How Does Diabetes Affect Your Mouth?
Diabetes is one of the most common diseases in the world. A large number of people are suffering from the high blood sugar levels and the disease can lead to many other complications.
In this article, you will understand its effect on the dental health of a human body. Diabetes, if not controlled can have a detrimental effect on your teeth and gums, which are outline below:
- As a diabetic, you have high glucose levels in your saliva which promotes bacterial growth leading to the formation of cavities.
- Diabetics must take extra care of their gums. Because if they start bleeding there may be a high chance of infections.
- Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to increase in gum diseases.
- Diabetics may develop bad breath
- Diabetic patients experience dry mouth due to continuous loss of fluid. Lack of saliva in the mouth can lead to cracking of soft tissues. This can cause a burning sensation in the mouth.
- Dry mouth can also promote bacterial growth because saliva flushes out the food decay and stops the bacterial growth.
- Lack of saliva also results in problems in tasting food due to which encourages diabetics to eat sugary foods, which in turn leads to increase in blood sugar levels.
How can a dentist help you?
Research has shown that a good oral hygiene will help to control the blood sugar level. Hence, it is very important for your dentist to know that you are diabetic. The information plays a major role in case of surgical treatments. Uncontrolled diabetes can lead to delayed wound healing and increases chances of infection. Diabetics have a distinct ketonic breath which can be detected by dentists and lead to the diagnosis of diabetes in undiagnosed diabetics. A dentist will continuously monitor your health and also make sure that you stick to your daily dental routine.
Maintain oral hygiene
- The most common routine you must follow is brushing your teeth twice a day. Diabetics wearing dentures need to clean them frequently (at least twice a day).
- Take your regular dosage of diabetic medicine and preferably choose morning appointments with your dentists because you can tolerate more stress due to optimum insulin levels.
- Have regular dental check-ups. If you experience swollen or bleeding gums, visit your dentist. It is best that you visit a dentist at least twice a year to have a dental health check and monitor the status of your teeth and gum.
- Diabetics need to keep your doctor informed about your visits to the dentist so that, in case of emergency visits, he can check your blood sugar levels and let you know if it is safe to visit a dentist.
- Smoking has a detrimental effect on your oral health. It increases the risk of gum disease. It also leads to yellow discolouration of teeth due to nicotine present in cigarettes. Smoking also reduces salivary flow and increases chances of tooth decay.