The Importance of a Healthy Smile How You Can Have It
A common saying is, “A healthy mind or soul lives in a healthy body”. This is true as your mind/soul will only be happy and healthy if you have a healthy body without health issues. The same rule applies to your oral or dental hygiene. A healthy mouth can be a good asset. We believe that “A healthy mouth holds a beautiful smile which in turn holds a beautiful personality”.
Just like your physical and mental health, dental health is also important to keep your teeth and gums healthy. As you know, teeth play such an important role in our lives. Teeth help you chew and digest food, talk and speak clearly, and give your face its shape. A beautiful smile is another aspect of dental health that benefits you daily. A pretty smile can boost
your confidence and influence your career, relationships, and social life.
This is why dental hygiene is essential, and you should take care of your oral hygiene. Proper care of mouth health will prevent bad breath, tooth decay, and other dental diseases. Gum disease can increase your risk of many serious health issues, such as heart attack, poorly controlled diabetes, stroke, and preterm labour. So, the case for good oral hygiene is getting stronger. All you need to do is understand the importance of oral health and its connection to the overall health of the human body.
Mint Dental, London, supports oral hygiene and encourages people to maintain a healthy lifestyle with a healthy mouth. We give you a chance to take a look at your oral health. Good oral health has so many wonderful life-changing benefits. A healthy smile can transform your visual appearance and mental well-being and improve your mouth and body’s health. Here, we share tips on how to improve and maintain it. Read on to learn more about why a healthy smile is so important.
How Does Your Mouth Reveal About Your Health?
As they say, your mouth is the window to your overall health. So, your mouth health has much to do with your overall health. When you look into your mouth, a swab of saliva can tell about what is happening inside your body. Saliva plays a significant role in protecting your mouth against many invaders. Sometimes, when it fails to do its job, bacteria thrive in your mouth and constantly form plaque.
Plaque is a sticky, colourless film that attaches to your teeth. Irregular and improper cleaning or brushing of your teeth will increase the plaque. It will create a favourable environment for additional bacteria to accumulate and mushroom inside the gaps between your teeth and gums. This will reproduce and grow to cause other diseases like gingivitis, periodontitis, and trench mouth. These dental health issues will further affect the overall health.
Clean Teeth Keep Your Life Healthy
You can keep your mouth healthy by brushing your teeth twice daily, maintaining a low-in-sugar diet, and regularly visiting your dental professional. It will help you reduce the risk of many oral health issues, such as dental decay and gum disease, resulting in tooth loss. One study suggests that your number of teeth is strongly linked to how long you will live. Those with 20 or more teeth at the age of 70 years had a higher chance of living longer than those with less than 20 teeth. However, maintaining good oral hygiene can prevent tooth loss through dental decay and gum disease. So, there’s no reason why you cannot keep your teeth healthy for a longer life.
Reduce the Risk of Many Diseases
When you have gum disease, there is a chance that bacteria can get into the bloodstream from the infected gum. These bacteria can produce a protein that causes the blood to thicken. It will lead to clots and can cause an increased risk of a heart attack. Because of that clot, the heart is not getting the nutrients and oxygen it needs. Gum disease can also cause inflammation of the blood vessels and block the blood supply to the brain. This can result in a potential stroke. New research has also found that if you have gum disease, you are more likely to develop diabetes.
Reduce the Risk of Dementia and Cancer
You can reduce the risk of dementia (some forms) and certain cancers (in women) by keeping your teeth and gums healthy. New research study data from 65,000 post-menopausal women between the ages of 54 and 86. They found those with a history of gum disease were 14% more likely to develop cancer. One in three women of these developed breast cancer, and there was also a highly increased risk of skin, oesophageal, lung, and gall bladder cancers. People with healthy gums have 70 per cent less chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease than those people who have suffered from gum disease over a long period.
Have a Healthy Baby
Pregnant women with healthy gums have three times reduced risk of having a premature baby. So, a healthy mouth can reduce babies’ low birth weight risk. Research found that there is a chance that one in four pregnant women with gum disease could give birth before 35 weeks. This is because gum disease can raise the chemical levels that induce labour.
Enhance Your Appearance
Keeping your teeth clean can help you avoid bad breath (halitosis). Bad breath is one of the most common oral health issues. It is often caused by a buildup of plaque. Bad breath is a symptom of gum disease and tooth decay; it also can cause you to be embarrassed and undesirable. Another very common condition that can affect your tooth appearance is staining. People who smoke or drink lots of tea, coffee or red wine may have tooth staining.
It is a natural process and comes with the ‘wear and tear’. Stained teeth are not usually harmful and have little impact on oral health. However, stained teeth can make you feel a little self-conscious and low-esteemed. In most cases, surface staining can be prevented with regular cleaning. You must visit a dental professional to remove more stubborn stains.
Why You Should Visit Your Dentist Regularly?
Now, people understand and consider the importance of dental health and how it is connected with overall health. So, everyone should look forward to visiting a dentist for a regular checkup. Many make excuses to skip dentist visits for various reasons, such as the cost of the treatment, dental anxiety, and busy schedules. However, regular and timely dental checkups are essential for good oral health. The dentist can help you give insight into your dental health. Let’s look at why you should not skip seeing your dentist. These include:
Prevent Formation Of Plaque, Cavities, and Tartar
A portion of your mouth is always left without cleaning; even if you use top-quality products, it develops plaque. This plaque gets hard and becomes tartar over time. It can only be removed by the dentist. So, regular dental checkups can help prevent plaque formation and cavities in your teeth.
Avoid Dental Diseases
Plaque and tartar keep building if you don’t get your teeth checked by a dental expert. This will erode the tissues in the gums. Gum infections will be common when there is a strong presence of tartar in the mouth. Gum diseases cause swelling of the gums, bleeding from the gums, and soreness in the mouth. A regular dental checkup can help you avoid gum diseases.
Impact of Your Lifestyle On Dental Health
Many habits could negatively impact your oral health. Some of the lifestyle habits that could cause oral health ailments, such as:
- Biting nails
- Brushing aggressively
- Chewing ice
- Consuming sticky or hard sweets
- Drinking coffee or wine
- Grinding teeth against each other
- Smoking
Your dentists will gain insights from your regular visits regarding the damage caused by lifestyle habits (mentioned above). After analyzing your mouth, your dentist will perform a few treatments or suggest changes you might need to make to avoid further complications.
Oral Cancer Detection
Oral cancer is one of the most severe diseases among different dental diseases. Diagnosis of oral cancer could be a bit tricky for the dentist.
The dentist must carefully scan your mouth to detect any signs of oral cancer. The detection of oral cancer symptoms at an early stage is crucial for the treatment of oral cancer. It helps you prevent complications in the future.
Jawbone X-ray To Detect Abnormalities
Visiting a dentist regularly is also important so you know about any abnormalities in the jaw bone. Dental professionals can x-ray your jawbone and analyze surfaces beneath your mouth. X-ray images can help to detect abnormalities (minute ones) that are not visible through the naked eye. Jawline X-rays easily detect swelling, tumours, cysts, or decay in the bone. Hence, visiting a dentist for a routine dental checkup is vital.
A Compelling Situation To Develop Good Oral Habits
You have enough reasons to take good care of your mouth and teeth. Visit your dentist for regular dental checkups. If these reasons are not enough, then consider the interrelated relationship between your oral health and your overall health. Practise good oral hygiene every day. It will be a vaulable investment in your overall health.
Mint Dental Clinic has the responsibility of encouraging every patient to come for treatment by telling them how important oral hygiene is.