Long "holes" in the teeth are medically called "caries", which is a common disease in stomatology. However, in the clinic, oral doctors often find a unique phenomenon: although some patients usually brush their teeth carefully, attach great importance to oral health, but the "holes" are still increasing, and even appear full of dental caries.
At this point, the stomatologist will usually refer the patient to the rheumatology department.
"Isn't the rheumatology department for joint pain? Do you care about the teeth?" Some patients have raised such questions.
In fact, patients in this category are likely to have a rheumatic disease without even knowing it.
1 The rheumatic disease that causes dental caries is Sjogren's syndrome
How does rheumatism lead to dental caries? The diseases diagnosed and treated by the rheumatology department are indeed common joint pain symptoms, but rheumatoid immune disease is a systemic disease, will involve multiple organs of the human body, appear a variety of complex symptoms, and even involve teeth, eyes, nose, hair, oral mucosa, fingernails and so on.
Among them, there is a rheumatic disease that may lead to the occurrence of caries, it is Sjogren's syndrome.
Sjogren's syndrome (Sjogren's Syndrome) is a group of diseases mainly characterized by exocrine gland damage such as dry mouth and dry eyes, and "holy" teeth are manifestations of dry mouth.
Because the glands that secrete saliva in patients with Sjogren's syndrome are infiltrated and destroyed by lymphocytes, the ducts of the glands shrink and become dysfunctional, unable to secrete saliva properly, resulting in obvious dry mouth symptoms.
When patients with dry mouth disease eat solid food such as steamed bread and bread, due to the lack of saliva wetting and stirring, the food is difficult to swallow, and it needs to be swallowed with water. At the same time, when the glands in the mouth are destroyed and cannot secrete saliva properly, the lysozyme present in the saliva is reduced, and bacteria can multiply, causing the tooth to be destroyed.
Clinically, some patients have flaky tooth loss, teeth gradually turn black, and even stump, and serious patients have rampant dental caries.
There are also some patients with salivary gland, submandibular gland, parotid gland and other glands damaged, gland duct blockage, parotid gland and submandibular gland local swelling pain, and prone to repeated attacks.
If the patient has the above symptoms, should be highly alert to the possibility of suffering from Sjogren's syndrome, should be timely to the hospital rheumatology department.
2 The disease also affects the systemic system
The human body is like the land, and the glands are like the streams in the land. When autoimmune diseases damage our exocrine glands, it will cause the body to lack of "secretory" moisture, like dry land lack of vitality.
Patients will appear want to cry without tears, want to eat difficult to swallow painful symptoms.
In addition to causing dry mouth, dry eyes and exocrine gland damage, Sjogren's syndrome can also invade other organs of the human body and affect various systems throughout the body.
Blood system damage: common leukopenia and thrombocytopenia, patients will appear fatigue, easy to infection, bleeding and other symptoms;
Joint pain: patients with multiple joint pain and even swelling, generally not too serious, will not destroy bone like rheumatoid arthritis;
Skin purpura: often due to excessive immunoglobulin in the body caused by the performance in the lower extremities appear small rice grain size boundary clear red papules, pressure does not fade, can fade, but there will be brown pigmentation;
Lung involvement: Due to lymphocyte infiltration of respiratory mucosa and pulmonary interstitial and atrophy of exocrine glands, airway stenosis and pulmonary interstitial changes are caused. Patients often have symptoms such as dry cough, shortness of breath after exercise, and significantly reduced activity endurance.
