The area of health that pertains to your mouth, teeth and gums is known as dental health. Just as there are different types of professionals who specialize in addressing different areas of the body, such as a cardiologist who concerns himself or herself with cardiovascular health, so does a dentist and other dental professionals concern themselves with attending to the state of your dental health. Moreover, just as seeing to the state of other areas of your health is important, so is it important to see the state of your dental health.
How Dental Health Affects Your Overall Health
The state of your dental health directly influences that state of your overall health. Not only are your teeth, mouth and gums an important part of your body, but there are certain types of dental conditions that can cause you to have a physical reaction that affects the state of other areas of your body. For instance, if you develop an abscess in your gums, then you can become physically ill with symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, fever, headache and more. Likewise, if you get another type of infection in your gums that allowed to spread, you could end up losing teeth, and this could affect your mental and emotional health by making you feel self-conscience of your appearance.
How a Dental Professional Can Help
In olden days, if you developed a dental condition, you usually had to just live with or try to get rid of it on your own via home remedies if there were no doctors in your area. However, in the modern age, there are plenty of dental professionals available to assist you with your dental health. A general or family dentist is usually the first type of dentist that patients end up seeing. These are the dentists that you go to every year in order to receive annual dental checkups and teeth cleanings. However, if you have certain types of dental conditions that require more specialized care, then there are dental professionals who can assist you with receiving more personalized treatment as well.
For instance, patients with overbites, underbites and other developmental bite problems might be referred to an orthodontist for braces, headgear and other orthodontic appliances to help correct the issue. Likewise, patients who suffer from problems with their roots or gums might be referred to an endodontist or periodontist. Still, patients who are missing teeth and want a more permanent solution to fixing their cosmetic appearance than partial plates or dentures might be referred to an oral surgeon to speak with him or her about getting dental implants. Nowadays, there’s plenty of dental teams available who can collaborate in order to see to the optimum state of your dental health and cosmetic appearance.
Preventative Measures You Can Take
Of course, just as a student can’t rely on the teacher to do all the work when it comes to him or her learning new skills, so can’t patients rely on dental professionals to do everything when it comes to seeing to the state of their dental health. Dental health starts with the patient, and your teeth will only be as healthy as you choose to make them. You can’t simply go into the dentist and expect him or her to work a miracle. Instead, there are some preventative measures that you must take the initiative to make in order to promote optimum dental health.
Some of the measures you can take to preserve the state of your dental health include practicing good oral hygiene, which consists of brushing at least twice daily (ideally after each meal) and flossing at least once a day, maintaining a healthy diet that’s low in sugars and acidic foods and drinks and seeing a dentist regularly to keep a close check on the state of your dental health. Even if your teeth seem to be healthy and you adhere to good oral hygiene practices, it’s still important to see a dentist at least once a year because dentists can usually spot dental issues that can’t be seen with the naked eye, and it’s best to catch any developing issues early on so that they can be addressed right away instead of allowing them to fester and morph into even bigger dental problems.
References:
Colgate. “Six dental health facts you need to know” Retrieved on January 18, 2016, from http://www.colgate.com/en/us/oc/oral-health/life-stages/adult-oral-care/article/six-dental-health-facts-you-need-to-know-0714.
Colgate-Palmolive Company
300 Park Avenue
11th Floor
New York, NY 10022-7499
1-800-226-5428
http://www.colgate.com
American Dental Association. “Oral health fact sheets.” Retrieved on January 18, 2016, from http://www.cda.org/public-resources/patient-fact-sheets.
American Dental Association
1201 K Street
14th Floor
Sacramento, CA 95814
800-232-7645
https://www.cda.org
Images:
http://www.sfdr-cisd.org/sites/default/files/Dental%20Health.jpg
http://farhoumanddentistry.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/dental-health.jpg