How does oral health affect heart health?
One of the most common questions I get is, "Doctor, but how does my oral health affect my heart?" Well, the answer is it does. The reason being is everything that we have in our mouth is connected directly to the rest of your body. In our heart, we have some valves that, when bacteria from our mouth gets in there and attaches to those valves, it can give you a condition called endocarditis. So it's very common and it's very dangerous, which is why it's so important that if you have any bacteria that's not supposed to be in your mouth—meaning periodontal disease or gum disease—it's important that we take care of it because oral health and heart disease are completely interrelated. This is a brochure I give to my patients. This one's in Spanish, but I have it in English too. I just happen to have this one handy, and it details all of the health conditions that are related to periodontal disease. When I say periodontal disease, I mean gum disease, so it's important that the patients are educated, and that's one of the things that we do here in our practice.
Can oral health impact diabetes management?
Another question that some patients have is how diabetes is related to their oral health or vice versa. A lot of studies have proven that there is a very strong relationship between when diabetes is out of control, periodontal disease is out of control, and the opposite is also true. So I have a lot of patients that say, "Hey doc, my diabetes doesn't get under control, my doctors have tried a lot of medications, it's still high, my A1C is high," and when we look in the mouth, we see periodontal disease that is active, meaning the gum disease is there. That needs to be treated because it's directly related to your diabetes being out of control as well. Now, if we do have a patient that has gum disease that hasn't been taken care of, that can also aggravate the situation with your diabetes, and it can get out of control even when you're on medication. A lot of studies have proven this strong relationship, so it's very important that if you want to take your diabetes under control, you take care of your periodontal disease/gum disease, or if the vice versa is the same. I think it gives people a reason to want to share it.
Why is dental care important during pregnancy?
One of the questions that I also get is, "How is oral health important during pregnancy?" It's important that you understand that when we're pregnant—and I mean we as women, because I've been pregnant too—we have a higher risk for any disease. Basically, our immune system is having to deal with yourself and another human inside of you. It's a lot of work for your body, so a lot of the time we just have these nauseas that cause us to vomit. We also have issues with brushing our teeth because we feel like gagging, things like that. That can cause the teeth and gums to not be super healthy, so that could make us more prone to gum disease. Also, there are a lot of changes in hormones happening inside of your body when you're pregnant, and all of that could affect your oral health. So it's crucial that during the stages of pregnancy, we take care of our teeth and gums more than ever in order to prevent gum disease that is strongly related to pregnancies when it's not taken care of, and we have all of these other issues going on. So there are risks, higher risks during pregnancy to get gum disease because of all the hormonal changes, all the inflammation going on in your body, all of those changes that your body is experiencing that are also changing the consistency and conditions in your gums and your oral health in general. So it's crucial that not only you see your dental provider, but you brush your teeth more often and better, and you floss and take excellent care of it. And if the gum disease happens to appear, you need to take care of it as soon as possible because that's bacteria that is in there traveling through your body and could affect your baby as well. Okay, just because you feel like a monster doesn't mean you have to act like one and not brush your teeth.
Is there a link between oral health and cancer risk?
A very common question I get is, "Is there a relationship between oral health and cancer?" You know, when you Google stuff, everything is cancer. So with this, honestly, there is a link. Some studies have found a strong relationship where a higher like 49% of people are more prone to certain types of cancers, meaning pancreatic cancer, or what was the other one? Hold on, one second. I have to do that one again. And honestly, I don't memorize these things because I feel like. All good. That's what we have those brochures for, so it does not just stay in your head. Kidney cancer, pancreatic cancer, leukemia. Kidney, pancreas, and leukemia. What? Everything. Another question that I get from patients is related to cancer. "Hey doc, is there a relationship between oral health and cancer? Is there a specific link between gum disease and cancer?" So let me tell you, there is. There are studies that have shown that there is a link between gum disease and lack of health in your mouth in general with pancreatic cancer and leukemia and kidney cancer. So it's always that infection is constantly going through your bloodstream. It's reaching all the organs. So yes, you're risking. It's basically like gambling with your health. So if you don't treat what's going on with your mouth, you might as well understand that the rest of your body is being affected, and cancer is one of those things that could happen to you. So it's important that you get your dental checkups so that we can prevent cancer. One of the most undiagnosed cancers is oral cancer. If you don't go to a dentist on a regular basis and you have something going on in your oral cavity and you don't know it because you don't check that, nobody's gonna notice until it's too late or it's painful. And a lot of people die from oral cancer in the U.S. every year because they go undiagnosed the majority of the time. So this is crucial for your overall health. You need to see a dentist for checkups at least once a year so you can make sure that you are fine and you don't have oral cancer or you don't have any conditions in your mouth that could end up potentially causing you other types of cancers.
How can poor oral health affect the immune system?
And the last question and topic that I'm going to be talking about today has to do with oral health and the immune system. The relationship between these two because a lot of patients do ask about it. So as I was explaining before in the video, there is a strong relationship between your immune system and your oral health. So every time we have an infection, our body, our immune system has to fight that infection. So if you have an infection in your mouth, meaning gum disease, you have decay which is bacteria in your mouth or you have an infected tooth that needs to come out and you just forget about it but the infection is there, your immune system has to power up and go ahead and take care of that infection so you don't literally die. So it's important that you take care of those issues if you want to have a better immune system that's prepared for future fights because to be honest, this can be prevented with brushing, flossing, and regular checkups so that you don't have to end up in a worse condition where you have to go to a hospital because you cannot breathe because the infection took, like it got so big that it got here and you cannot breathe now and things like that that are very preventable. So boosting your immunity with oral care is crucial. Basically brushing, flossing, and coming to the dentist on a regular basis so that if there is anything going on, we can take care of it and you avoid your immune system from having to fight certain infections and just leave it for when it's really needed.