Now Oral Health Is Linked To Pancreatic Cancer Too

Much like Australian women being killed by angry and violent men at the rate of one every four days, it’s a situation that garners shock and outrage and comment and opinion; but very little action to bring permanent and worthwhile change.
Although dental health is universally acknowledged as absolutely crucial to wellbeing, this proven fact doesn’t stop it getting the short shrift year after year, decade after decade in a country that prides itself on healthy lifestyle.
Is it though? Does the average Australian live healthily and actively, or are Aussies addicted to believing their own Crocodile Dundee press?
Statistically, according to the Global Obesity Observatory, more than 32% of adult males in 2024 are obese. As are 30% of women, 17.22% of boys and 14.21% of girls.
Almost three million Australians drink a sugary beverage every day – often more than one.
It certainly seems that the ideology of mateship, everyone having a fair go and quality education are woolly relics of the country that once had a population of 9 million and rode the sheep’s back.
Not the one that now has more direct investment capital leaving it than coming in, with income distribution that’s become more and more disproportionate over the last 30 years. So much so that over 640,000 households are either living in overcrowded conditions, facing unaffordable rent, or being made homeless despite having a full time job.
The DMFT is the decayed, missing or filled teeth index. It is the epidemiological dentistry indicator used by WHO and has remained the recognised key quantifier of oral health for the last 86 years.
It charts the Philippines with the world’s worst score, with 90% of its citizens suffering dental issues. Second to that is India.
Third worst in the whole world, is Australia.
Worst.
Not third in the world – which would put Australia behind Denmark and Germany – but third worst: way behind Finland, the UK, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, the US and France.
Not coincidentally it seems, the 2024 World Happiness Report has Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland all within the top eight.
These are countries with universal, or incredibly affordable and accessible dental care.
These are quantifiably the healthiest, happiest nations on the planet, with life expectancy up to 1.6 years above the average.
Psychologically, Sweden, Germany, Finland, France and the Netherlands again, hold enviable positioning in terms of positive mental health populations.
Dental health and mental health go hand-in-hand. As we constantly see in our Sunbury dentist clinic, poor oral health negatively impacts self-perception, self-esteem, clarity of speech, food choices and nutrition. Reduced social interaction follows; increasingly compounding already damaged psychological balance, resilience and wellbeing.
Ironically, while Australia cites $12 billion annually that universal dental care would cost as the reason for non-implementation, it’s been spending precisely that, every year since 2017 on the nation’s declining mental health.
And that’s not the half of it.
We already know – and have done, for the last two decades plus – that more than 90% of all systemic disease manifests in the mouth.
Ninety. Percent.
What are we doing here… gunning for a hundred? So we can ignore the diabolical consequences of a higher number?
Tooth decay and gum disease are considered the most important oral health burdens globally, because of the physical, mental, financial and spiritual knock-on effect of poor oral health. Even in industrialised countries, 60-90% of school-aged children and the majority of adults are dealing with damaging dental conditions.
Many remain untreated until they reach crisis point. That can mean emergency dental appointments, unplanned hospital emergency admission, and even death.
We’re living on bizarre parallel planes where doctors are doctors and dentists are dentists. Despite identifying chronic inflammatory diseases that shorten lives and wipe out loves that are all heavily dependent on the state of people’s oral health … never the twain shall meet.
They’ll tweet. They’ll concur in emergency rooms and ICU, on research grants and on paper, but like the cops and the courts on murdered mothers and dead women, what’s ultimately being defended is all warped and skewiff.
It’s an arrangement that neither these women, or the body signed up for.
Nobody told them that they’d be fending for themselves. Nor does anatomy allow teeth and gums to keep problems and pathogens strictly within the environs of the oral cavity.
Certainly not to be the link to diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular disease, obesity, lung cancer, chronic depression, stroke, leukaemia, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, kidney disease, erectile dysfunction, premature births, sleep apnoea, respiratory disease – and now pancreatic cancer.
Opera fans may remember that the brilliant Pavarotti died from pancreatic cancer, here’s his last public performance where the emotion pouring out of him reveals he knows he is set to meet his maker:
There’s little that good oral health doesn’t protect.
Eighteenth-century French naturalist, statesman and founder of comparative anatomy Georges Cuvier, once said, “Montre-moi tes dents et je te dirai qui tu es.” (Show me your teeth and I will tell you who you are.)
Show me the teeth of your nation and I will tell you who you are killing. Tell me whom you are killing and I will show you that you have no teeth.
Disclaimer: The material posted is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Results vary with each patient. Any dental procedure carries risks and benefits. If you have any specific questions about any dental and/or medical matter, you should consult your dentist, physician or other professional healthcare providers.
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