Beyond just not having a beautiful smile, not taking care of your teeth can lead to an assortment of health problems. Most of the time, your cavity or receding gums are annoying or painful, but there are times when it can lead to other more serious problems.
Many people don’t realize just how much our dental and overall health are linked. What we do to our teeth we do to our entire body as crazy as that may seem. An infected tooth can spread bacteria, receding gums are not just annoying but can cause heart disease. These are just a couple of examples.
In this article, we will take a deeper look at how your bad teeth may contribute to your poor overall health.
Heart disease
We have capillary veins very close to the surface of our gums. Which is why they can bleed so easily when we brush with too much force. It’s also the quickest route for bacteria to get into our bloodstream.
When you have a tooth infection, it can easily spread into your gums. And when the gums get infected the bacteria can very easily spread around the body. Even when the infection doesn’t cause an infection in other parts of the body, it can cause the arteries to harden.
So, you end up increasing the risk of stroke or other cardiovascular disease.
If you have a tooth that is infected, then have it pulled right away before it causes any damage. You will need an implant or bridge to replace the tooth, however. There are a lot of options out there with zirconia implants being popular. Zirconia dental implants pros and cons can be debated but the fact remains the tooth should be pulled.
Pregnancy complications
Dental issues are fairly common amongst pregnant women, so there is a higher chance of other issues if teeth or gums get infected. Hormones cause an imbalance in pregnant women which causes things like periodontitis and gingivitis.
There is an elevated risk due to an infection in a pregnant woman so there needs to be extra care in taking care of teeth by visiting the dentist at the first sight of any kind of dental problems.
There is a risk of low birth weight due to gingivitis and even premature birth is not unheard of as a result.
Erectile dysfunction
Cardiovascular disease can manifest itself in a surprising way as it can also be responsible for ED or erectile dysfunction. An infection in the gums can get into the blood as we know, but when it does, it can cause inflammation of the blood vessels. In some cases, there is even a hardening of the arteries.
As a result, this can disrupt the flow of blood around the body which can impact an erection.
This is not life threatening, of course, but it is a sign that things are not going well and it all came from gums and teeth that needed to be cared for earlier.
Dementia
When you think about how close your mouth is to your brain, then you can see how if you have substances excreting from your gums that they can travel there quite easily.
Brain cells can die when exposed to these substances from the gums and teeth which can then cause problems like dementia. The nerve channels from the mouth to the brain are a perfect conduit so you are likely to be dealing with an ongoing killing of brain cells and not just a one time thing.
Respiratory diseases
Lastly, pneumonia is very easily contracted by the bacteria growing in your mouth. Considering that pneumonia can be bacterial and you breathe through your mouth, there is a straight line that can be drawn from an infected tooth or gums and a bout of pneumonia.
Not that pneumonia isn’t serious, but COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) is also possible and unlike pneumonia is a long term problem. It is a progressive disease that gets worse with time so this is something quite serious that is not easy to treat. In fact, it can lead to emphysema which destroys the air sacs in the lungs making it very difficult to breathe.
All this to say that it shouldn’t be taken lightly when you have receding gums or cavities that are left to become infections. Take the time to have these issues taken care of to prevent your health from declining.
Don’t hesitate to get dental care at all-on-4 queen creek to prevent further complications of oral issues.
The Editorial Team at Healthcare Business Today is made up of skilled healthcare writers and experts, led by our managing editor, Daniel Casciato, who has over 25 years of experience in healthcare writing. Since 1998, we have produced compelling and informative content for numerous publications, establishing ourselves as a trusted resource for health and wellness information. We offer readers access to fresh health, medicine, science, and technology developments and the latest in patient news, emphasizing how these developments affect our lives.
