Gum Disease can be caused by Kissing Dogs

New York, Oct 23: Dog owners who hug their creatures - or let them coat their lips - could capture gum condition, experts have cautioned.

Japanese scientists analyzed oral dental plaque from 66 creatures, as well as oral dental plaque from 81 individuals from Asia who frequented a dog-training school or creature medical center during 2011, the New York Daily News reveals.

They performed research to find the use of 11 disease-causing oral bacteria-called "periodontopathic" species-in the oral plaque.

They discovered that three kinds of disease-causing oral parasites were especially frequent in the dogs' oral plaque: Porphyromonas gulae, which was discovered in 71.2 % of the dogs' samples; Tannerella forsythia, which was discovered in 77.3 % of the dogs' samples; and Campylobacter rectus, which was discovered in 66.7 % of the dogs' examples.

There were small rates of the same parasites in the individuals.

"The results," the scientists determined, "suggest that several periodontopathic types could be passed on between individuals and their partner."

Dr. Ann Hohenhaus at the Animal Medical Center in New York said the research doesn't confirm effectively that getting creatures presents any risk and added, "Organisms are not consistent across the board."

But, said Honehaus, "the whole thing when individuals say animals' lips are better than ours doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me."

"Dogs have a lot of parasites in their lips," she said.

The research has been released in the Records of Oral Chemistry.