Virginia Beach Dentist Beware Dental Health gets affected by AIDS

The most dreaded epidemic causing unprecedented number of deaths allover the world currently is HIV.Caused by Human Immunodeficiency Virus -HIV, the body looses its immunity and becomes susceptible to infections and falls pray to diseases very easily.

If you are wondering what AIDS has to do with Oral Hygiene, let us tell you that AIDS affects your teeth, tongue, gums and all parts of the mouth. Mouth is one of the organs in human body that is a fertile bed for all microorganisms and a person with AIDS falls prey to damage easily.

In fact it has been studied extensively and understood by researchers that often mouth is the first organ where AIDS virus strikes and thereby the patients get prone to many of the diseases such as Oral Hairy Leukoplakia, Oral Candidiasis, Oral pigmentation, Gum Disease and Kaposi's Sarcoma etc.

Oral Hairy Leukoplakia is one such condition that is believed to be caused only due to AIDS. When ever you find this condition in someone, we may assume that that individual is suffering from full blown AIDS.OHL is a white lesion that appears on the sides of the tongue, palate, cheeks etc. and it cannot be rubbed off or removed easily.

Oral Candidiasis is another condition that is believed to be present in over ninety percent of people with AIDS. HIV virus kills the body immunity system where by the mouth then gets affected with this fungus. The infection occurs on palate or the tongue and rarely on the lip corners too.

Pigmentation of the teeth cavity is another most visible sign of the fact that the body is affected by AIDS. The brownish black color pigmentation is seen on gums, tongue and palate, caused due to consumption of ketoconazole and Zidovudine drugs.

AIDS patients are very often prone to Gum diseases like Gingivitis and Periodontitis and once again research has proved that the onset of these diseases is linked directly to the Full-blown AIDS in the body.The inflammation of the gums as well as the tissues supporting the tooth can cause bleeding, pus formation; bad odor and infection can spread to other areas too.These conditions in case of AIDS patients is treated with Anti Retroviral Therapy.

Homosexual males affected with AIDS also often invite Kapodi's Sarcoma , a tumor found on the gums and palate. Though found in females, the occurrence is very rare in females as compared to males.

All of these problems are found attacking those individuals who are suffering with AIDS. By understanding more about these conditions, one can perhaps implement preventive care to avoid falling prey and learn to mitigate the risk.

The body uses the mouth and the taste receptors as one of the main organs through which food is processed and the energy from the food is distributed to all parts of the body.It is through the mouth and tongue alone that we are able to chew and bite the food before gulping it down where it goes to the digestive tracks for further processing. In case where the mouth gets into a problem with dental hygiene and is not able to do its function properly, the entire food digestive system gets effected and in turn weakens the body. When the patient is suffering from AIDS, this weakness can be very damaging.

Oral hygiene becomes a very important part of the preventive effort. With daily discipline of ensuring you maintain dental health, you will be able to safeguard yourself against all these problems.