Oral health is an important aspect that we promote at tooth heaven some may assume that when you go to the dentist we only focus on teeth but that is not the case at all.
What Does This Mean?
In simple terms essentially it is the connection of our oral health and our overall health. When you think about it the mouth is a direct link to our body we are able to breathe eat drink and swallow anything that travels in gets spread throughout our circulatory system and ultimately has an effect on all of our vital organs. In this video our goal is to educate you that your mouth plays a vital role and is also reflective of your overall health.
In fact diabetes has been proven to have a direct relationship to periodontal disease which is the extensive form of gum disease.
If your diabetes is not well controlled this consequently affects the health of your mouth and vice versa. Having unstable periodontal disease worsens the severity of diabetes as the presence of harmful oral bacteria triggers the inflammatory response resulting in higher blood glucose levels. Having such high levels of inflammation in the body will ultimately affect your health thus increasing your risk of other systemic diseases and events of a stroke or heart attack.
Here is a diagram which is also listed in our clinic showing the effects of oral inflammation as you can see starting from the brain.
It has been linked to Alzheimer’s and dementia; many studies have shown that older people with periodontal disease may have an increased risk of Alzheimer’s. A harmful bacteria associated with periodontal disease would be P.gingivalis which is a high risk pathogen that can play a part in causing inflammation not only around your body but also towards your brain structure.
There is strong evidence that reducing the oral inflammation can help reduce the possibility of many systemic diseases including Alzheimer’s. People who smoke are not only at increased risk of gum disease but they also have a higher risk of heart disease and stroke. An essential part of our role is to also undertake an oral cancer screening of your mouth this is where we can spot any early signs or lesions that are already cancerous and thus if spotted early can help improve the prognosis.
In terms of the heart, we have established that bacteria from the mouth travels into the bloodstream causing systemic inflammation. There is a connection although not fully understood that heart disease clogged arteries and stroke might be linked to the inflammation and infections of oral bacteria oral inflammation can raise the risk of heart attack by 13.6 times, twice the risk of a heavy smoker.
Certain bacteria from your mouth can also be pulled into your lungs causing pneumonia and other respiratory diseases it's just like breathing in oxygen the aspiration of bacteria from your mouth travels all the way down into your lower respiratory tract. Many studies have shown of institutionalized and ventilated patients who have improved their oral health and thus had a positive outcome on their systemic health.
With our kidneys, oral information can stress the kidney's function to fight off diseases both tooth decay and gum disease can trigger infections that can cause complications particularly for people suffering from kidney disease.
And lastly with our pancreas oral inflammation may disrupt blood sugars resulting in diabetes.
There is some association of oral bacteria that can be related to pancreatic cancer and P.gingivalis which we talked about previously was shown to have an involvement in pancreatic cancer.
Have you noticed that you bleed when you brush or floss? This is a sign of inflammation in the mouth along with puffy gums such as this this is why majority if not all dental clinics recommend six monthly cleans to prevent infection and inflammation and also improving your oral health quality of life.
So don't disregard your oral health it is just as important.
Choose from the following options to find out more: