How the condition of your teeth and gums can also affect your overall health.
It is a little known fact that the quality of our oral health can also have a major effect on the rest of our body. Poor oral health can even lead to some fairly serious, and potentially life threatening problems.
Most of these problems are more likely to occur when gum disease is present. Although most of us brush our teeth; too many, unfortunately, do not do so for long enough or use a brush that is too worn to be fit for purpose. If your gums are red and sore or there is blood in your saliva when you clean your teeth, there is a strong possibility that you have gum disease and you should arrange to have this checked at our dental practice in Bristol as soon as possible.
Heart Problems
As well as potentially causing the loss of teeth, if allowed to advance to the stage where periodontitis takes hold, gum disease has also been shown to be linked to an increased risk in heart disease and strokes as well as diabetes. Although this link has been long established, far too few people are aware of it and, perhaps, consequently don’t give their oral health care the attention that it deserves.
Gum disease bacteria
Because it affects the tissues that support the teeth, when gum disease occurs, it poses a major threat to the health and long term survival of the teeth. Especially in patients who are vulnerable to this disease, the body is unable to cope with the bacteria and the gums become sore and inflamed. It is now believed that, over a period of time, this inflammation can also cause damage to the blood vessels in both the heart and brain.
As well as increasing the risk of strokes and heart problems, gum disease has also been linked with diabetes and even arthritis.
Prevention of gum disease
The sad fact is that gum disease is preventable and takes just a little effort to stop it from becoming established and progressing to a much more serious condition.
Making sure that you buy a new toothbrush every three months will mean that the brush will be efficient enough to remove much of the bio-film and bacteria that causes gum disease. In fact, a lot of people buy expensive hi tech electric toothbrushes and then never, or rarely at least, change the heads, which entirely defeats the object.
It is also recommended that two minutes are spent brushing the teeth at least twice a day.
Only around 20% of us floss which is unfortunate as many of the problems with gum disease, and decay, occur in places where a toothbrush struggles to reach. This means that the large majority of us are at risk from gum disease simply through not flossing our teeth at all.
Another important factor in the prevention of gum disease is to ensure that you visit your dentist regularly. During routine check ups at Beau Monde Dental Care in Bristol, we always check the health of the gums and remove any built up plaque (the hardened bacteria that causes gum disease) from places that the patient has missed, such as the back of the teeth.
By intervening early when any gum disease is spotted, the problem is reversible, protecting not only your oral health but your general health too.