Regular visits to the dentist can do more than keeping your smile attractive: they can tell a lot about your overall health, even if you may or may not be at risk for a chronic illness.
The health of your mouth reflects the condition of your entire body. For example, when your mouth is healthy, your body will most likely also enjoy good health. Research also shows that good oral health can prevent certain diseases.
Gum Disease and Complications in Health
There is a link between gum disease (periodontal) and health complications such as stroke and coronary heart disease. Women with gum disease also show a higher incidence of preterm birth and low birth weight babies.
Other research shows that more than 90% of all systemic diseases (diseases involving many organs or the whole body) have oral manifestations, including inflammation of the gums, mouth ulcers, dry mouth, or excessive gum problems.
These diseases include:
• Diabetes
• Leukemia
• Timely action: see your dentist for early detection of cancer in the mouth
• Pancreatic cancer
• Heart diseases
• Kidney diseases
As most people have regular dental checkup and cleaning, your dentist could be the first health care provider to diagnose a health problem in its initial stage.
Poor Oral Health Can Lead To Problems
If you do not take care of your teeth and gums, poor oral hygiene can cause other health problems, including:
Oral and facial pain: This pain can be largely due to gum infections that sustain the teeth and can lead to tooth loss. Gingivitis, the first stage of gum disease, and advanced gum disease affect more than 75% of the US population.
Heart problems and other major organs: Oral infections can affect the major organs. For example, the heart and heart valves may be inflamed by bacterial endocarditis, a condition that affects people with heart conditions or anyone with damaged heart tissue.
Problems with digestion: Digestion begins with the physical and chemical processes in the mouth, and some problem here can cause intestinal insufficiency, irritable bowel syndrome and other digestive disorders.
Why is oral cancer screening necessary?
Oral cancer screening is of great importance because it allows the detection of pre-cancerous lesions in the oral tissues at an early stage when precisely, dental checkup procedure is simpler. If the cancer is not detected early, the tumors can grow and even spread to other sites such as the lymph nodes in the neck. When tumors invade these ganglia, the possibility of effective treatment decreases.
Your dentist will look and feel your mouth, neck and surrounding tissues for masses, hardening, unusual growths, whitish or red patches or scaling areas.
What you can do?
Having a regular dental checkup will keep your oral cavity in optimum condition and allows your dentist to observe other developments that could point to other health problems. A teeth checkup can also detect inadequate nutrition and hygiene, growth and development problems, as well as misalignment of the jaw. Provide your dentist with a complete medical history and report to him or her any recent health developments, even if it appears to be unrelated to the health of your mouth.
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