Fish oil helps improve periodontitis

Periodontitis is a horrible mouth disease that may start off with bleeding gums and tartar, causes receding gums and dental pockets, and can even make parts of the jaw bone rot away. The disease has consequences beyond dental health. It can eventually make your teeth fall out, but also makes you more susceptible to certain kinds of heart disease. Periodontitis, in short, is not something you want to have. Thankfully, new research shows that fish oil and other long-chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids can reduce it.

The researchers presented their findings at the Experimental Biology 2012 meeting in San Diego, California. They reviewed previous studies into the topic, and found four that indicated that fish oil could help two of which were statistically significant. The latter two combined fish oil or other long-chain polyunsaturated omega-3 fatty acids with Aspirin.

Why fish oil? Well, periodontitis is caused by bacteria, and previous research predictably focused on getting rid of those bacteria. But recent evidence suggest some of the worst consequences of the disease are actually the result of the inflammation that occurs in the gums something that is meant to be part of the body's defensive system. It is this inflammation that makes the body destroy its own tissue, researchers say.

And this is exactly where fish oil and Aspirin come in. A combination of these two things apparently makes the inflammation go down. Lead researcher Alison Coates, PhD, who is a senior lecturer at the University of South Australia, Adelaide, said: "In periodontitis, there is a low-grade inflammation. And we know from previous research that fish oil is really effective in treating inflammation."

The Aspirin could improve the way in which the fish oil is metabolized. The researchers add that the potent combo doesn't cure periodontitis, but that it will make patients better off in the long term than those who don't use it.