are really two areas to keep healthy in our mouths:  first, our teeth, obviously; and second, everything that is around our teeth.  We can have perfect teeth without any cavities for our whole life, yet if the supporting structure isn't healthy, we can eventually lose our teeth anyway.  This is the reason that forty years ago, or even more recently, a person could be heard saying "when I get old, I'm gonna lose all my teeth anyway."
Many people have planned on having dentures when they were older, even though there is a very real possibility that we can all keep our teeth for our entire lives.  When we don't have cavities all of the time, the reason for losing teeth is probably due to gum disease.  Gum disease can be a slow process, and our mouths heal fast enough that they may prevent us from experiencing pain.  The picture above illustrates how with gum disease, pockets are formed between our teeth and gums by bacteria and their byproducts.  The catch is that once a pocket has formed, more food and bacteria is trapped and the condition can worsen.  Research is showing more and more that there are implications for other disease in our body that can be effected by gum disease in our mouths.  A long-lasting inflammation in the gums is unhealthy, and the body shrinks the bone away from the irritation to protect itself.  Over a lifetime, the shrinking bone is too little to hold in our teeth.  All of this can be prevented by regular visits to the dentist to evaluate how we are cleaning our teeth at home and if there are any trends of gum disease occurring.