Dental News: Gum Disease and Low Sperm Counts

Gum Disease and Low Sperm Counts

New study links gum disease and male infertility

Two Israeli doctors – one a periodontal specialist, the other a fertility specialist – studied 56 men over the course of three years. The men had all visited a fertility clinic to have their sperm counts analyzed.

The subjects also received periodontal examinations. Overall, they had poor gum health. Only 13% had healthy gums. Fully 50% suffered from gingivitis, with 32% having chronic periodontal disease and 5% aggressive periondontitis.

Half of the men with zero sperm counts had chronic gum disease. Of the subjects with low sperm counts, 2 out of 3 had gingivitis; by contrast, only 1 out of 2 subjects with normal sperm counts had gingivitis.

Gum disease has already been linked with a host of other health problems ranging from heart disease to diabetes. Why not add one more to the list?

nazanin f.
i am very interested to know more about this subject would you plz help me how can i be in contact with the authors of this article ?
The Visible Dentist
A ridiculous assertion; I do not see the evidence nor the logic for a correlation between gum disease and low sperm count. It sounds more like a ploy to sell treatment by instilling fear.
What’s next – dental caries cause Cancer, AIDS and Swine Flu?
Any and all disease will only manifest itself in a compromised immune system, or a person whose body has been poisoned with some harmful substance, or both.
John Barremore
Houston, TX
jen
to John in Texas- There isn’t much research or evidence to prove it yet but if you use logic (as you state the study is missing)you would know the link between other cronic problems such as heart disease and diabetes it is easy to see the science backing this claim. Periodontal disease effects your regeneration of tissue and cells and the bacteria present in periodontal disease is killing many of these much needed cells. You need a healthy turnover of cells to produce healthy sperm and if your body can’t produce a necessary cell environment in the mouth how is it supposed to produce the genes necessary to make a new healthy individual.
Maybe you need a little background in science and immunology before you make ignorant comments online!