How Oral Health Impacts Overall Health
There are many benefits to maintaining good oral hygiene practices. A beautiful smile can greatly impact your confidence and improve your social interactions. Good oral hygiene will help prevent gum diseases from happening and you’ll get to keep all your teeth! Furthermore, oral health can signify or even attribute to overall health problems.
Symptoms
The mouth is often the first place where many symptoms of diseases appear. Poor oral hygiene can lead to these symptoms going undiscovered. Lesions, ulcers, pale or red gums, and other factors can all be signs of more serious diseases. Some diseases that often have oral symptoms include:
- HIV
- Coeliac disease
- Blood disorders
- Osteoporosis
- Eating disorders
Risk Factors
Many of the same risk factors that attribute to gum disease also lead to other diseases. These factors include:
- Diet- poor nutrition can lead to problems with your teeth. It can also lead to other health problems such as diabetes, obesity, and cancer.
- Tobacco use- smoking or chewing tobacco significantly increases the risk of both gum disease and oral cancer. This same factor contributes to lung cancer, cardiovascular illness, and many other things.
- Hygiene- poor hygiene significantly increases the risk of gum disease as well as infection and many other problems.
Not only does oral health have significant links to overall health, but it can even contribute to the health of the body. The mouth contains bacteria that can spread infection to other areas of the body when the immune system is compromised. Good oral health can be important in maintaining proper nutrition, because the mouth is the gateway where nutrition consumption occurs. Saliva can help fight bacterial growth. For all of these reasons, good oral hygiene is important. To learn more about how to maintain optimal oral hygiene, contact us in Brigham City at Jenson Dental today.
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