Good Body Health Starts with Your Mouth
Brushing and flossing are essential to maintain white teeth and prevent cavities. It also helps to keep your mouth healthy, which is vital to your well-being and overall health.
Oral health and whole-body health are connected; therefore, issues with the teeth and gums can cause other health problems such as stroke, heart disease, and more.
Our downtown Seattle dentist can assess a person’s overall health by looking at their gums. When we talk about gums, it means looking at details such as missing teeth, bleeding gums, and bad breath. Some gum diseases can put you at a high risk of developing diabetes and raise your chances of getting complications during pregnancy.
Symptoms of Oral Problems
Regular visits with the dentist allow them to detect an issue before you start to notice any symptoms. The following signs indicate that you have a dental problem and you should go for a checkup at our dental clinic in Seattle:
- Swollen or bleeding gums after flossing or brushing
- Toothache or pain
- Sores, tender areas, or ulcers in the mouth that don’t heal after a week or more
- Chronic bad breath
- Sudden sensitivity to hot and cold beverages and foods
- Pain with biting and chewing
Other symptoms may include receding gums, the clicking of the jaw, frequent dry mouth, face and cheek swelling, loose teeth, and broken or cracked teeth.
What Causes Oral Diseases
Like other body parts, the mouth contains bacteria, fungi, and viruses (most of them are harmless). But the mouth has access to respiratory and digestive tracts, and some bacteria can lead to the development of a disease. For example, a diet with high sugar content creates an environment where acid-producing bacteria thrive; the acid dissolves the tooth enamel causing dental cavities.
Plaque accumulates on the gum line and hardens if it isn’t cleared away by flossing and brushing. It can cause inflammation in your gums resulting in a condition known as gingivitis.
Increased inflammation causes the gums to start pulling away from the teeth. That process forms pockets that collect pus resulting in an advanced stage of gum disease known as periodontitis.
Factors such as poor brushing habits, smoking, sugary foods and drinks, family history, diabetes, heartburn or acid reflux, and medications that cause a dry mouth can contribute to gum disease.
At Seattle Sound Dental, we offer general dentistry, including dental sealants, preventive dentistry, extractions, exams and cleanings, and so much more.
Ways to Keep Your Mouth Healthy
Maintaining a healthy mouth involves practicing good oral hygiene habits, using the right oral product, and much more. Let’s look at things you can do to maintain a healthy mouth.
- Brush your teeth and tongue
Brush your teeth at least twice every day. Brushing at night before bed helps to eliminate plaque and germs that accumulate during the day.
How you brush is also important and doing a bad job is similar to not brushing. Move your toothbrush gently in circular motions to rid of plaque, and brush each tooth at least ten times. Aggressive brushing aggressively can erode the gum line and damage teeth.
Plaque can accumulate on the tongue, and as a result, it can cause bad mouth odor. Therefore, when brushing your teeth, always remember to brush your tongue.
- Drink water
Water is the best beverage you could take in terms of overall health and oral health. In addition, drinking water, especially after meals, helps to wash out some harmful effects of acidic and sticky foods and beverages.
- Quit smoking
The tar and nicotine in cigarettes can eat away your gums and change the color of your teeth to yellow.
Smoking creates conditions that help to flourish the bacteria and plaque along the gum line and on the teeth. That can harm the tissues and damage the bone that supports teeth, increasing your chances of tooth loss. In addition, tobacco contains chemicals that can cause oral cancer.
- Visit the dentist
Seeing the dentist is essential if you want to have a healthy mouth. Brushing and flossing aren’t enough; you also have to go for regular cleanings at a dental clinic. In addition, dental visits can help detect issues such as decay, trauma, gum disease, or oral cancer at an early stage.