Are You Keeping Up With Your Oral Health?
Did you know that your oral health affects your overall health? Of course, good oral hygiene keeps your teeth and gums healthy. What you may not realize, though, is that the health of your mouth is fundamentally important to keeping your entire body healthy. Continue reading to learn more.
Good Health Requires Balance
Your mouth is teeming with helpful and harmful bacteria. When you brush and floss regularly and visit the dentist every 6 months, it should be relatively easy to keep the balance. However, this balance is easily upset if you neglect your oral health. When the harmful bacteria are allowed to grow unchecked, the risk to your overall health increases, leaving you vulnerable to some serious problems, including:
- Endocarditis — When bacteria from your mouth spread through your bloodstream and attach to your heart, it can cause a life-threatening infection of the inner lining of your heart chambers and valves.
- Cardiovascular disease — Serious heart conditions, including clogged arteries and stroke, are sometimes linked to inflammation and infections associated with oral bacteria.
- Pneumonia — When certain bacteria in your mouth get pulled into your lungs, they cause pneumonia and other respiratory diseases.
- Pregnancy and birth complications — Too much harmful bacteria in your mouth can cause gum disease, which has been linked to premature birth and low birth weight.
What You Can Do To Keep Poor Oral Health from Harming Your Overall Health
- Taking care of your oral health now is essential for preventing oral and overall health problems in the future. To protect yourself, we highly encourage you to:
- Brush your teeth for two minutes at least twice a day. Brushing after every meal is even better for your oral health. When you brush regularly, you keep potentially harmful bacteria from building up on your teeth and around your gums.
- Floss at least once a day. Flossing after every meal is ideal. Every time you floss, you eliminate food particles and bacteria from between teeth and along the gumline and keep bacteria buildup at bay.
Visit us for a professional cleaning and examination at least twice a year. Your oral health routine at home is essential for keeping your teeth and mouth healthy. You should also have your teeth cleaned and examined every six months to eliminate the plaque buildup that brushing and flossing cannot and reveal any problem areas that need treatment.
We want to help you stay as healthy as possible, so please talk to us if you have any concerns about your teeth, gums, or any conditions that could be contributing to poor oral health. Your questions are always welcome. If you are due for a cleaning and examination, contact our office, located in New Braunfels, TX, to schedule an appointment. We hope to see you soon.