Smoking and Psoriasis extra bad for your gums

The University of Szeged is one of the oldest medical training establishments in Europe. Recently, it has been at the center of attention, as it has proved that a correlation exists between psoriasis patients who smoke, and the adverse effects that the two conditions combined have on the periodontium of the patient. This correlation is so strong that now there is a study that says without a shadow of a doubt that psoriasis patients who smoke are much more likely to catch a bad case of periodontitis.

The study

The research has been published under the name: “Smoking as a permissive factor of periodontal disease in psoriasis”, and that is pretty much what this is about. In the study patients form the Institute of Allergology who had psoriasis were given a routine oral check for free. The patients had to fill out a questionnaire about smoking and other related topics, as well as demographic.

The data thus collected shows that psoriasis patients who smoke were much more likely to have periodontal disease, and the more the patient smoked, the more severe the periodontitis. Altogether, patients who had severe psoriasis and who smoked were 24 times more likely to develop periodontal disease than psoriasis patients who do not smoke.

Psoriasis

Psoriasis is a little understood immune reaction to certain fungal agents. It is a swelling up and puckering of the skin, and hard, raised patches appear on the epidermis. Sometimes it can be red dots, red patches and other little raised areas. The skin is itchy, there is usually no discharge, but bleeding can happen from frequent scratching. The disease comes and goes, and the bumps come back when the immune system is compromised. The psoriasis can appear on any surface on the body. Psoriasis is not merely a skin disease, but affects the other organs in the body as well, and is a condition that makes you more prone to other diseases, as your immune system is taxed form fighting off the psoriasis.

Implications

If you have periodically returning outbreaks of psoriasis, you need to take half year check ups very seriously indeed. You are at risk for periodontal disease even if you take immaculate care of your teeth, as bacteria can hide in your gums, and no amount of flossing, mouthwash or brushing will remove them. If caught early, periodontitis can be handled by a simple round of antibiotics, but if left untreated, it can be quite severe, and can lead to oral surgery, tooth loss, severe bleeding, halitosis and a number of terrible conditions.

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