Teeth Health & Body Health: Covid-19, Pregnancy, Microbiome and More…
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One of our goals at Cooper Orthodontics is to promote healthy habits, like regularly brushing and flossing your teeth. We want to encourage you to watch more than what you eat, which impacts your orthodontic treatment, but can also improve your overall health.
For example, did you know that certain medical conditions can create some specific changes in the human microbiome, including on your oral health?
- Your microbiome is the combination of all of the beneficial bacteria in and on your body.
- Individuals dealing with rheumatoid arthritis and other conditions might have changes in their microbiome where one type of bacteria grows more while other bacterial growth will slow.
- Checking your microbiome might also be a way to diagnose rheumatoid arthritis.
- It is really cool that we could potentially check your saliva to check your health and it’s relatively not invasive.
- Not only is this useful to know from a health standpoint, but is also important to know as it may require more attention to your oral hygiene. As discussed in our last podcast, everything is connected!
Other medical conditions are also linked to your oral health. For example, performance of other organs, like your kidneys, can create oral health issues.
- Patients that have kidney issues (particularly those needing dialysis) can have some serious side effects in their mouth including dry mouth.
- Dry mouth can lead to fungal growth and increased plaque.
Maintaining a regular oral health routine is super important!
A big topic in the news right now is respiratory diseases (ahem… COVID-19!)
- Did you know, failure to brush and floss can potentially increase your risks of a respiratory infection.
- Pneumonia and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) are both associated with poor oral hygiene.
- Patients in long-term healthcare facilities often have problems with poor oral health, such as an increase in plaque and higher bacterial percentages in the mouth.
- What can you do to prevent this? Brush teeth more and keep your mouth clean!
This can actually:
- reduce your chance of contracting pneumonia,
- decrease the length of the infection, and
- decrease the likelihood of dying from pneumonia if, for example, if you are elderly or immunocompromised.
During pregnancy, there is a correlation between oral hygiene and healthy babies – something most pregnant women don’t even think about.
- Research indicates that healthy gums and cavity prevention means you are more likely to carry your baby full term and be a healthy weight
- It is unclear the exact reason this correlation exists – there may be multiple factors:
- Access to health care,
- Frequency of dental cleanings ,
- Healthy diet.
One thing is clear – if you have a healthy mouth, you are more likely to be doing other healthy things that all contribute to a healthy baby
So let us know if there are other aspects of health that you wonder about being related to your mouth! Have a specific topic or question you want us to cover? Contact us today!
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