Chelsea Lee
Medical Research Editor
WhereismyDoctor.com

Hormones Affecting Women’s Gums

June 19th, 2012

According to the latest research, proper dental care like flossing and brushing your teeth will save you from more than just cavities and root canals.

Charlene Krejci, a professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine, found a strong link between general women’s health problems and gum disease.

Hormone levels change over the span of a woman’s lifetime, specifically at the onset of puberty, during menstruation, during pregnancy, and with menopause.

These hormonal changes also cause the conditions in the mouth to change allowing more bacteria to grow than usual.

When these bacteria get in to the bloodstream, serious health problems have been found to occur such as pre-term labor, fetal death, and bone loss.

Krejci noticed that the relationship between gum disease and hormone level fluctuations is a female-specific connection.

She points out that "Although women tend to take better care of their oral health than men, the main message is women need to be even more vigilant about maintaining healthy teeth and gums to prevent or lessen the severity of some of women-specific health issues.”

That vigilance means flossing daily, brushing twice, and seeing a dentist for a dental exam at least every six months.

Krejci also mentions that women often experience gum problems during pregnancy due to hormones. She advises those women who are already prone to gum disease to take care of those issues before getting pregnant.

You can read Charlene Krejci’s complete article in the May issue of Oral Health and Preventive Dentistry titled "Women's Health: Periodontitis and its Relation to Hormonal Changes, Adverse Pregnancy Outcomes and Osteoporosis."

Talk to a dentists about your concerns.