Sex Pistols lead singer John Lydon has spent $22,000 on fixing the decaying teeth that inspired his stage name, Johnny Rotten.
‘It wasn’t vanity that sent me to the dentist,’ he has said.
‘All those rotten teeth were seriously beginning to corrupt my system. I was feeling incredibly ill. I was permanently poisoning myself with gum infections. My gums were receding and I was starting to look seriously weird.’
In a recent study, researchers at Imperial College, London, found that men with a history of gum disease had a 14% higher chance of cancer compared with those with no history of gum disease.
One theory is that an immune system weakness causes both illnesses – or that bad bacteria from infected gums might cause the cancer when it is swallowed.
And recent figures also show that 40-60% of the population has gingivitis or mild periodontitis, while approximately 10-15% have advanced periodontitis.
