When thinking about general health and wellbeing, not many people would realise that your teeth will give an inside story into your overall health. In the age of fast food, high sugar intake and busy schedules, often people forget to prioritise their health or think that they are leading a healthy lifestyle when they are, in fact, not. Your teeth can tell a lot about your general health in a few ways – visually speaking and also what is happening on the inside of your body. Visually, if you are not looking after your teeth then it is unlikely that you are looking after the other parts of your body too. From a medical view, if you are suffering ongoing problems with gum disease, bleeding or bad breath, you may not be providing your body with the correct nutrition in your diet to resist infection. There have been numerous publications discussing the fact that oral infections can potentially be linked to other more serious disease, such as diabetes or heart disease, with poor oral hygiene having very serious and detrimental affects to your health.
A lot of the problem with correctly looking after your teeth relates to a lack of time. In children and adults alike, time can be a major factor in how dedicated you are to your oral health. In children, taking the time to carefully floss and brush teeth twice a day can be a menial task that is easily forgotten or dreaded. In adults, it is easy to skip a night-time tooth brush because we are too tired, or skip flossing entirely because it can be difficult, take too much time or cause bleeding. Maintaining the routine of brushing and flossing on a regular basis, preferably morning and night, means that you get into the habit of good oral practices and can also teach children the importance of lifelong oral care.
From an overall health and wellbeing standpoint, different foods can play major roles in not only the quality of your teeth, but also your complete health and wellbeing. Foods containing high amounts of sugar or being highly processed can get stuck in your teeth, and if you combine that with a lack of regular brushing and flossing, can cause tooth decay and wear meaning more trips to the dentist. By not providing your body with the entire nutrition it needs from a variety of fruit, vegetables meat and dairy, you may not have enough of the essential vitamins and minerals to fight disease – which would of course mean not only extra dentist visits, but visits to your doctor too.
Orthodontic treatment will help you to maintain good oral hygiene and make it easier to keep your teeth healthy. Undertaking Orthodontic treatment for bite, speech or chewing (jaw) problems will vastly increase your chance of remaining healthy and keep more serious disease at bay. By increasing your overall health and fitness by making healthier food choices, keeping a fitness routine to maintain cardiovascular health and keeping your body free from harmful bacteria that is caused by poor oral hygiene will mean that your give yourself the best chance from developing more serious disease in later life and help in keeping your teeth in the best possible shape for many years to come.
