What’s Different About Women’s Oral Health?

HEALTH CONCERNS CAN BE a lot different for women than for men, and that even includes dental health! Women face a different set of challenges than men do in caring for their teeth and gums, as well as having different advantages.

Which Oral Health Conditions Are More Common for Women?

Did you know that 90% of people diagnosed with temporomandibular joint disorder (TMD) are women? TMD is chronic pain or soreness in the joints of the jaw. It’s typically caused by bruxism (teeth grinding), but joint structure, stress, arthritis, vitamin deficiency, or hormones could also be responsible.

Another condition women are more likely to be affected by than men is Sjörgen’s syndrome, an autoimmune disorder in which the immune system mistakenly attacks parts of the body, particularly salivary glands and tear ducts, causing both dry mouth and dry eye. In addition to making chewing and swallowing difficult and uncomfortable and interfering with the sense of taste, dry mouth is dangerous to oral health.

Hormonal Changes Can Affect Teeth

Puberty, pregnancy, and menopause all come with major hormonal changes that can impact oral health. Gingivitis and gum inflammation are more common during puberty and pregnancy, which makes good daily dental health habits like brushing and flossing even more important under these conditions.

Menopause is associated with a higher incidence of dry mouth and bone loss in the jaw. This bone loss can compromise the gum tissue and the roots of teeth, which is why it’s important to discuss it with the dentist (preferably before any symptoms have even begun).

Eating Disorders Are a Serious Oral Health Problem

Women aren’t the only ones who struggle with eating disorders, but they are certainly twice as common among teenage girls as teenage boys. Eating disorders are incredibly dangerous and damage every system in the body, including teeth and gums. It’s a two-pronged attack on oral health: malnutrition weakens the oral tissues and the immune system while acid erosion (in the case of bulimia) destroys tooth enamel.

We encourage anyone struggling with an eating disorder to seek psychiatric help so that they can begin the mental recovery process. The dental health recovery process will likely require help in the form of a rigorous dental hygiene routine and professional attention from the dentist.

The Dentist Is the Expert on Women’s Oral Health

With all these risk factors women face in keeping their teeth and gums healthy, are there really any up-sides? Yes, actually, and it’s a big one. Women tend to be better than men at taking care of their teeth! Women are more likely to maintain good oral health habits, and they’re also better at keeping up with their regular dental exams and getting the dentist’s help when they experience tooth pain (as opposed to trying to tough it out), so even if they are more susceptible to certain problems, the impact is reduced!

We love working with our female patients!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

The History of Fluoride in Dentistry

IN ORDER TO EARN the American Dental Association’s Seal of Acceptance, a tube of toothpaste must contain fluoride as its active ingredient. We also add trace amounts of fluoride to our drinking water across the country to help keep our teeth healthy and strong. So what’s so special about fluoride?

The Wild Origin Story of Fluoridated Drinking Water

Our tale begins at the dawn of the 20th century in Colorado Springs. Local dentists were seeing so many cases of brown — but not decayed — teeth that they named the strange condition “Colorado brown stain.” They were observing what we now know to be fluorosis, and it was happening because of the abundance of naturally occurring fluoride in the town’s drinking water.

The residents of early-1900s Colorado Springs were clearly getting too much fluoride in their water, but dentists wanted to see if there was a level of fluoride that would help reduce cavities without staining the teeth. Happily, there was! The first town to add fluoride to its drinking water was Grand Rapids, Michigan. It brought down the rate of childhood caries by a staggering 60%, with no adverse effects aside from a few cases of mild fluorosis.

Fluoridated Water Today

More than half of the U.S. Population enjoys the dental health benefits of fluoridated drinking water today, something the CDC considers to be one of the ten greatest public health achievements of the last century. It benefits everyone, whether they’re rich or poor, young or old, male or female. It might seem strange if you aren’t familiar with it, but it’s about the same as using iodized salt, baking with enriched flour, or drinking milk with added vitamin D.

What Fluoride Does for Our Teeth

The processes of remineralization and demineralization are happening constantly in our tooth enamel, and the goal of dental health habits is to make sure that remineralization is winning. For that, we need the raw materials to rebuild enamel, and fluoride is one of them. Brushing with fluoride toothpaste is one way to get it, but the trace amounts in our drinking water ensures an continuous supply of fluoride in our saliva.

