Things you should know about Mouth-Body Connection

You might have heard about mind-body connection a lot. But very few people would have heard about mouth-body connection. When you go to the dentist, you may be able to realize it sooner that cleaning the mouth and ensuring its health is not just about making the teeth look clean and bite force maintained. It’s also about maintaining overall health because health of the body is pretty much dependent on oral health.

As we all know that mouth is a highly accessible body organ, it can also be considered as a window which can display internal state of the body. For instance, there are several internal diseases which show signs of their existence when oral cavity is analyzed. Furthermore, cells in the mouth and saliva are analyzed to diagnose genetic problems.

Nevertheless, the purpose of mentioning mouth connection to the entire body is to tell you about oral health’s effects on overall health. Having that said, there are certain diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disorder and pregnancy problems which can be resulted due to poor oral health. Let’s discuss each of them briefly.

Oral health and diabetes

Diabetes and oral health are interconnected with each other in such a way that both affect each other. We all know how diabetes can affect oral health. Diabetes can hamper the body’s ability to fight inflammation. Hence, a diabetic person is more vulnerable to the risks of having gum diseases.

On the other hand, good oral health can actually help a person in maintaining better glycemic control. Hence, the health conditions can be stopped from getting worsened.

Furthermore, any systematic infection can result in the development of diabetic disorder. Hence, you will need to avoid getting the periodontal infection to become chronic.

Oral health and heart diseases

A study shows that moderate to severe gum infection can result in heart disorder. The major reason is that oral health and heart diseases are linked to the spread of bacteria through bloodstream. And since gum diseases can help the bacteria to flourish and there are too many blood vessels in the gums, the risk of heart getting affected due to bacteria is real. Furthermore, the arteries can also suffer from the buildup of bacteria because gum diseases are usually inactive infections.

Oral health pregnancy

Like in the case of interconnection between diabetes and oral health, the relation between pregnancy outcomes and oral health is also bidirectional. But let’s just talk about how oral health can affect the pregnancy outcomes.

Reports suggest that poor oral health can result in adverse pregnancy outcome, something that mothers would not want at all. The outcomes may include birth of preterm of low-weighed baby.

It doesn’t stop here. The problems with baby at this stage can result in several other chronic health issues in the future.