How does oral health affect heart health?
A question that I get is, how is oral health linked to the heart? The easiest way I can explain that is, unfortunately for us, all the different parts of the body are attached to each other, right? So we have our teeth and I'm going to show you a model right here. This is my favorite model, right? This half of my model is the picture of clean and healthy. The gums are pink, tight, they're not puffy, they're not bleeding, and then our teeth are not rotting or breaking. Then this half of my model is a picture of not so clean, not so healthy, where the gums are red, inflamed, could be bleeding, right, or receding, and teeth are rotting and or breaking. And this is pretty much what we see, right, depending on where you're at, healthy, starting to become not healthy, and then unhealthy, right? This is what we see, but this is the other side of my model is the part that we don't see. This is what x-rays allow me to see, and every tooth has its own blood supply, right? So every tooth has blood going up the root, through the middle, and here, this is where the blood drops off the nutrients we get from the food that we eat, oxygen we breathe, for the tooth to live off of, drops it off, goes back down, goes back to the heart, goes back to the lungs, right? So you see this dark spot? Let's say that it is rot, or cavity, caused by bacteria. Now if rot and or bacteria gets to the blood supply of the tooth, then it allows the bacteria to have free range, and it's an entryway, it's like a freeway, right? Because all blood goes through the heart to get replenished with oxygen and nutrients, and then pumped back out to the rest of our body. So that's one way, or if the tooth has been rotting and now is infected, see this dark spot here? Let's say that's pus, or infection, right? Again, think of our blood on this fast-going freeway, going throughout the body. Bacteria, infection can then just be carried away along with the blood, then can go back to the heart. And for some of us, for patients that have had a history of a heart attack, or heart problems, this can cause or pose a big problem for that patient, because their heart is already working really hard, or harder than it has to, than a healthy heart. And then if dental infection gets introduced and is carried back to the heart, then it could cause more serious problems for patients. So what we'd like to do is make sure, number one, prevent. Prevention is always easiest. It's easiest on the body. It's easiest on the patient's wallet. So if we can just prevent it, it is the best thing for patients, right? If we're not able to prevent it, then the next best thing is catch it early. Doesn't matter with our teeth. Overall health. If we can catch it early, we can prevent things from getting disastrously worse. So either prevent, or catch it early, and do something about it right away, so that we don't have to deal with bigger and bigger, worse problems later down the line.
Can oral health impact diabetes management?
The best way I can answer this is it's almost like, which came first, the chicken or the egg, right? We know chickens and eggs come together, but we don't know which came first. And oftentimes, it's the same with gum disease and diabetes. They don't know if one causes the other, but there's enough research to show that they're often linked, meaning that if someone has gum disease, and we're trying to cure it here, oftentimes, a patient will be told they need a deep cleaning, they need laser, or they need antibiotics put in the little gum pockets, right? Typically, if it's local, and it's just a problem within the mouth, we will see the gums become not inflamed, so it'll become a pink color. It'll look tight, and the gums will stop receding. Now, if it's a systemic problem, like let's say a patient doesn't know they have diabetes, then we'll see the dental treatment is not improving the state of health in gums. And oftentimes, when I see that, I usually recommend to my patients, go see their primary care physician, let them know that your dentist has said, hey, I want to get tested for diabetes because something in my mouth is not checking out. And we have been able to help patients figure out that they had undetected diabetes. And it's just because enough research has shown that gum disease and diabetes are often linked together. If you are diabetic, you are more likely to have gum disease. If you have gum disease that's not improving with standard dental treatment, then it's typically undetected diabetes. But just like millions of Americans with diabetes, they are able to live healthy, active lives. But the trick to it is catching it early and making sure it's under control. It's the same thing with gum disease. The trick to gum disease is once you have gum disease, let's catch it early and let's keep it under control so that you can have teeth and gums for the rest of your life. You don't have to be on the path of losing teeth and gum disease that continue to get worse. So that's why here at Sunbright Dental, we always try to get our patients in and have a checkup every year so that we can either prevent or catch things early and keep it under control so that we can grow old together with healthy teeth and gums.
Why is dental care important during pregnancy?
Okay, then the next question I get is, I'm pregnant. I shouldn't go to the dentist. Why should I keep up with my dental visits while I'm pregnant? And that's because the body is just going crazy with hormones. And the hormones during pregnancy can affect the body in so many ways. I've seen it affect women where all of a sudden they're brushing, they're flossing like they're used to, but then all of a sudden their gums become red and inflamed. So we want to prevent or catch things early. However, a lot of the times when women are pregnant, they feel nauseous, they throw up, they vomit. I know I did during my pregnancy. And so the vomiting, lots of acid that's eating away at teeth, right? So we want to make sure whatever the pregnancy is doing to your body, one, we want to celebrate that joy of your life, but two, we want to make sure that the process of pregnancy isn't going to give you teeth problems or gum problems in exchange. So we always want to make sure we put our pregnant patients in the position of preventing. But if we haven't, then let's catch things early before it becomes a bigger problem. Especially a bigger problem when that newborn, when now the new mom is really time bankrupt. So we want to make sure that the mom is healthy enough to take care of her baby.