Fluoride: Not Too Much or Too Little

We saw in Colorado Springs that it’s possible for fluoride to do more harm than good to teeth when the exposure level is too high. Avoiding fluoride entirely, on the other hand,  leaves the teeth more vulnerable to decay. Drinking water only contains up to 1.2 parts per million of fluoride, and we should be spitting out our toothpaste after brushing and only using small amounts of it, especially for children. This is how we hit that Goldilocks zone of cavity protection without fluorosis!

Do You Have Fluoride Questions?

If you still have questions about the fluoride in toothpaste or in drinking water, you can check sources like the ADA and the CDC, or you could ask us! We want our patients to have all the information they need to feel confident in their dental care and the value of the daily habits we encourage.

Our patients’ healthy smiles are wonderful to see!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Oral Health in Cold and Flu Season

WHAT DOES A TOOTHBRUSH have to do with cold and flu season? More than you’d think! It’s never fun to battle a cold or a bout of flu, but that’s no reason to slack off on taking care of our teeth and gums.

Feel Better Through Dental Hygiene

It can feel like a lot of work to keep up with brushing and flossing when we’re not feeling well, but it’s worth it. Maintaining these simple daily habits is still important. They help us feel more normal, refreshed, and rejuvenated, and when we feel unwell, they can give us a small sense of accomplishment that does a lot for our overall sense of wellbeing. And getting rid of more oral bacteria can only help by giving your immune system less work to do!

Stuffy Noses Can Lead to Cavities?

Indirectly, not being able to breathe through our noses does make us more vulnerable to tooth decay. When we’re forced to breathe through our mouths, it dries up our saliva. This can be a major problem because saliva is the first line of defense against harmful oral bacteria. It washes away leftover food particles and keeps our oral pH neutral so that our enamel can stay strong.

Sometimes it’s the medicine we take that dries out our mouths (antihistamines, pain relievers, and decongestants are all big offenders), so make sure to drink plenty of water and breathe through your nose whenever possible.

Why Does Our Breath Smell When We’re Sick?

Have you ever gotten that snotty taste in your mouth when you have a cold? If you can taste it, then it’s probably what your breath smells like, and it comes from post-nasal drip (the excess mucus that leaks down the back of the throat during a runny nose). Bacteria can easily multiply in this situation, resulting in unpleasant smells. There’s one more reason to keep up with brushing and flossing while we’re sick!

Starve Bacteria by Cutting Back on Sugar

Harmful bacteria likes to live in our mouths because it can get plenty of access to its favorite food there: sugar. When we eat sugary cough drops, it might help with the cough, but it’s as bad for our teeth as hard candy. In addition to generally cutting back on sugary foods and drinks, we recommend choosing a sugar-free cough drop for combating a cough.

Likewise, use water or other sugar-free drinks to rehydrate when an illness is using up all your body’s fluids. When we do consume sugar, we should rinse with water after to wash away the leftovers. Drinking plenty of water is particularly important when we have a stomach bug, because it helps protect our teeth from the damage stomach acid can do to them if we’re vomiting frequently.

Bring Us Your Oral Health Questions

If we haven’t answered all your questions about how common illnesses and oral health interact with each other, just let us know! We want to make sure all our patients have the information they need to keep their teeth and gums in good shape, even when they’re not feeling well!

Take care this flu season!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Don’t Let a Toothache Ruin Your Day

WHAT CAUSES TOOTHACHES? There are a few different causes, and we want our patients to be familiar with them as well as what they can do about them if a toothache strikes at a time when it’s not so easy to make a quick visit to the dentist.

Toothache Causes: The Usual Suspects

Tooth decay is the most common cause of toothaches, but it’s not the only one. Others include gum disease, pulp inflammation, and dental abscess. An injury to the face can also result in a toothache even if the tooth and surrounding gum tissue were perfectly healthy beforehand! Teeth impacted in the jaw can be painful too. There’s also tooth sensitivity, and sometimes simple congestion or a sinus infection can feel a lot like a toothache.

Can’t Get an Appointment Immediately? Here’s What to Do.

We encourage anyone with a toothache to schedule an emergency dental appointment, but sometimes toothaches aren’t polite enough to pop up during the dentist’s normal hours. What then? Fortunately, there are a few things patients can do to manage their pain level until the dentist can see them:

• Take over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medicine
• Apply topical pain relievers
• Apply a cold compress to the sore area
• Rinse and spit warm salt water to reduce the inflammation (don’t swallow it!)

