Just after tonsillitis is started but long before there is any sign of tooth decay or gum disease a second transformation starts to take place. There are always bacteria in the mouth but as long as the plaque colonies are small the bacteria are not very harmful. (Just a few staphs and streps). In people with poor oral hygiene the masses of plaque get larger and larger. In the centre of these masses there is very little oxygen so the bacteria that need oxygen die off and are replaced by other types of bacteria that don’t require oxygen. These anaerobic bacteria produce harmful waste products that can be toxic to other tissues throughout the body.
We will see three bacteria often associated with periodontal disease in the next section on cardio-vascular disease. However, the worst of all the anaerobic bacteria are the spirochetes. These bacteria thrive in small periodontal pockets and produce a lot of toxins that seem to be especially harmful to nerve tissues. Spirochetes have definitely been implicated in many neurological problems possibly even Alzheimer’s Disease but all tissues have nerves so all tissues can be affected to some degree. So, if our hygienists seem overly concerned about a little too much plague or a few small pockets this is the reason. Once the spirochetes get established they are awfully hard to irradicate.
There is also a lot of hard evidence that Fibromyalgia, Parkinson’s, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Pick’s Disease (FTD, Frontotemporal dementia), Alzheimer’s and ALS are also caused by spirochetal bacteria.
