When you’re a kid, running around all the time comes naturally. And if you were growing up back in The Day like me, Sheriff John conducted the video games and they were called cartoons. Don’t know about you guys, but for me, the Mouse and the Duck wore out their welcome in about 15 minutes; Goofy was good for one toon and out. I needed to be outside; I had places to ride and people to antagonize. To this day, the only videos that will slow me down are shown on big screens.

My shingle had been hanging out here in Temple City for only about two months when I came home one night for Saturday dinner with my folks and saw my Dad die in a matter of minutes from a massive heart attack.

I’ll never forget that awful March 6; doubt I’ll ever really recover from it.

And I still love doing my cardio. Always privately thought exercise was my shield; my armor to stuff like heart disease and diabetes (both of which can be found in my family history.)

Even though Dental Assistant Extraordinaire Dani laughs at the mere mention of my ever having played basketball at any time since Naismith invented it, I played roundball almost every day of my life from age 12 to 30.

But approaching apprehensive patients with a handful of experience, power tools, and jammed fingers didn’t seem like the formula for inspiring confidence…or returned visits. So I took up tennis. My idol was John McEnroe.

McEnroe was a little guy and a world-class athlete…with a Universe-class mouth. He dictated the points with a great serve and volley game. He was creative and smart. He didn’t like practicing. He was a punk and he got away with it. I thought we had sooo much in common.

McEnroe’s nemesis and mine was Ivan Lendl. Lendl was mechanical, methodical, and relentless. He wasn’t as physically gifted as McEnroe but he was superbly conditioned. He had no visible personality and if he had ever smiled “train wreck” would have been the first words popping into your cabeza.

So I guess even though I wanted to be McEnroe, I was way more like Lendl. Right down to our cock-eyed teeth and increased risk of early age heart attack.

While I could hope to match McEnroe on the court as a world-class mouth, my athleticism has always been a distant cousin to my conditioning. I’ve always had to work hard and while I definitely have punk potential…I never seem to get away with it.

And until Temple City’s own Doc Fong won his Orthodontic Nobel Prize by unraveling my teeth, my computer Silent Hal had a more pleasing smile than either Ivan or me. As it turns out, Silent Hal was also at less risk for heart attack.

Crowded teeth turn out being safe havens for anaerobic bacteria, the most virulent microbes causing periodontal disease. And in a study published in Circulation, April of 2008, periodontal disease was associated with the incidence of fatal coronary heart disease among younger men, independent of any other cardiovascular risk factors.

The New England Journal of Medicine, March 2007, has also published research showing marked improvement in vascular function only 60 days following periodontal treatment.

Pink gums and straight teeth matter. And the stakes could be length and quality of life. Apparently, even if you’re young, a male, and in good shape.

My Dad was diagnosed with diabetes at age 50; he had had no obvious symptoms. The elevated blood glucose level showed up in a blood test taken during a check-up. Dad immediately transformed his diet; couldn’t possibly have been more compliant. Never saw Dad drink another cold one; good thing he wasn’t allergic to salmon and vegetables.

When Mom was diagnosed with the disease in her late-70s; she had loads of symptoms. In a health care/gender role reversal, Mom almost had to be dragged to an appointment with a physician. By the time Mom finally agreed to a visit, we nearly had to carry her in.

Dad enjoyed going to the dentist the way I enjoy Bruin football. In fact, one story has it he once sneaked out of a waiting room on hearing some distressing sounds coming from some poor soul receiving dental care nearby…and no, it wasn’t my office. Dad died of a heart attack a couple of months after I opened my practice here in Temple City, just one year into his retirement. We never did get around to even an exam and x-rays.

My Mom loved going to the dentist. After an early debate over Mom’s vision of ideal painless care with no local anesthetic (a rare debate I actually won) and some early fillings, Mom pretty much cruised through the next 15 years or so with no cavities or gum problems.

Mom didn’t walk anywhere up until about age 75. She ran. Mom used the Diabetic Diet way before she’d ever heard of it. Dripping wet, my 5-foot tall Mom never weighed more than 100 pounds. Up until diabetes-related neuropathy, mini-strokes, and progressive kidney failure, Mom could have danced teenagers off the floor.

A diabetes symptom I happened to pick up during a dental check-up explained my finding Mom with a whopping totally out-of-character 13 cavities. The cavities had resulted from “dry mouth,” an oral condition common with diabetes.

An even more common oral condition is periodontal disease (or gum and bone disease.) It’s estimated that 80-90% of people with diabetes also suffer from periodontal disease. Diabetes has a major impact on the ability of small blood vessels to facilitate the flow of nutrients to and removal of waste from body tissue. The result is tissue that doesn’t effectively heal.

So it’s bad enough that periodontal disease is a leading cause of tooth loss. For diabetics, the worse news is periodontal disease makes controlling diabetes even more challenging. And I often wonder about my Dad’s periodontal risk. Could proper diagnosis, continuing care, and consistent monitoring of possible periodontal disease have made a difference?

The irony is both diseases have so much in common. Diabetes and periodontal disease are both chronic and episodic; they’re managed not cured. Both diseases have an insidious onset but can easily, painlessly be diagnosed by objective numbers; and both have been proven to be connected to other health challenges such as heart disease and stroke.

If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes, seeing your dentist is a must. And as in my Mom’s case, 6.3 million Americans suffer from the disease without the benefit of a timely visit to a physician and a diagnosis.

Please be responsible and see your physician and dentist. The statistical consequences for unmanaged periodontal disease alone equal about seven years of life expectancy and untold years of life quality.

So just do the right thing.

