Dr. Isabelle Farmer is a practicing dentist at Houston SmileDocs in Texas. A graduate of Texas A&M University and the University of Texas Dental School, she went on to start her dental practice in 1984. Here she cautions patients against avoiding the dentist, since doing so can ultimately hurt your overall health.
For years, the research has shown a strong link and connection between oral issues like periodontal disease and things like heart disease, immune complications, birthing issues, and problems with diabetes. Unfortunately, there has been a disconnect with the public, which is why people are still unaware of just how closely their oral health is tied to what is going on elsewhere in their bodies.
Periodontal disease is something that dentists can detect in the mouth. For people who don’t know, it is an infection of the gum tissue, the ligament, and the bone that holds the tooth in place. So, to be clear, this is something that is separate and apart from the teeth themselves. Rather, it is what is actually holding the teeth in place. However, periodontal infections have been linked to a long list of diseases. Not only that, but this list of diseases just keeps getting longer. As time goes on, we are continually finding that periodontal disease is linked to more and more issues throughout the human body, including the heart.
Heart disease is something that everyone knows about, but its connection to periodontal disease is something that is a lot less understood by many people. We know that the bacteria that reside in the mouth of a person who has periodontal disease can also lodge itself in that person’s blood vessels—leading to a host of complications including heart attacks.
Now, because we know that the bad bacteria can lodge itself in the blood vessels of the heart, the same bacteria can do damage in other areas as well. So if something is happening to the blood vessels in your heart, then that is likely to be happening in other areas of your body as well. As dentists, that is a big concern for us. That bacteria stemming from periodontal disease in our patients can wreak havoc on the rest of their bodies as well.
We also now know that periodontal disease and diabetes feed off each other. When diabetes is out of control at the same time that periodontal disease is out of control, a patient can have serious complications. The simple explanation for that is because if a patient has periodontal disease, it can affect his blood sugars as well. So, it is important for diabetics to be sure that they have their gum tissue and other oral health issues well under control because it can really affect their ability to handle other health issues due to blood sugar.
Other problems that can stem from periodontal disease include immune complications and birthing issues. As far as immune complications are concerned, periodontal disease can lead to respiratory infections in some patients. So that is especially true for people like the elderly and those who have AIDS. Anyone falling in either of these two groups should have their oral health closely monitored, since it could easily impact their immune system.
Additionally, we know that periodontal disease can lead to low birth weight and pre-term babies. So in other words, a pregnant woman with periodontal disease is putting her baby at risk if she doesn’t get checked out. Women who may be expecting should definitely be in contact with their dentist about this.
So these are a few examples of the serious health issues that can result from poor oral health, which I believe the general public still doesn’t have a handle on. We have been talking about this type of stuff in dentistry for more than 30 years now, but people are still not grasping its full impact. Based on what we know, patients need to be proactive in both talking to their general physicians and also their dentists in determining how their oral health might be negativity impacting their overall health and well-being.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.
