Alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, vitamin C deficiencies, the gums of teenagers are subjected to a harsh test and often in irreversible ways…
Vitamin C deficiency
Young people eat less and less fruits and vegetables and those they eat are so denatured and transformed that their vitamin and mineral content becomes symbolic!
More and more teenagers come to the clinic complaining of bleeding and excruciating gum pain. They can no longer eat. If they have ineffective brushing, sometimes tobacco, the diagnosis of vitamin C deficiency is often confirmed. They have what is called ulcerative gingivitis, on a scurvy background.
A treatment is thus urgent
– 1mg/day of natural vitamin C (organic acerola)
– Scaling and re-establishment of dental hygiene with a very soft brush during the healing process
– Mouthwash (oil pulling) with coconut and essential oils (melaleuca alternifolia, lavendula angustifolia, eugenia caryophyllata, Laurus nobilis, 1 drop of each
Tobacco
For the past twenty years, dentists have observed that tobacco, in addition to causing strong breath, causes destruction of the alveolar bone, i.e. the bone that surrounds the dental roots. Especially in young people whose bone is still immature, there is localized bone loss on the front teeth where the cigarette smoke is drawn in.
This occurs of course in heavy smokers and causes gum retraction.
Alcohol
Dr. Loredana Radoï, a dental surgeon and researcher at the Inserm 1018 unit, highlights the association between tobacco and alcohol in her studies.
Drinking and smoking have a multiplicative effect and represent 70% of the attributable risk of cancers of the mouth, larynx and pharynx.
In young people, the alcohol/smoking cocktail creates the bed for future pathologies that weaken the mucous membranes. ENT pathologies are more frequent, the inflammatory state becomes chronic and if the lifestyle is not modified, the future will not be bright ….
Cannabis
We hear everything and anything about cannabis, but what we tend to forget is that there is cannabis and cannabis. Those who believe that it is grass cultivated in open fields are very naive. The culture is often done in room on balls of polystyrene, soaked with a juice whose studied composition is with the service of an optimal growth and a maximum production of THC. The seeds acquired on the net are genetically modified. The transformation into resin and its mixture with dubious substances (camel droppings, crushed glass, tire powder, henna) before associating it with tobacco increases the combustion temperature by 200°C, forming more carbon monoxide which is very toxic for the hemoglobin of the blood and decreases the oxygen transport capacity from the lungs to the tissues.
The gums are in first line of this rise of temperature which is accompanied by a formation of 7 times more carcinogenic tars. It is also known that THC decreases the immune defenses.
Without dwelling on the consequences on health in general, cannabis smoked daily leads to a degeneration and an irreversible necrosis of the gums. Mouth ulcers and fungus are frequent, chronic, and resistant to any treatment.
The oral pains, paradoxically, are not important considering the state of the gums because cannabis seems to have an anesthetic effect. The body no longer defends itself; the pain no longer plays its role as a warning signal, and this is why the drug is often associated with tooth lessness.
Information and support within a multidisciplinary team would allow the young generation to become free and stronger in the face of the life they want to create for themselves.
The Gums of Teenagers by Dr Catherine Rossi