Rheumatoid Arthritis: How Tooth Brushing Helps Ward Off Condition

There's one more benefit tooth brushing brings than eliminating bad breath and that's the ability to ward off rheumatoid arthritis.

According to a new study, an autoimmune condition that causes joints to swell and become painful may be associated with unhealthy or bad bacteria in the mouth.

This research from the Academic Centre for Dentistry in Amsterdam, investigated about 50 people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, and 50 who were suffering from inflammatory joint pain.

Entitled "Temporomandibular joint function, periodontal health, and oral microbiome in early rheumatoid arthritis and at-risk individuals: a prospective cohort study protocol," it was published in Nature.

Specifically, the study investigators examined bacteria on the tongues, plaque and saliva of the volunteers. Then, compared them with 50 healthy individuals of the same age.

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(Photo: Daniel Albany on Pixabay)
Experts have suspected that it is more possible that poor tooth-brushing enables destructive and hurtful bacteria to get into the bloodstream, resulting in inflammation which may contribute to the stimulation of rheumatoid arthritis.

Good Oral Hygiene

During the study, those who had rheumatoid arthritis, as well as those who were at risk of developing it were found to have higher levels of two types of bacteria which include the one commonly known to result in chronic inflammation in the body.

Study findings published in the Arthritis & Rheumatology journal suggest that good oral hygiene could help in warding off harmful bacteria, not to mention, the danger of rheumatoid arthritis.

According to Johanna Krose, the study's lead author, the next step would be, to find out if targeting the said bacterial identified as "prevotella" and "veillonella," as described in the National Library of Medicine study entitled "The oral microbiome and human health," lessened the danger of arthritis.

She added, their study proposes that oral bacteria may play a vital role in stimulating the onset of rheumatoid arthritis.

If, in this particular circumstance, the next step for future studies would be to find out if the risk of rheumatoid arthritis can be reduced by targeting these microbes.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

According to a Mail Online report, rheumatoid arthritis impacts nearly one in every 100 people in the United Kingdom, contributing to more than 400,000 in all. More so, it impacts about two to three times the number of female individuals compared to males.

In this new study, the study authors were able to identify the same levels of mouth bacteria in both people who had the disease, and those who were at risk of it, who were already suffering from joint pain, and those with high levels of antibodies which are attacking healthy joints.

Compared to healthy people, both cohorts were found to have higher saliva levels of Prevotella, some strains of which have been identified to result in chronic inflammation the same as the one that's seen in people who have rheumatoid arthritis.

They were also found to have higher levels of a type of bacteria also known as Veilonella in their saliva and on their tongues when compared to the other bacteria's balance in their mouth.

People in this study who had arthritis had all been diagnosed within the previous year, and, according to this report, it is probable that the condition is interrupting the bacteria in the mouth.

Nevertheless, experts have suspected that it is more possible that poor tooth-brushing enables destructive and hurtful bacteria to get into the bloodstream, resulting in inflammation which may contribute to the stimulation of rheumatoid arthritis.

A related report is shown on Johns Hopkins Rheumatology's YouTube video below:

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