If you’re like most dental patients, you see bacteria as nothing but trouble for your smile. These microorganisms are the source of tooth decay, oral infections, and more; they surely can’t do anything good. Even so, the reality is that probiotics can fight off gum disease. Getting more of them in your diet would help your ailing gums heal and recover. If you’d like details, just let your Dallas periodontist explain things in the summary below.
What Exactly are Probiotics?
The idea that all bacteria are bad just isn’t true, as it turns out. A key example of “good kinds” would be probiotics.
In essence, probiotics are live microorganisms – microbes – with positive impacts on your health. Their makeup ensures they can combat the harmful effects of many types of germs. Due to this fact, having many probiotics in your body – a home for trillions of microbes – can result in all sorts of perks. They’d do a lot to support and sustain your bodily functions over time.
To be more specific, common health benefits of probiotics include:
- Stronger Heart Health
- Reduced Depression
- Improved Digestive Health
- Boosts to the Immunity System
How Can They Fight Gum Disease?
Researchers just recently learned of another of probiotics’ health-boosting upsides. In particular, they found that the unique microbes can reduce gum disease symptoms.
It all started with a 2023 study published in Clinical Oral Investigations. For this particular research project, scientists put probiotics in chewing gum and asked gum disease patients to use it daily. They later discovered the gum chewers had less plaque on their teeth after roughly two weeks. In their view, such a finding shows probiotics make gum disease less severe.
In the world of dentistry, the probiotic conclusion is very exciting. It shows people can just take certain microbes to see improvements in a gum infection.
Ways to Get More Probiotics
For your gums to benefit from probiotics, you’ll need to add more of the latter to your body. The good news is that it isn’t hard to do so.
All in all, the best approach is to consume more fermented foods and drinks. These items – yogurt, pickles, buttermilk, kimchi, etc. – tend to use probiotics as their core ingredients. Given this fact, making fermented stuff part of your regular diet would lead to great results for your gums.
Does the research above sound interesting to you? If so, just ask your dental provider for more facts on how probiotics can fight off gum disease.
About the Practice
Park Lane Periodontal & Dental Implant Group is based in Dallas, TX. Led by Dr. Andrew Barnett, our practice aims to keep your gums and jawbone healthy and thriving. We thus offer top-tier periodontal and dental implant treatments, which can restore and stabilize nearly any smile. Our team can even provide surgical periodontics for more severe cases. For more details or to book a visit, please contact us on our website or by phone at (214)-691-2614.