You can help keep your mouth healthy by maintaining a good oral hygiene routine. In this post, our Ottawa dentists explain how keeping your mouth healthy can help contribute to better overall health.
Practicing good oral hygiene is one reasonably reliable predictor of better dental health outcomes. This means if you have good oral hygiene habits, you are more likely to keep your teeth as you age. Since dental health can affect your overall physical wellbeing, good oral hygiene practices can have a positive impact on your overall health.
A Healthy Flow of Saliva
Saliva is a helpful diagnostic tool, in that it can help doctors and dentists find and diagnose systemic diseases before their symptoms become apparent.
In addition to this, saliva can help disable bacteria and viruses before they enter your system. In fact, saliva is one of your body’s main defenses against disease-causing organisms.
Saliva contains antibodies that attack viral pathogens, such as the common cold and even HIV. It also contains enzymes that destroy bacteria in several different ways, for instance by degrading bacterial membranes, disrupting vital bacterial enzyme systems, and inhibiting the growth and metabolism of some bacteria.
Keeping your salivary flow healthy is quite easy for most people. The key is to stay hydrated! Make sure you drink plenty of water throughout the day to maintain a healthy salivary flow.
Infection & Dental Plaque
Your mouth houses over 500 species of bacteria that are constantly forming dental plaque, a sticky, colourless film that clings to your teeth and causes a variety of health problems.
If you don’t brush and floss your teeth regularly and thoroughly, you’re allowing dental plaque to build up between your gums and teeth, eventually leading to a gum infection called gingivitis. Left unchecked, gingivitis can lead to a more serious infection called periodontitis (gum disease).
If you have periodontitis, simply undergoing a dental treatment or just brushing your teeth can provide a port of entry for the abundant bacteria in your mouth to enter your bloodstream.
If your immune system is healthy, the presence of oral bacteria in your bloodstream will not cause problems. However, if it has been weakened, for example by a disease or by cancer treatment, oral bacteria in your bloodstream may cause you to develop an infection in another part of your body.
Infective endocarditis, which is when oral bacteria enter the bloodstream and stick to the lining of diseased heart valves, is an example of this.
How Dental Plaque is Linked to Common Conditions
Having a healthy mouth can help prevent certain diseases and medical issues like stroke, heart attack, complications related to diabetes, as well as pre-term labour.
Poorly Controlled Diabetes
Chronic gum disease can make diabetes harder to control. The infection could cause insulin resistance, which can disrupt blood sugar control.
Cardiovascular Disease
Bacteria in the mouth could result in inflammation throughout the body, including the arteries, this means gingivitis could contribute to clogged arteries and blood clots.
Also, gum disease and tooth loss may contribute to the development of plaques in the carotid artery.