Tips for Preventing Future Toothaches

Toothaches aren’t 100% preventable, particularly when sinus infections or injuries are the cause, but keeping up with dental health habits will certainly help your teeth stay in good shape. Most important among these are daily brushing and flossing. Make sure to brush twice a day for two full minutes, using a soft-bristled toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste.

We can also make toothaches less likely by cutting down on sugary foods and drinks (which are what harmful oral bacteria love to eat), and by drinking water afterwards when we do have something sugary.

Regular Dentist Appointments Help Prevent Toothaches

Another important way to prevent toothaches before they happen is by keeping up with a regular dental exam schedule. For most patients, this means coming in twice a year. These appointments matter because even the most diligent brushing and flossing won’t always get all the plaque and tartar. It’s also better to catch a problem before it gets bad enough that you actually feel symptoms like a toothache, because then it’s easier (and cheaper!) to treat.

Let’s Keep That Smile Toothache-Free!

Never forget that pain is the body’s natural alarm system to let us know when something’s wrong. That’s why we should never ignore a toothache. It won’t go away on its own, and whatever’s causing it will likely get worse, so if you have a toothache, make sure to schedule an appointment. The dentist will get to the bottom of it and recommend the right steps to take next.

It’s never too soon for preventative dentistry!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Are Oral Piercings Worth the Risks?

WHY WOULD DENTAL health professionals want to weigh in on oral piercings? There aren’t many fashion choices that impact oral health, but this one does. The unfortunate reality is that lip and tongue piercings pose serious hazards to the teeth and oral tissues. Anyone considering getting one should be aware of the risks.

The Biggest Risks With Lip and Tongue Piercings

All piercings — even the extremely common earlobe piercing — come with certain risks. They can become infected or you might discover a previously unknown allergy to the metal. These risks apply to oral piercings too, but they aren’t the only ones.

Fidgeting Can Do Permanent Damage

It’s hard enough not to fidget with a stuck piece of food between your teeth when you can’t get a toothpick or some floss, but at least poking at those with our tongues won’t result in chipped or cracked teeth, damage our fillings, or risk soft tissue injuries in the tongue, gums, or lips. Fidgeting with a piercing can easily lead to any of those outcomes, which should be a serious consideration for anyone thinking about getting a lip or tongue ring.

Risk of Nerve Damage and Gum Recession

If not properly placed, a tongue piercing can cause nerve temporary or permanent nerve damage, which could include symptoms like numbness, difficulty with speech and chewing, and can even impact the sense of taste. The gum tissue, meanwhile, can be worn away by the constant friction with a piercing, leaving the roots exposed and vulnerable to decay.

More on Piercing Infections

When you combine the normal risk of infection any piercing has with the amount and variety of bacteria that lives in the human mouth, oral piercings are much harder to keep healthy than a simple ear piercing. Symptoms of an infected piercing include pain, swelling, and inflammation, as well as chills, fever, or shaking. Good oral hygiene habits are absolutely essential for minimizing infection risk.

At Least Wait Until After Braces

The risks with piercings are serious enough that we wouldn’t recommend getting them at all, but they are an especially bad idea with braces. It’s all too easy for a piercing to get tangled in orthodontic hardware, and a serious injury around the piercing site or damage to the orthodontic appliance can happen before you know it. Orthodontic patients should definitely wait until Braces Off Day to get a piercing (though we still advise against it even then).

Piercing Care and Maintenance

It isn’t our job to forbid patients from getting oral piercings. All we can do is give you all the information you need to make an educated decision. For those who feel the risks don’t outweigh the benefits, proper piercing care is key.

• Clean the piercing site after meals and snacks.
• Remove all piercings during sports and other physical activities.
• Check that the piercing is secure so it can’t become a choking hazard.
• Go to the dentist at the first sign of infection.
• Don’t clack the piercing against your teeth.
• Brush twice a day and floss daily!

Our Top Priority Is Your Oral Health

We’re your partners in lifelong dental health, which is why we aren’t huge fans of oral piercings. We’re definitely huge fans of our patients, and if you need more information about how oral piercings can impact oral health, feel free to give us a call or stop by the practice to discuss it with us.

