Periodontitis is a chronic infectious disease that affects the supporting structures around the tooth such as gingiva and bone. What are the triggers and symptoms?
Periodontitis (once called Pyorrhea) is a chronic infectious disease that affects the supporting structures around the tooth such as gingiva and bone.
The main cause of disease development is bacterial plaque that settles around the tooth and at the gingival margin. Plaque and our body’s inflammatory response cause the bone around the tooth to shrink until the tooth element is lost. Although plaque is the main cause of periodontal disease other risk factors can also increase the aggressiveness of periodontitis such as smoking (which in a dose/dependent ratio that can increase the risk of developing periodontitis by 20 times) or systemic diseases such as type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
