Periodontal diseases are infectious diseases caused by bacteria, present in mouth. The most important causative factor is Dental Plaque, which is soft deposit present on teeth, due to lack of proper cleaning of teeth. Many other factors contribute such as food lodgment, improper brushing habits, improper shape and size of teeth, faulty dental restorations and treatment procedures.Abnormal habits such as thumb sucking, lounge thrusting and mouth breathing, faulty nutrition and food habits and few debilitating diseases e.g. diabetics, hypertension, mental retardation, blood disorders, conditions such as pregnancy, menopause, puberty etc.
Periodontal disease can affect any individual of any age, sex, race and community at any time in life, but these are some risk factors or behaviors, which increase the susceptibility of an individual to get this disease and can modify the winze of disease to a more aggressive and rapidly deteriorating form. These are smoking, diabetes, old age, pregnancy, family history of similar problem, hypertension.The worst fact about the periodontal disease is that the disease is very slow in onset, progression and hardly cause any symptoms or problems in the initial stages.
The problem which appears is that, the disease which could have been reverted with just a bit of enhanced care effort, is so much spread in the month, that patient is left with only fewer, more complicated, more extensive and expensive treatment options to save his teeth. Treatments for periodontal diseases do exist, and have miraculous results, but intervention vary according to the stage of disease at which the patient presents to the doctor.