Dental issues are a very common health problem and most of us human beings experience it on a regular basis, ignore it at times too and consult the doc only in times of excruciating pain or aggravating one. Otherwise, it’s more about home remedies and painkillers as a form of treatment. Over 15% of the middle-aged population is known to suffer from dental problems while many do admit that if they would not have ignored dental issues they could have had an early diagnosis and treatment resulting into better dental health. Even the old adults over 65 years of age complain of infection issues with their implants and result into peri-implant diseases.
Well, here’s some good news in the regard. Chewing gum has now been considered as a solution to diagnose dental issues. As per European Scientists, chewing gum can help diagnose dental diseases which show very little or no symptoms that too cost effective.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Chewing gum has a compound known as denatonium, also known as the taste alarm which acts as a tool for detection of dental diseases. The role of the denatonium is to act as a trip wire and release bitter taste in case if a patient is suffering from dental conditions like peri-implantitis. The bitter taste is an indicator of the same. If there is no gum or dental disease then the gum would taste sweet and not bitter as it does not break down due to the healthy saliva.
The substance testing has been already carried out on patients suffering from infections and is working very well and was observed to be releasing almost three times more bitter saliva compared to patients with a healthy saliva.
Having said that, the researchers have also taken into note the fact that the taste perception does vary depending upon the demographics like gender, genetics, and ethnicity and the bitterness toleration aspect can differ from person to person. Hence, these kinds of demerits and some others need to be addressed still before determining the final result. Furthermore, even if the process is simple as that of chewing a gum, it’s advisable that only qualified dentists supervise the diagnosis and prescribe or suggest suitable treatment.
*Sourced from the Internet