Periodontitis is a disease that destroys the bone and tissue of the gum. If left untreated, it results in the eventual loss of teeth.
Approximately 30% of the Australian adult population has periodontitis at any one time, and about 15% has severe periodontitis. The likelihood of contracting periodontitis increases with age.
The difficulty with treating periodontitis is that symptoms usually do not appear until after the infection has taken hold.
Researchers at the CRC for Oral Health are working on a vaccine and an antibiotic gel to treat periodontitis, and a chairside diagnostic that would predict the onset of the disease at particular sites in the mouth before symptoms became clinically detectable.
Watch this video to find out what these scientific developments will mean for patients and dentists.
│Flash format│ 7.5 mins │47MB│© Oral Health Australia Pty Ltd 2009│ | 
