Dr. Nammy talks about one of the fundamentals of dentistry, achieving a balance between good bacteria and bad bacteria in your gums.
So let’s start with the fundamentals of dentistry here. In your mouth, there’s always going to be good bacteria and bad bacteria. Just like on our skin, there’s good bacteria and bad bacteria and our skin is a layer of protection so that the bad bugs don’t get into our body and cause infection or put us in the hospital.
The same thing happens in the gums. We have over 200 species of bacteria in the gums; some good, some bad. What we’re looking for is balance. What we want is to make sure there’s more good bacteria than the bad bacteria because when the bad bacteria take over, it’s not a good thing. It basically takes our pretty pond and turns it into a swamp. So what we want to do is keep our pond, hence our mouth, clean, comfortable and looking pretty.