How Your Oral Health Plays Into Your Overall Health
October 31, 2022 1:25 amDid you know that your oral health and your overall health are linked? It’s true: your mouth, teeth, and gums offer hints about the state of your overall health. Additionally, oral health issues like gum disease can negatively impact your overall health by increasing your risk for certain conditions.
How Are Oral Health & Overall Health Connected?
The connection between oral health and overall health makes some intuitive sense. After all, your mouth is the entry point to your digestive and respiratory systems. Without good oral hygiene, oral bacteria can reach levels that cause infections in your teeth and gums. If left untreated, studies suggest that this infected bacteria may leave your mouth and travel throughout your bloodstream, increasing your risk for heart disease and other serious conditions. Research suggests that poor oral health can increase your risk for conditions like endocarditis, pneumonia, and pregnancy complications.
When Overall Health Impacts Oral Health
Medications like decongestants, antihistamines, painkillers, antidepressants, and diuretics can all lead to dry mouth. Dry mouth is more than just an uncomfortable feeling – without saliva to wash away food particles and acids produced by oral bacteria, your risk for bad breath, tooth decay, and gum disease increases.
How Can I Protect My Oral Health?
Now that you understand how your oral health plays into your overall health, we have some good news. You can reduce your risk for developing many dental diseases with good oral hygiene and regular visits to our Southern Dental Munford office. Start at home by making it a habit to brush your teeth twice each day for two minutes each time and to floss every day. Remember to brush your tongue too!
To ask our team any questions about how to improve your oral health or to schedule an appointment at Southern Dental Munford, please contact us today!
Categorised in: Oral Health
