Importance of maintaining sound oral hygiene – from an emergency dentist’s aspect Oral hygiene – A brief idea

In simple words that are easy for everyone to understand, oral hygiene is the practice of keeping one’s teeth decay. It also means keeping other structures of the mouth free from infection at the same time. The basic oral hygiene regimen includes brushing and flossing the teeth. Even professional cleaning of the teeth and routine visits to one’s dentist – at least once in every six months – are also included in almost every oral health regimen. Each of these measures mentioned above ensure a sound oral hygiene for almost every individual.

Oral hygiene is vital for maintaining overall health and wellbeing for any individual. Untreated and ignored oral health conditions are likely to raise the risk of adverse overall health. Thus maintaining sound oral healthy hygiene is important improving both an individual’s oral as well as overall health and wellbeing.

Reasons why maintaining sound oral hygiene is vital

The basic goal of oral hygiene is to prevent building up of plaque. Harmful bacteria in the mouth that causes tooth decay and gum disease thrive in these plaque build-ups. Therefore when you keep removing plaques from your mouth religiously every day you are at lesser risk of developing a diseased tooth or infected gums.

Maintaining sound oral hygiene not only helps you maintain sound oral health, but also caters to other important aspects. These aspects include the following –

Sound oral hygiene helps improving your overall health and wellbeing

Do you know your mouth is the door to the internal parts and organs of your body? The mouth also reflects early symptoms of many systematic diseases. For example – blood sugar or diabetes is a systematic disease. The condition often starts showing its presence in form of lesions in the mouth or other oral health issues like gum disease.   

There are more examples to cite in the given context. Latest research on health shows patients suffering from periodontal disease are usually at much higher risk of developing heart disease. In fact periodontal disease is known to raise the chances of inflammation for any individual. Inflammations that are chronic in nature are known to affect different body parts – for example inflammation in the artery or arterial inflammation. Diabetes and cardiovascular disease are not the only chronic overall health conditions that are triggered by poor oral health and hygiene. There are several other general health conditions that must be mentioned in the given context. Some of these include the following –

• Bacterial pneumonia
• Severe complications in pregnancy
• Low birth weight in infants
• Sepsis
• Cancer and
• Infective Endocarditis

Just by maintaining the overall mouth clean – including the teeth and the tongue – one can easily prevent the risk of a number of severe overall health complications. It is also important scheduling regular dental checkups with your dentist. These checkups should ideally be at an interval of every six months. In short this is how you can maintain sound oral health and hygiene.

Detection of oral diseases earlier

When you visit your dentist regularly at routine intervals, it becomes easier for the expert to diagnose and evaluate your dental condition or dental health correctly. Dental diagnosis as well as professional teeth cleaning proves helpful detecting any oral health condition early. Even conditions that are related to general health and overall wellbeing are also easily detected in the preliminary stages through regular dental checkups at routine intervals.

Tooth loss prevention

Tooth loss happens to be a very common problem related to oral health for both children and adults. There are several reasons that lead to tooth loss. One of the common ones is poor dental hygiene. When you have poor dental hygiene plaque build-ups in the mouth easily lead to tooth decay or gum infection. Both these oral health problems eventually lead to tooth or teeth loss. Regular brushing and flossing in the right way prove helpful reducing plaque build-ups. If you are not confident about the right brushing and flossing techniques, ask your dentist to demonstrate that to you. But you cannot rely on brushing and flossing alone to maintain sound oral health and hygiene. Professional cleaning of the teeth at least once a year is important to maintain optimum oral hygiene.

Possess a whiter and brighter smile

Does your confidence show in your smile? This is utmost important – having a confident smile – for an all-round satisfactory life. In order to make your smile healthy it is crucial to practice sound oral hygiene every single day religiously. There are many reasons to emphasise on oral hygiene. But the most important fact is practising sound oral hygiene not only proves a smart investment for the teeth alone but also for your overall health and wellbeing.

Now that we are almost at the end of our blog post, before signing off let us discuss few tried and easy tips to ensure sound oral hygiene.

• Maintain a balanced diet all round the year
• Limit sugary foods and drinks as much as you can
• Avoid consumption of tobacco in any form
• Drink plenty of water every day
• Properly brush and floss the teeth regularly
• Brush the teeth twice daily and floss once
• Use toothbrushes with soft bristles
• Consider using fluoride based toothpaste if your dentist has not prescribed you anything
• Rinse the mouth well with water after each meal
• If you suffer from dry mouth practice chewing sugarless gums
• Include fresh fruits, crunchy, green vegetables, nuts and dairy products in your daily diet
• If you participate in any kind of contact sports, use mouth guard every time before taking the field
• Visit your dentist for routine checkups at regular intervals

In addition to the tips mentioned above, a prominent emergency dentist in London has something important to contribute. You should also wear mouth guard at night before sleeping in case you suffer from bruxism or teeth grinding. However it is not possible for ordinary people to make out whether they suffer from the problem. This is because this particular problem occurs only when you are asleep. But routine visits to your dentist prove helpful in this context. A dentist can easily pick up the symptoms of teeth grinding without conducting any test or special diagnosis.