Dental hygiene is important to your oral health because it reduces your risk of developing tooth decay and gum disease. Brushing and flossing on a regular basis are the basics of a good oral hygiene routine (along with regular dental check-ups) which effectively prevent plaque build up, gingivitis and other common forms of periodontal diseases and bad breath/halitosis! When left untreated, both tooth decay and gum disease can have serious implications on your oral health.
Regular professional cleanings with dentist like those at durhamdental.net are equally important to at-home care as they help to remove hardened deposits on the teeth known as tartar or calculus and provide your dentist with insight into developing conditions within your oral cavity unreachable through a regular inspection at home alone such as oral cancers and most especially the dreaded cavity in between the teeth that is generally hard to locate on your own.
While you may not realize this, dental hygiene is also important to your overall health (not just your teeth).
When a person has gum disease they may feel pain in the gums or experience inflammation of the gum tissues. Sometimes the pockets between the teeth and gums get so deep that the bone resorbs and the teeth become loose and eventually fall out! In more extreme cases people who do have poor oral hygiene habits can develop systemic disease such as diabetes and other cardiovascular complications due to the bacteria associated with periodontal diseases residing in the oral cavity and the saliva they release into the body when they are cleaning their teeth poorly.
A lack of dental hygiene leads to an abundance of bacteria in your mouth. Even though bacteria from the mouth do not regularly enter the bloodstream, this can happen in an unhealthy mouth; consequently, the bacteria can enter the arteries and lead to inflammation of blood vessels and thus affect the blood flow to the heart. This severe type of gum disease (gingivitis) is called pericorontitis and is usually painless at the beginning but can become very serious if not treated timely and can be fatal even 30 years after it is initially diagnosed.
Overall, dental hygiene plays an important role not only in preserving your oral health, but preserving your overall health as well. Oral hygiene is ideally practiced in combination with regular dental visits to the dental care Briarwood for teeth cleanings and other routine dental treatments which ensure that your teeth and gums stay healthy and free of disease and other oral health problems that might impact them down the road or only emerge in the future.
