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Tri Service dentist links gum disease to extra roots

A dentist with the Tri Service General Hospital has determined that the main cause of periodontal disease, or gum disease, among Taiwanese patients is the existence of extra or fused dental roots.

Earl Fu (傅鍔), who has been leading a hospital research team on the causes of periodontosis, said that many Taiwanese have extra or fused roots for the first molars of their lower jaw, resulting in thinner gums that make their alveolar bones more prone to infection or injury caused by improper brushing.

Fu said his team found that 27 percent of the 197 gum disease patients at the hospital’s Dentistry Department had an extra root in the first molar on one side of their lower jaw and 90 percent of these people also had an extra root in the first molar on the opposite side of their lower jaw.

He quoted research data from abroad that showed that people from many nations, including Chinese, Japanese, Native Americans and Inuit, have the same problem.

By comparison, Caucasians in the West generally had less incidence of gum disease, while the number of Caucasians with extra or fused roots in the first molars of their lower jaws was comparatively much smaller, Fu said.

Fu, who studied in the US under the auspices of the National Defense Medical Center and practiced there for five years, has found that cutting open the gum and removing the extra root can be a helpful solution when treating serious gum disease.

Fu and his team’s research findings were published in last August’s edition of the US Journal of Periodontology.

The publication was challenged, however, by some dentistry professionals abroad, who argued that Fu’s research was not medically persuasive since the hospital’s research was based only on 197 patients all from the same hospital.

Undaunted, Fu and his colleagues approached dentistry departments of other research hospitals in Taipei, Taichung and Kaohsiung to obtain X-ray data in an attempt to prove their theory.

Of 600 dentistry patients from northern, central and southern Taiwan — not necessarily gum disease patients — they found that 136 patients had an extra root in the first molars on both sides of their lower jaws — proving correct their theory that 22 percent to 25 percent of Taiwanese have extra roots.

“Actually, this is not a ‘new discovery,’ as reports on the issue appeared more than 70 years ago,” Fu said. “Our research results are only reconfirming an old theory and provide a clearer direction for treatment.”
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