SEATTLE, July 10 (UPI) -- Dental pain may portend future medical problems because a diet bad for teeth may be also bad for the body, a U.S. researcher said.

Dr. Philippe P. Hujoel of the University of Washington School of Dentistry in Seattle said dental disease may be a wake-up call that your diet is harming your body.
Hujoel reviewed the relationships between diet, dental disease, and chronic systemic illness in a report published in the Journal of Dental Research.

Over the past 20 years, Hujoel said, people have been advised to make fermentable dietary carbohydrates -- cookies, doughnuts, cake, candy, bananas, tropical fruits, raisins, dried fruits, potatoes, refined wheat flour, yams, rice, pasta, pretzels, bread and corn -- the foundation of their diet.

Cavities or gingival bleeding from fermentable carbohydrates could be avoided only -- and not always successfully -- by conscientious brushing, fluorides and dental preventive measures. A diet higher in fat and protein does not cause dental diseases, Hujoel said.

"There is fascinating evidence that suggests that the higher the glycemic level of a food, the more it will drop the acidity of dental plaque, and the higher it will raise blood sugar," Hujoel said in a statement.

"So, possibly, dental decay may really be a marker for the chronic high-glycemic diets that lead to both dental decay and chronic systemic diseases."

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