One in 12 American adults have gingivitis, a usually painless inflammation of the gums often caused by plaque that can lead to periodontitis, resulting in bone decay and tooth loss.Gingivitis and poor oral health can be linked to many factors, but Dr. Charles Randall Quinn II, D.D.S., says that simply doing a better job of brushing and flossing could prevent a lot of cases.
Quinn grew up in North Georgia, where he attended Lakeview Fort Oglethorpe High School. He attended Trevecca Nazarene College in Nashville and from there went to UT Dental School in Memphis. Once he graduated, he headed back home to Chattanooga, bought a practice from W.C. Steele, and has been located on the third floor of the University Tower building downtown for 21 years practicing general dentistry.
Quinn says that many younger people, especially teenagers and boys, need to do a more diligent job of brushing to maintain good oral health. Other factors, including nutrition and especially the amount of soft drinks a person drinks, can lead to poor oral health as well.
Not everyone who comes into his office has a dirty mouth, Quinn says, but he is able to see a direct relationship between the amount of cavities and how well an individual has done at taking care of their teeth in-between visits.
He says, “We can tell when they brush their teeth and can tell when they have flossed right before they got here. You’ve got a lot of these rinses and things that are certainly fine, but you can’t rely on stuff like that. You’ve got to mechanically, with a toothbrush, remove plaque and tartar. You can’t just get a magic rinse and get rid of it.”
Poor oral health can result in cavities and, over time, can lead to gum disease, the number one cause of loss of tooth, Quinn says. “You can lose a perfectly good tooth with no cavities or anything in it to gum disease because of tartar building up on the teeth. It gets under the gums, acting like a splinter, as it just keeps going down and the tooth keeps getting looser,” he says. “This happens over a period of time, not just overnight, and it’s usually fairly painless until it’s really bad.”
Within the category of gum disease, gingivitis is the beginning stage, where there is some inflammation, irritation and perhaps bleeding of the gums when brushing or flossing. This can develop into periodontal disease where there is bone loss. The word “periodontal” literally means “around the tooth.” Periodontal disease is a chronic bacterial infection that affects the gums and bone supporting the teeth. The treatment is getting down into the area and removing the plaque to stop the progression of the disease where it’s at, but you can’t hardly make the bone surrounding the tooth grow back, Quinn says.
According to Colgate.com, good oral hygiene results in a mouth that looks and smells healthy. This means teeth are clean and free of debris; gums are pink and do not hurt or bleed when brushing or flossing; and bad breath is not a constant problem.
Between regular visits to the dentist, there are simple steps people can take to greatly decrease the risk of developing tooth decay, gum disease and other dental problems. These include brushing thoroughly twice a day and flossing daily, eating a balanced diet and limiting snacks between meals, using dental products that contain fluoride (including toothpaste), rinsing with a fluoride mouth rinse if your dentist tells you to, and making sure that children under 12 years old drink fluoridated water or take a fluoride supplement if they live in a non-fluoridated area.
Good oral health and good health go together because having good oral health can make an individual feel better overall. Quinn says there are not many things worse than a toothache it not only effects oral health, but also effects overall morale.
“Having a nice smile … something you are confident in and don’t have missing teeth or cavities or big black spots on your teeth is certainly going to make you feel better about yourself,” Quinn says. “If your teeth and gums are well taken care of, you are going to eat better, and if you don’t have missing teeth, you are going to be able to eat pretty much whatever you want.”
There have even been studies that have linked increased amounts of poor oral health in heart patients, and have even tied gum disease, heart disease and stroke together, according to perio.org. Quinn says that for most people, a visit to the dentist every six months is sufficient. He does have patients who are going through periodontal disease that come in every three or four months to stay on top of the disease, and this has proved very beneficial, he says. Quinn does agree, though, that we live in a busy time where oral health can be easily forgotten.
“It’s easy to miss one [appointment], and before you know it, it’s been 18 months,” he says.
For maximizing the good oral health of patients and efficiency of services provided within his own office, Quinn has implemented a new technology that allows a computer to provide him with easy access to a patient’s schedule, information, and x-rays that can be sent to other dental specialists within minutes instead of the old way that resulted in a wait time of days or weeks for correspondence. Quinn says he likes knowing everyone who sits down in his chair, and even has patients who have been coming to the office since Steele was in practice. “I know these people. I don’t just care about their teeth, I care about them,” he says.