Taking great care of your smile is good for you from head to toe, that’s why dentists say “Healthy Mouth, Healthy Body”.
That’s because oral health is connected to overall health. studies showed links between poor oral health and heart issues. people with gum disease have nearly double the risk for heart disease.
And poor dental health can harm heart valves. Gum disease has also been connected to:
- Diabetes
- Premature birth
- Low birth weight
- And more
Make sure to brush twice a day for two minutes, floss daily and see your dentist regularly to keep a healthy smile and a healthy body.
So, remember, brush in the morning and again at night. Having millions of bacteria in your mouth isn’t so bad when you know how to keep your mouth healthy.
What Keeps Your Mouth Healthy?
We all have millions of tiny bacteria in our mouths. Some of them are busy making acids that cause tooth decay.
The more often you eat and snack, the more chances the acids have to attack your teeth.
What can you do to fight off these acid attacks in keeping your mouth healthy?
- The most important thing you can do is brush your teeth after breakfast and before bedtime at night.
- Always use fluoride toothpaste. Fluoride makes your teeth stronger and helps keep the acids from harming them.
- Brush the outside of every tooth and then the inside.
- Carefully brush the chewing surface of each tooth.
- Last, gently brush the top of your tongue.
Make sure you have regular dental check-ups and ask your dentist about sealants to protect your back teeth.
The worldwide prevalence of leukoplakia is believed to be around 2% and it increases with age.
It was known to have a higher male predilection but is now seeing a shift with a nearly equal number of women being affected.
Buccal mucosa, mandibular vestibule, gingiva, and lateral borders of the tongue are most commonly affected.
Other sites though rare include, the lip, the floor of the mouth, retromolar trigone, palate, mandibular and maxillary alveolar ridges.
Healthy Mouth, Healthy Life
studies certainly show a correlation between dental health and vascular health and so there is a relationship where we’re not sure if it’s a direct relationship at this point but the risk factors for both of those problems include:
Obesity
Cigarette smoking
Diabetes
Those are risk factors for avascular disease but they’re also risk factors for periodontal disease.
Your mouth is an indicator of the health of your whole body.
It’s over a hundred and thirty we think different systemic diseases that have some sort of oral sign or symptom, and it can be dry mouth, red spots, white spots, lumps bumps things like that so dentists are really kind of a first-line oftentimes have seen the results of something bigger going on in the rest of your body.
Plaque build-up on your teeth could mean plaque build-up in your arteries.
when we talk about vascular disease part of the aging process is that the body forms plaque in the arteries and as we get older we form more plaque. some of the risk factors that cause people to form plaque are diabetes cigarette smoking, obesity as plaque forms it developed its blockages in the arteries. so you can get a blockage in the artery of your neck, you get a blockage in there to your leg. we can blockage in your heart arteries and those plaques can cause devastating problems as we get older.
Regular dental visits aren’t just for your mouth, they help keep your overall health in check.
It’s interesting the old every six months comes from an old Pepsodent commercial there’s no scientific basis in that at all. so your dentist may recommend that you’d be seen once a year or you may be sure he or she may recommend that you be seen four times a year regularly. so it’s more customized now.
Healthy Mouth, Healthy You
In many ways, your mouth is the gatekeeper between the outside world and the rest of your body. Your mouth is teeming with billions of bacteria. There are more bacteria in your mouth right now. There are people on earth over time. These bacteria can stick together and multiply they form a colony and the colonies can then join together forming a thick layer called a plaque biofilm. This can eventually spread across every surface of your entire mouth. Your teeth, your gums, your cheeks, and your tongue, every small space in your mouth, provides the perfect environment for bacteria to thrive and for the plaque biofilm to grow which it can do dramatically over a single day. Your mouth’s inflammatory cells are activated to kill the bacteria but the bacteria can build strong defences within the colony to stay alive.
These inflammatory cells which are designed to protect the body can then cause harm in the form of gum inflammation also known as gingivitis the earlier stage of gum disease. People with diabetes are even more susceptible to gum disease because their blood vessels are compromised.
The area between your teeth and gums is densely packed with intricate blood vessels. Everyday activities can burst those tiny vessels then pieces of the plaque biofilm and bacteria can detach and mix with the blood. Giving bacteria from the surface of your mouth fall access to the rest of your body and for people with severe gum disease, new science suggests that these bacteria may be linked to other disorders like heart disease where bacteria may be involved in plaque buildup in the blood vessels or pneumonia where bacteria can create an infection in your lungs or rheumatoid arthritis a debilitating disease of inflammation in the joints or preterm low birth weight in infants which may be linked to bacteria passed from the mother to her fetus.
Good oral care may positively affect your overall health which is important because what happens in your mouth may not stay in your mouth.
Pro Tips for A Healthy Body and Mouth
Protect your teeth with these pro tips:
- An unhealthy mouth can prove costly, painful and decrease your quality of life.
- Keeping your mouth healthy means you can eat speak and smile without pain or embarrassment.
- Prevention is key because tooth decay gum disease and oral cancers may not cause pain until they are well advanced.
- Seeing a dentist regularly means your oral health issues can be detected early or prevented.
- Your dental and general health are closely related to a healthy lifestyle can be key to your oral health.
- If you have a chronic illness you may be more likely to have problems with your teeth and gums.
- Start a good habit early your child’s first dental visit should be once their first teeth appear or by the age of one.
- A dental practitioner will create a treatment plan customized just for you and advise how often to have a check-up.
- Do not forget to brush twice each day and floss at least once.
- Don’t have a dentist? ‘find a dentist’ can help are you eligible to receive public dental care.
