How Oral Health Affects Your Overall Health

If you’re looking for high-quality orthodontics, you’ve come to the right place here at Stormberg Orthodontics! Although we’re located in La Mesa, we’re more than happy to provide orthodontic treatments to all those in the surrounding areas, including Santee, El Cajon, and San Diego. With our effective orthodontic services, we’re capable of giving patients straighter and healthier smiles. And as if having a healthier smile wasn’t an award in itself, you may not realize that it can have a major boost on the rest of your body’s health as well.

Braces play a crucial role in improving oral health, which in turn has a positive impact on your overall well-being. By addressing dental misalignments, braces not only enhance the aesthetic appeal of your smile but also contribute to the long-term health of your teeth and gums.

The Effect of Oral Health on the Rest of the Body

Typically, most people will associate poor oral hygiene and health with dental issues such as cavities and gum disease. While this isn’t wrong at all, the truth is that it can lead to problems with the rest of a person’s body as well. The mouth is essentially the window to the rest of the body; if there are any problems that are residing in the mouth, they can have just as much of an impact on the rest of the body. This occurs because bacteria in the mouth will cause a person’s gums to become inflamed and prone to infection. Gum inflammation is a common denominator for plenty of bodily health problems. When a person has gum inflammation, this can then lead to inflammation throughout other parts of the body as well. This can cause infections in parts of the body if the immune system has been compromised.

Health Problems that Stem from Poor Oral Health

There are plenty of health problems and conditions that can arise if a person has poor oral health. Just a sample of these are:

• Cardiovascular Disease
• Endocarditis
• Respiratory Infections
• Diabetic Complications
• Dementia

Oral Health Problems Can Signify Systemic Problems

Additionally, oral health problems can actually be a sign that there’s a major systemic disease or problem. In fact, the Academy of General Dentistry has concluded that over 90 percent of systemic diseases will produce an oral symptom or sign (mouth ulcers, gum problems, dry mouth, etc.). This is why visiting your dentist is so critical; your dentist may be the first one to notice that you have a systemic disease. A sample of some of these systemic health problems include the following:

• Leukemia
• Pancreatic Cancer
• Heart Disease
• Kidney Disease
• HIV/AIDS