Can Peroxide Help Gum Disease?

Video Transcript

"Oftentimes I have patients asking me about whether or not hydrogen peroxide, the mouth rinse, what it does for your mouth as far as what can it do for things like gum disease. We know that hydrogen peroxide is good at basically keeping the mouth disinfected, and kind of cleaning the overall area. So if you get a cut, or a laceration, or a little blister or bubble, we know that peroxide can help keep the area clean while it's healing, and it also has some disinfection properties. But, even more than that, I have patients asking, you know, "Does peroxide help cure gum disease?" The answer is clearly, no, it does not do it alone. It...while it will help keep the gums a little bit cleaner and a little bit more disinfected, gum disease is much more deep within the gums. So, a mouth rinse such as peroxide, while it's good on the surface, it really has no clinical effect on penetrating down into the gums deeper, where the true periodontal, or gum disease lies within. It's for that that the peroxide is more or less kind of an adjunctive treatment to doing things like brushing and flossing and going to the dentist. So while peroxide will not directly cure gum disease, it can be used as an acceptable alternative when brushing and flossing and maintaining to try to prevent gum disease. Or treat it further. One of the things that we do mention, though, about peroxide is most people aren't familiar with the fact that the peroxide also has whitening properties. It's because of this that many whitening toothpastes and most teeth bleaching treatments that you see over the counter or at the dentist actually have peroxide as the...as the most active, number one ingredient. It does this because it chemically will debond stain from the teeth, so, staining from the teeth is caused by a very complex chemical reaction. And we know that whitening involves using the peroxide to remove these....these stains on the teeth. So, while it does, again, disinfect and keep the mouth somewhat sterile, it's more important and more efficient that it's used as a whitening agent in different products."