We love seeing you and your beautiful smiles!

Top image by Flickr user RenaudPhoto used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Smoking Versus Teeth

THE FIRST NEGATIVE health effect we usually think of in connection to smoking is lung cancer, but it actually harms every system in the body, and oral health is no exception. Smoking (or any kind of tobacco consumption, including chewing tobacco and vaping) is a serious risk factor for a lot of oral health problems.

Smokers Are More at Risk of Oral Cancer

Despite lung cancer being the high-profile risk associated with smoking, 80% of oral cancer diagnoses are connected to a smoking or chewing tobacco habit. Oral cancer can involve early symptoms like the sensation of having something stuck in the throat, difficulty chewing or swallowing, numbness, swelling, unusual white patches in the oral soft tissues, or persistent mouth sores or pain. Regular dental exams are critical for catching oral cancer early.

A Strange Oral Health Complication: Smoker’s Keratosis

Another less well-known effect smoking can have on oral health is smoker’s keratosis, or white patches on the roof of the mouth. This condition is still a mystery to medical science, but it could be the result of inflamed mucous glands. The white patches usually aren’t painful, but they may be precancerous.

Gum Disease Is More Likely With a Smoking Habit

According to the CDC, around 47% of adults over 30 have some form of gum disease. Smoking doubles the risk of developing it and also makes it more difficult to treat. As it progresses, gum disease can cause serious damage to the gum tissue and even result in bone loss in the jaw and tooth loss. If the bacteria in the mouth gets into the bloodstream through the inflamed gums, it can even jeopardize overall health.

Is Vaping a Safe Alternative?

While vaping may not be as harmful to oral tissues as traditional smoking, it still isn’t safe. Nicotine in any form reduces blood flow, which starves the gum tissue of oxygen and nutrients and slows down the healing process, making tissue death and gum recession more likely. It also dries out the mouth, which can lead to another set of problems from tooth decay to bad breath.

Smoking Doesn’t Only Harm the Smoker

Many smokers decide that the health risks of their habit are acceptable, thinking they will only affect them, but secondhand smoke has serious effects too. Studies suggest a link between regular exposure to secondhand smoke and the development of cavities. Beyond oral health risks, there are also broader health risks — particularly for small children and infants, from asthma attacks all the way up to SIDS.

It’s Never Too Late to Quit

Risk factors can’t always be controlled. We can’t help what our genetics are or that we grow old, but smoking is a major risk factor for so many health problems, and unlike aging and genes, we can avoid smoking or stop if we’ve started. It’s definitely better never to start in the first place, but even a longtime smoker can significantly improve their health outlook by quitting!

You Don’t Have to Do It Alone

Quitting something as addictive as a smoking habit is difficult, but there are so many allies and resources available to help, including friends, family, counselors, and a wealth of useful information online. Another great resource is the dentist, who can check for early symptoms of oral health problems and help you work to keep your mouth healthy!

We love to see our patients!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Why We’re Thankful for the Dentist

IT’S THAT TIME of the year when we take stock of what we’re thankful for. Even in a turbulent year, there’s plenty that goes on that list, from our families and friends to new skills we’ve developed, and we hope that hard-working dental professionals are included for a lot of people!

Healthy Smiles Come Easier With Modern Dentistry

Before you scoff at the idea of putting dentists on a list of things to be grateful for, hear us out. It’s not just about the treatment we receive at our dental exams; it’s more than that. Dentists have led the charge for good dental habits and awareness of the harm sugar can do to our teeth and gums. Let’s go over just a few of the things that are widely understood these days thanks to dentists.

The Importance of a Daily Dental Health Routine

All our lives, we’ve heard dentists tell us to brush twice a day for two full minutes and to floss daily. This is because neglecting to brush and floss or not doing a thorough job allows plaque to build up, calcify into tartar, and increase the risk of gum disease and tooth decay. However, it’s also important to be gentle with the floss and not to brush too hard, because overbrushing can be a problem as well. That’s why dentists recommend soft-bristled brushes!

How We Keep Our Smiles Bright and Breath Fresh

Dentists also help us out with great tips for how to keep our breath fresh, like making sure to include scraping our tongues in our daily hygiene routines. Lots of bacteria can get trapped in the rough surface of the tongue, so we should be cleaning it off regularly using tongue scrapers! (Simply using a toothbrush for that won’t be very effective.)

