Vinita A Boloor

Nutrition is vital to human growth, development, and life maintenance and, as such, is also important to oral health. The three essential macronutrients which provide the basic materials for building biological structures and for producing energy required for all physiological and biochemical processes are proteins, carbohydrates and lipids. Additionally, about 18 micronutrients, comprised of minerals and vitamins, facilitate the optimal utilization of macronutrients via their role in the catalysis of numerous biochemical processes, in the enhancement of their bioavailability and absorption, and in the balancing of the microbiome. Periodontal diseases are oral multifactorial, immunological, diseases induced by oral microorganisms. Balanced nutrition plays a major role in maintaining the symbiosis between oral microbiota and periodontal health.

Our understanding of the periodontal disease has changed considerably over the past 50 years, influenced not only by our evolving knowledge of the natural history and distribution of the disease but by changing measurement methodologies. Even though controversies arise side by side and in controversy, one often ends up where one started, they facilitate our better understanding of periodontal diseases and developing targeted interventions. By means of this book, we have attempted to address few of these relevant subjects.