I’ll tell ya right now, if any of you are VP Cheney rude enough to ask, you’ll get a lie in response.  And it’s your own dang fault.  Any questions?

Sometimes nature has an over-underestimated sense of humor and there you have my long overdue tribute to President Dubya.  Yeah, if son of Big George and I were both 75, we’d look pretty good for our age.  But there are some telltale Nature jokes/subtleties that give us away and make our old beat-up classmates feel totally better about themselves.

And thank God for Mick Jagger.  As long as the Stones are touring I can sometimes forget the high school reunions I attend that now look like nostalgic shindigs for survivors of the Crimean War or the Black Sox scandal…or maybe the last successful powder puff blue bruin football squad.

Everyone gives Nature such rave reviews.  What impeccable engineering!  What beauty of form!  Such balance and symmetry!  What powers of adaptability!  Blah, blah, blah.  For one thing, as birthdays move along, you don’t hear too much about “What awesome plumbing!”

Anyway, hate to sound bitter and all but I wonder if the divine powers that be contract out maintenance to the County or maybe the TC City Planners.  Starting out at about seven dog years Nature seems to take on a sense of humor that could also pass as tribute to Doc House, Don Rickles, or the sicko who came up with, “Clippers! Play loud!!!”

As an elite athlete/DDS/author who has hair seeking the shadier confines of ever growing ears and nostrils, I’ll share my unique perspective.  And I’ll even make it educational.

You tell me why teeth always have to be moving.  Nice engineering my foot!  By Dog Year VII, lower front teeth start looking like an Alhambra intersection at 6:15 (AM or PM.)

And why do teeth have to get darker and yellower as we age?  Is it because old folks really like brown shirts?

This one really gets me.  Why less saliva and more phlegm?  At least saliva doesn’t make noise.

And the older we get, the more likely it is we’ll suffer from tooth decay…again.  I can only hope the pimples don’t come back too.

We get lizard lips.  Our teeth get smaller.  Our tongues get bigger but our taste buds work like Shaquille in the off-season (almost forgot, the Moby Dick tongue can be quite the noisemaker at nights while it gets in the way of some very cool stuff…like breathing.)    Even George Carlin never trusted people with little teeth and big gums.  Look in the mirror.

Our bite can lose its memory but that’s not too important if you live in Kentucky where only the Lexington elite have any teeth left by Dog Year VII.

So don’t even think about asking me something dumb like, “How many candles on the birthday cake?”   But I will let you check my teeth; they’re awesome.

I guess the moral of this story is, while BMW has a service warrantee, Nature does not.  See your dentist if you’re old or planning on it because nature gave us an 8 Dog Year-old president with wooden teeth, no cheeks and lizard lips.  And if Nature would do that to the Father of our Country, what would Nature do to bruin fans.

I’ve seen the dentalese approach practically put folks into a deep trance.  Patients just sit there absently nodding with eyelids aflutter hoping somehow I’ll finally stop verbalizing so they can escape.  But these days my dental assistants do a good job keeping me on track (Singing Dental Assistant Kolleen just points to her watch while Dental Assistant Extraordinaire Dani prefers a more dramatic Sicilian hand gesture.)  And I guess if I hired on assistants to support me in every aspect of life I’d have more friends and fewer broken tennis rackets.  But I digress.

So what sort of choice would you make if someone sporting a white lab coat told you that you had a little gum infection and the solution was a series of deep cleanings?  Can we hear a little traveling music?

“A little gum infection” sounds like something almost cuddly.  I start thinking maybe my cutting back on cute little candy figures should do the trick.  Since most folks will listen for basically what they want to hear, many tune out after hearing “a little.”   Besides, things seem way out of proportion when a slight infection warrants multiple deep incursions around the ole choppers.  And what about the consequences of doing nothing?

Believe it or not, dentists can be normal folks just like you.  Really.  We hate dishing out bad news and we enjoy being liked.  And often this totally human approval addiction gets smack in the way of good care.

The solution is as simple as asking for a cookie.  Today, you’re more likely to hear your dentist or hygienist actually ask permission to describe any clinical discovery that falls outside the parameters of health. 

So if your gums bleed when you brush, you have an infection.  If any other body parts bled on touching, would you describe the concern as “little?”

When a diagnosis includes the words “infection” or “disease” its time to be adult describing the concern and the consequences of inaction.  And it’s totally appropriate to be hopeful about the prospects of predictably positive treatment results.

“After examination, we’ve measured infection and inflammation in the tissues that support your teeth.  Infection of the gums and bone around your teeth is called periodontal disease. 

Without the appropriate care, periodontal disease is a leading cause of tooth loss.  Today, research is showing a strong link between oral and general health.  Periodontal disease has possible connections with heart and lung disease, diabetes, and low weight premature births.  The disease is a bacterial infection transmissible within the mouth and between individuals.  And folks who manage the disease (that is chronic and episodic much like diabetes and hypertension) live an average 7 years longer than those who don’t.

The good news is the care is personalized and gentle.  Early diagnosis produces predictably positive results. Today, improvements like laser and ultrasonic technology add a lot of finesse to our approach; our patients do great and they’re always in control of their own comfort.  Early to moderate disease is almost always treated non-surgically.  Does all this make sense?  Is there any reason we shouldn’t begin care and treat the infection?”

Insurance tends to pick up most of the tab on preventive and/or diagnostic care like exams, x-rays and first trips to the hygienist.  And the cost of the same care without insurance is way less than a trip for two to the Clippers or being hauled down from behind by “Panch and John” while cruisin’ down Las Tunas.

Next trip to the dentist, listen for what’s going on, what the consequences of inaction are, and what the solution is.  If the solution sounds worse the condition, look for a second opinion.