Something many people do not realize is that their oral health is actually very important, in fact, it’s an important indication of your overall health.
As you begin to come to a deeper understanding of your oral health, including the status of your gums, teeth and mouth, you begin to learn how this can affect one’s overall well-being.
Your oral health provides signs about your general health and its status can significantly affect the rest of the body.
Cavity into the rest of your body
Most of the human body is protected by a protective layer known as skin. There are very few spots on the human body that is not covered.
Consider what happens when the skin has become damaged, a person gets a cut exposing layers below the skin, what do we do? Our first response is to clean the area and keep it clean.
We then may place an ointment and a bandaid to help prevent infection, because we understand that infection is possible. Our mouths are an opening into our bodies, and can react similarly to that cut.
Our body has created a layer of protection, which is our saliva, to reduce bacteria and help reduce infection, but we need to assist this process with daily brushing and flossing.
If we do not, the results may not just be the loss of our teeth, the results may include numerous other problems as we allow infection causing bacteria to remain in our mouth.
Studies have increasingly shown that other health issues can arise based on the health of your mouth. Problems including:
| • | Heart or Cardiovascular Disease has been linked to infections and inflammation from oral bacteria. |
| • | Endocarditis is an infection of the inner lining of your heart. The bacteria from this disease has been linked to bacteria that arrived from your mouth, and then spreads through your bloodstream and attaches to damaged areas of your heart. |
| • | Pregnancy has been noted to be affected by the health of your mouth. Patients with gum disease increase their likelihood of delivering early to babies with lower birth weights. |
Please contact us if you have any questions about your oral healths effect on your overall health.