Another important way to keep our breath fresh is to cut back on our sugar consumption, because that’s smelly oral bacteria’s favorite food! We should also be breathing through our noses whenever possible, because mouth-breathing dries out our mouths, leaving us with less saliva to wash away unpleasant smells.

Regular Dental Check-Ups Matter!

The old saying that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure is absolutely true when it comes to dental health. Regular dental exams (meaning every six months) are the best way to catch little problems before they can become big (and expensive). Good to know!

It Goes Both Ways: We’re Thankful for Our Patients!

We’re so grateful that we get to play a role in keeping our patients’ smiles healthy! We hope the remainder of the year is wonderful for all of you and that you have many opportunities to show off your gorgeous smiles.

We look forward to seeing you!

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The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Fighting Back Against Dental Anxiety

DENTAL PHOBIA AND anxiety are pretty common, affecting more than one in every ten Americans. That means that close to 40 million people avoid getting crucial preventative dental care, which in turn means that small, easy-to-fix dental problems can become big, painful, expensive ones before they’ll see a dentist. We hope we can help all of our patients overcome any dental anxiety they may struggle with.

Where Does Dental Anxiety Come From?

Even though we’re dental professionals ourselves, we can understand why the idea of regular dental appointments (let alone more intense treatments) can be unpleasant for a lot of people. It’s not very fun to lie flat on your back while strangers poke around at your teeth and gums, and maybe it’s easier to hope there are no cavities instead of letting a dentist check and risk getting bad news. A lot of people feel this way, but for the sake of having healthy smiles, it’s important not to succumb to it.

Other people might have a specific bad memory that they associate the dentist with. Maybe they had a negative experience that gave them a terrible impression of dentists in general, or maybe older family members told them about their bad experiences and passed on their dental anxiety that way. At our practice, patient comfort is one of our highest priorities, and we would love to help any patients overcome anxiety based on previous experiences.

Strategies for Fighting Dental Anxiety

Here are a few things we recommend trying to help with feelings of dental anxiety:

• Don’t wait until a scheduled appointment to visit the dental office. Come in ahead of time to meet the team and get familiar with the space. Maybe even bring a friend or family member along so you can feel as in control as possible.
• Learn about what goes into a typical dental appointment. Ask questions and get an idea of how the process will go so that you won’t have to worry about any surprises.
• Discuss your anxiety and what you think the cause might be with the dentist. When dentists are aware of a patient’s dental anxiety struggles, they are much better able to help.
• Bring a relaxing distraction like your favorite music or podcast to listen to during the appointment.
• Remember that modern dentistry is full of conveniences and comforts that didn’t exist for our parents and grandparents! We get a pretty great deal in the 21st century.

Dental Professionals Are on Your Team

We hope every patient we interact with can leave our practice feeling confident that their healthy smiles are in good hands. If you struggle with dental anxiety or have a family member who does, we want to help, so schedule a time to visit the practice, get used to our facilities, and meet our team. We can’t wait to answer your questions and help you feel at home.

We love our patients!

Top image by Flickr user Nenad Stojkovic used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

What Causes Bleeding Gums

THERE ARE SEVERAL reasons gum tissue might end up bleeding, and not just because of gum disease. We know it can be alarming to experience bleeding gums, so we want to help our patients understand the different causes and how we can treat it (when treatment is necessary).

Plaque Buildup Leads to Bleeding Gums

Plaque is a sticky film of bacteria that develops on our teeth. As it builds up along the gumline, it can eventually harden into tartar if we aren’t thorough enough in our daily brushing and flossing. The more they build up, plaque and tartar irritate the gum tissue, making it more likely to bleed.

This is also what causes gingivitis, the earliest stage of gum disease. The more gum disease advances towards periodontitis, the more it harms the oral tissues and teeth, and the harder it is to reverse. It can jeopardize the jaw bone, meaning that the teeth don’t have as much support, and they can loosen and fall out!

Vitamin Deficiencies Impact Gum Health

One of the causes of bleeding gums that doesn’t have to do with gum disease is not getting enough vitamin C or K. Great sources of vitamin C include bell peppers, potatoes, strawberries, tomatoes, broccoli, and especially citrus fruits. To get enough vitamin K, make sure to include things like olive oil, soybeans, mustard greens, lettuce, spinach, kale, and watercress in your diet.

