Your oral health is a reflection of your overall wellness. The state of your teeth and gums is an indicator of the condition of the rest of your body as well. As such, poor oral hygiene can lead to many other chronic conditions, affecting your quality of life.
However, you can do things to improve your oral health and overall wellness by taking care of your mouth and visiting a dentist in Waterloo if you’re in Ontario. Learning more about how oral health relates to other aspects of your lives can help you take better care of yourselves and improve the quality of life for everyone.
If you want to know what your mouth says about your overall wellness, here are four things to look out for:
1. Poor Oral Hygiene Can Lead To Tooth Decay And Gum Disease
overall wellness- Gum disease, also called periodontitis, is when plaque builds up between your teeth along with tartar that can’t be reached by brushing or flossing.
When this happens, the gum tissue around the teeth starts to get inflamed and infected, which may cause bleeding while you brush or floss. This gums inflammation can lead to bone loss around the tooth root, causing further problems such as loosening the tooth over time.
Moreover, if left untreated for too long, it could spread into surrounding tissues and even affect other parts of the body, like your heart, and lead to severe issues due to higher toxins in the bloodstream.
2. Tooth Loss Is A Sign Of Malnutrition
Tooth loss is also a sign of malnutrition because the body lacks certain nutrients needed for healthy teeth and gums. When you have a poor diet, your body lacks certain nutrients, so tiny amounts of bacteria can damage areas between your teeth and gums.
This means you need to start eating better and drinking more water, as dehydration can lead to tooth decay. This often requires pulling the tooth out because it’s too damaged from infection or advanced stages of gum disease.
If you find yourself losing teeth overall wellness more than once, it might be time to see if other health issues like cancer or diabetes could be playing a role in your overall wellness.
3. The Problem With Dental Plaque
Dental plaque is overall wellness bacteria that forms on tooth surfaces. These are invisible to the naked eye and form a biofilm that constantly changes its structure, so it’s difficult to remove even with brushing.
The plaque will turn into calculus or tartar if left untreated, which cannot be removed by normal daily oral care from your toothbrush or flossing. You can only remove them during professional dental cleaning.
Other symptoms of dental plaque overall wellness include:
- Bad breath
- Small lumps on the side of the face and under the ears
- Sore throat that doesn’t go away with antibiotics
If you don’t take care of your teeth, the bacteria from plaque start entering your bloodstream through gums, where they travel throughout your body, producing toxins. This can lead to serious illness over time, especially if left untreated for too long.
4. Conditions Linked To Poor Oral Health
Many different conditions may be linked to poor oral health, such as:
- Endocarditis
overall wellness- This is an infection of the inner lining of your heart called the endocardium, which can develop from a bacterial infection due to dental plaque buildup around teeth and gums.
- Cardiovascular disease
overall wellness- This refers to any illness that affects heart health. If you don’t maintain proper hygiene, you are at greater risk of contracting cardiovascular disease. Specifically.
This can cause blood clots, high cholesterol, or even stroke due to bacteria entering the bloodstream through bleeding gum tissues.
- Pregnancy and birth
If you are pregnant, you should take special care of your oral health and regularly visit a dentist for checkups to ensure no problems with your teeth or gums. This is especially important during your third trimester when tissue in gums becomes more sensitive, making it easier to bleed, leading to anemia.
Proper brushing, flossing, and rinsing can help prevent this from happening, while regular visits will catch any potential issues early on before they become major concerns.
- Heart Disease
Heart disease can increase due to a poor microbiome caused by bacteria growing in the mouth, releasing enzymes that damage tooth enamel and lead to gum recession.
This also leads to a higher risk of heart attacks or strokes because bacteria enter your blood vessels through bleeding gums. It goes onto your white blood cells, causing it to release inflammatory proteins, which can cause plaque to form in your arteries leading to heart disease.
- Stress
Cortisol levels can increase when you’re under stress which may trigger gingivitis. This can affect your immune system and puts a lot of pressure on blood vessels leading to plaque buildup around your teeth.
Even if you learn to reduce your stress levels, the anti-inflammatory properties of cortisol do not mix well with bacteria in the mouth, causing periodontal disease or oral infection.
This is why if you’re dealing with high amounts of anxiety, you should see a dentist regularly since gum diseases are often linked to serious health conditions.
- Hormonal issues
Hormonal issues can also affect oral health since estrogen’s anti-inflammatory properties help prevent many of the symptoms associated with gingivitis. This is why women are more likely to develop gum disease right before or after the menstrual cycle because it affects their hormone levels.
Make sure to brush your teeth and tongue at least twice a day. Moreover, don’t forget about flossing, as this will reduce inflammation in the mouth by removing plaque buildup between teeth.
Conclusion
It’s essential to take care of your teeth and gums to maintain good overall wellness & health to reduce the risk of serious conditions. If you need help taking care of your oral health, visit a dentist regularly and ask for advice on improving it.
Taking steps like these can help ensure that your mouth and the rest of your body are healthy. The better your mouth feels, the more likely you feel great and have a healthy life overall.
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