How Does Bad Oral Hygiene Affect Your Overall Health?

Skipping the toothbrush is like leaving the door wide open for health issues to sneak in. Oral hygiene is just a small investment with a big payoff for your overall health. Food and water, which are the primary fuels for the body’s functioning, are transported through the mouth—a gateway to the body’s insides. What happens if the entry point is unhealthy? A host of infections, toxins, and dirt also get a free pass into your gut along with the food. Your smile may be charming, but the consequences of bad oral hygiene are far from glamorous. From regular gut issues to chronic diseases, poor dental hygiene can create a myriad of problems. Discover the domino effect of an unhealthy mouth and why it’s time to prioritize your oral dental care now.

How Does Bad Oral Hygiene Affect Health?

A healthy mouth hosts a diverse microbiome that is in perfect harmony with the environment and causes no harm. Poor oral hygiene practices can build up plaque, and tartar in the mouth, which are breeding grounds for harmful bacteria. This bacterial imbalance produces toxins that trigger inflammation. Gum inflammation slowly snowballs into bleeding, sore, and sensitive gums with associated cavities, toothaches, bad taste, and bad odor.

This state of rampant bacterial growth initiates a localized ‘bacteremia’ that saturates the oral fluids, like saliva, with these microbes. With time, the bacteremia becomes generalized as it reaches the blood, taking oral bacteria to faraway organs like the heart, the lungs, and so on.

Effects of Bad Oral Hygiene on OverallHealth

The mouth-body connection is intricate, and numerous scientific studies show the profound impact of poor dental hygiene on multiple organs in the body. Here is a quick overview:

• Chronic Inflammatory Conditions: Oral infections, particularly gum disease, can trigger an inflammatory response (the body’s defense against harmful invaders) in the body. Chronic inflammation has been linked to numerous systemic health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory problems, rheumatoid arthritis, and certain cancers.
• Poor Gut Health: Gum disease and tooth decay harbor harmful bacterial toxins. These toxins travel to the digestive system through blood, food, water, and saliva, disrupting the gut’s bacterial harmony and leading to dysbiosis (an imbalance in the gut microbiota) and chronic gut inflammation. These result in compromised digestion, frequent bloating, flatulence, and disrupted bowels.
• Oral Health and Diabetes: The connection between poor oral hygiene and high blood sugar levels in diabetes is essentially a vicious cycle. High blood glucose causes higher salivary sugar levels, making the mouth a haven for faster bacterial growth. To add to this effect, if the mouth is unhealthy and dirty, the bacteria load further exacerbates the problem, making blood sugar control difficult.
  Dental infections that cause chronic inflammation impair insulin sensitivity, raise blood sugar levels, and start a cycle where high blood sugar encourages bacterial growth. Diabetes also impairs immune function, aggravating gum diseases.
• Cardiovascular Complications: The bacterial explosion in an unhygienic mouth produces different harmful toxins. The toxins that initiate gum infections, in particular, are intimately linked to heart issues.
  Gum infections induce chronic inflammatory states in the body that attract and activate the fighter cells—white blood cells and platelets—in large numbers. These inflammatory mechanisms are known to trigger blood clot formation and cholesterol deposition, promote the development of atherosclerosis (hardening and narrowing of the arteries), and exacerbate existing heart conditions like the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
  Moreover, in compromised cases of valve replacement or congenital heart disease, generalized bacteremia can cause the thickening of the heart tissues, causing a deadly condition called infective carditis.
• Fertility Issues and Pregnancy: Gum disease can result in several general health problems that can make it harder for a woman to get pregnant and maintain a healthy pregnancy. Poor oral hygiene has been linked to an increased risk of premature birth, low birth weight, and gestational diabetes.
• Mental Health Problems: Gingivitis, or chronic gum inflammation, can cause dementia and possibly even Alzheimer’s disease as the bacterial toxins in the mouth spread to the nerve pathways or the bloodstream.

Conclusion

Good oral hygiene is one of the many keys to staying fit. It involves regular oral dental care at home and availing of periodic dental services with your dentist. Diligent brushing of the teeth, flossing, mouth rinses, periodic teeth cleanings, and cavity screenings can go a long way towards saving you from unnecessary dental emergencies. Remember that losing teeth due to bad oral hygiene disable you to chew your food well, compromising your nutrition status, and worsening health conditions even further.