To feel good and experience overall wellness,one has to pay attention to each part in their health,and not just focus on for example the health of their skin and expect it to give them a good overall health. With a good overall health and wellness,the skin will also be healthy,and the same thing goes for the teeth –although it works the other way around as well.
When it comes to maintaining good oral health,you will have to pay close attention in what you are putting in your mouth. This in return will have a direct effect on your body composition,and overall health.
Because so many of us are focused on only washing our teeth,and flossing,we are forgetting one fact –there are many groups of people that barely wash their teeth and never even heard about flossing,and they have a better oral health on average than the average US citizen. What is causing this? Their nutrition.
Smoking is a big problem for oral health in western countries,but even in countries where cigarettes aren’t as readily available,some kind of smokes are used,and still the people seem to have decent oral health.
The biggest reason for poor dental health today is soft drinks. These are highly acidic drinks,and they will cause a shift in the pH of the mouth,causing decay. When one drinks these between meals,the pH of the mouth can be consistently too acidic,causing significant problems including cavities but also teeth rot.
Side-Effects Of Poor Oral Health
The problem isn’t that you will have poor teeth if you have poor oral health,but recently researchers have found that it is linked to a much larger number of symptoms. For example a study published in Journal of Periodontology,found out that people who are suffering from chronic periondotitis –which is in laymans terms different sorts of inflammation of the gums –have elevated C-reactive protein levels (1) in their blood.
This will result in a number of illnesses in long term,including diabetes (2). These are all valid reasons not to delay taking care of your teeth! But the problems don’t stop here. It has also been found that poor dental health has been linked to an increase in the risk of cardiovascular diseases (3). These three alone should be enough for anyone to start washing their teeth and flossing regularly. Doing both twice a day with a non-fluoride toothpaste and regular flossing string,should be enough to maintain good oral health,when a sensible diet is used.
Something that isn’as well studied yet,is the heavy metals that were used in the fillings in the past. Mercury can be found in many of the older fillings,and these are absorbed in your blood and transported around your body. In your cells these metals take the place of such metals as magnesium,and when this happens in the muscle layer of your veins,you can get hypertension because the diameter of your arterias is smaller when the muscles are contracted.
It is also known to cause heart attacks,and in these cases it doesn’t really matter if you get enough magnesium in your nutrition,as it is the heavy metals that come from your dental fillings that cause the problem.
These studies show that you need to take care of all the aspects in your body to be healthy,but nutrition alone,can be a really big factor in any smaller category of health!
1. Chronic Periodontitis and C-reactive Protein Levels Journal of Periodontology 2010
2. Periodontal disease and oral hygiene habits in a type 2 diabetic population International Journal of Dental Hygiene 2009
3. The Relationship Between Periodontal Disease (Pd) and Cardiovascular Disease (Cvd). Mediterranean Journal Of Hematology and Infectious Disease 2010