The Dangers of Overbrushing

We always encourage our patients to brush for two full minutes twice a day, but only with a soft-bristled toothbrush. That’s because it’s actually possible to brush so hard that it damages the gum tissue — it can even cause gum recession, not just bleeding! Gentle brushing is enough. A good way to know if you’re brushing too hard is if it doesn’t take long with a new toothbrush before the bristles are bent outwards.

Beginning a Flossing Habit

If you haven’t always been consistent in flossing but you’ve recently gotten much better at it, it might make your gums bleed a little at first. Don’t stop flossing, though! The problem could be your technique. Avoid pulling straight down towards the gums to get the floss between the teeth. Instead, make a C-shape around the top of one tooth and carefully work your way down with back-and-forth motions.

Irritated Gums? Here’s What You Can Do

If your gums are sore or swollen, make sure to let the dentist know, especially if these symptoms are new. The dentist will determine what’s causing the problem and recommend the next steps to take. In the meantime, you can soothe the tenderness by swishing warm salt water (don’t swallow it, though). Switching to an electric toothbrush may also help, because they’re very good at cleaning but harder to overbrush with.

Keeping Your Gums Healthy

Aside from daily gentle brushing and good daily flossing technique, what else can you do to keep your gums healthy? Make sure to keep up with your regular twice-yearly dental appointments. No matter how good you are at flossing, some of that plaque and tartar can only be reached by a hygienist with the right training and tools!

Seeing our patients smile is what makes us smile!

Top image by Flickr user Torrey Wiley used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.

Diabetes and Dental Health

ORAL HEALTH AND DIABETES are closely intertwined. It becomes much harder to maintain good oral health without carefully controlling the diabetes, and diabetes becomes harder to control when oral health isn’t a priority. Gum disease is just one oral health problem that is harder to avoid with diabetes.

Blood Sugar and Oral Health

We hear all the time how bad sugar is for teeth. Harmful oral bacteria loves eating the leftover sugar in our mouths after we eat or drink something sweet, but it also loves the sugar in the bloodstream. In addition, high blood sugar is hard on the immune system, making it more difficult to fight back against that same bacteria and leaving diabetic patients particularly vulnerable to oral inflammation and tooth decay.

The Relationship Between Gum Disease and Diabetes

More than a fifth of diabetics, whether they have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, have some form of gum disease, ranging from gingivitis (the early stages of inflammation) all the way to periodontitis (advanced gum disease), which threatens the teeth, gums, and supporting bone. Even overall health can be a victim of gum disease, if the bacteria causing it reaches the bloodstream.

Symptoms to watch out for include swollen, red, or bleeding gums, chronic bad breath, gum recession, and teeth feeling looser. Any of these can indicate poor gum health. Diabetes also increases the risk of developing other problems (which in turn increase the risk of gum disease) such as impaired healing ability, more frequent and severe infections, dry mouth, enlarged salivary glands, fungal infections, and burning mouth syndrome.

Keeping Diabetes Under Control

Diabetes can complicate a lot of things about daily life, but it is still possible to achieve and maintain good oral health with diabetes. Maintaining good daily oral hygiene habits like brushing twice a day with fluoride toothpaste and a soft-bristled toothbrush and flossing daily will definitely make a difference. So will keeping up with regular dental checkups, being careful with sugar intake, and avoiding harmful habits like smoking.

Diabetes and Orthodontic Treatment

Gum disease, whether a complication of diabetes or not, can present a challenge for orthodontic treatment. Any diabetics considering orthodontic treatment should take extra care to maintain control of their diabetes and oral health so that their treatment can go forward and they’ll be able to enjoy having a properly aligned smile.

The Importance of Dental Visits

Regular dental exams are especially essential for those with diabetes, because the early signs of dental problems aren’t always obvious and the sooner they’re caught, the easier they are to deal with. Your doctor can also work with your dentist in helping you to manage both your diabetes and your oral health, which is why it’s important to keep them both in the loop!

We’re here to help you fight for good oral health!

Top image used under CC0 Public Domain license. Image cropped and modified from original.

The content on this blog is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of qualified health providers with questions you may have regarding medical conditions.