You may be thinking, its just a tooth, its not that important, right?
That tooth can do a great deal of good from chewing and smiling or can be your body's worst enemy if its infected. The health of our teeth and mouths can greatly impact our systemic health; here's how:
1) Gum disease (also known as periodontal disease) has been shown to increase your risk for heart disease, endocarditis and damaged heart valves. If you are diabetic and have gum disease, the inflammation in your gums makes your blood sugar more difficult to control. Likewise, being diabetic makes it more difficult to reduce inflammation in your gums.
2) For pregnant mothers, having gum disease has been shown in clinical studies to increase your risk of pre-term labor and lower birth weight for your newborn.
3) Tooth infections and gum disease increase the amount of inflammation in your body. Chronic inflammation throughout your body can make managing autoimmune conditions more difficult and may lead to cancer.
4) People that are missing teeth have a difficult time chewing. Certain foods like raw vegetables require more chewing force. Therefore, people that cannot chew all foods, may develop nutritional deficiencies.
5) Lastly, studies have shown that the bacteria found in nursing home residents with pneumonia, is the same bacteria that is found in our mouths.
Taking care of our teeth and mouths can benefit us in so many ways! It all starts with a call to Lone Oak Dental!