Dental Implant News for Phoenix: What Your Dentist Can Tell About Your General Health, PART 2

Welcome to the second half of this two-part article series on what dental implant surgeons in Phoenix can tell about your general health from the state of your teeth and gums. Previously, in Part 1 of the series, a condition known as “Bruxism” was explained to us. This condition is marked by teeth grinding and jaw clenching, particularly at night, and presents with advanced erosion and fracturing of the biting surfaces of the teeth.

What Bruxism may tell your dentist is that you lead a stressful lifestyle and/or struggle to cope with stress. The best solution to this condition is to have a custom mouth guard fitted, which you should wear to sleep at night or when you are most aware of grinding your teeth. This will help to prevent the terrible damage teeth grinding can do to your gnashers.

Let’s now take a look at a symptom that could indicate the presence or higher risk of a suite of really nasty diseases…

Swollen, Inflamed Gums

Healthy gums are pink in color and are firm to the touch. If yours look angry, inflamed, swollen and spongy, your health could be at serious risk.

“Gingivitis is the beginning stage of gum disease and it’s cause by a bacterial infection of the gums,” explain dental implant surgeons in Arizona. “This, in turn, is typically caused by poor oral hygiene, an unhealthy diet and by habits such as smoking and alcoholism.”

Left untreated, gingivitis can lead to advanced gum disease – periodontitis. And according to ample medical literature there is a very clear link between periodontitis and the following medical conditions…

• Diabetes
• Heart disease
• Stroke
• Respiratory disease
• Osteoporosis
• Kidney and liver disease
• Low birth weight and premature babies
• Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
• Rheumatoid arthritis

This makes sense when you consider that everything that goes into your body – be it air, water or food – makes its way first through your mouth. Therefore, it stands to reason that if your mouth is severely infected with bacteria, your stomach, kidneys, liver and lungs will also all be constantly exposed to infection.

This is precisely why dental implant surgeons in Phoenix refer to gum disease as a systemic disease – it affects the body as a system and can put all of your major organs at risk.

Ulcers and Oral Sores

Mouth sores and small ulcers are perfectly normal – they happen, but it’s usually because you’ve accidentally bitten down on your inner cheek, lip or tongue. When these sores don’t go away for an extended period of time, or when they recur, it could be a sign of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV), which is typically a sexually transmitted infection, or they could indicate oral cancer.

“If a dental healthcare professional spots any suspicious-looking sores, lesions or ulcers, he or she will perform a quick and painless biopsy and send the tissue off to a laboratory for closer inspection,” says a dental implant surgeon in Phoenix . “The treatment will depend on the outcomes of the test.”

A Final Note

The earlier you have an ailment diagnosed, the quicker it can be treated, which is why frequent dental appointments constitute such an important part of your lifelong general healthcare regime. Unbeknownst to many Phoenix residents, there is a whole lot the dentist can tell about your standard of health and quality of lifestyle just from the appearance of your teeth, gums and oral soft tissues.

Dental Implant News for Sun City: What Your Dentist Can Tell About Your General Health, PART 1

This two-part article series explains the signs and symptoms your mouth could exhibit when your body suffers from stress, illness or disease.

No one expects much to be revealed about their lifestyle, standard of living or general health when they go to the dentist for a standard check-up. But according to Sun City dental implants surgeons, the state of your teeth and gums tell dental healthcare professionals a whole lot about how healthy you are! Your mouth is your body’s more important ingress and so, it stands to reason that if your mouth is diseased, the rest of your body is far more susceptible to infection and disease, too.

In this two-part article series, we shall be exploring the link between our oral health and our general health and the many diseases and conditions an ailing mouth may indicate. By responding quickly to these signs, potentially fatal diseases can be diagnosed and treated in their beginning stages, thereby vastly improving your chances of a complete recovery.

Let’s begin…

Worn, Ground Down Teeth

"Topviewtooth". Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

The picture shown above provides a bird’s eye view of a tooth that has been so eroded and ground down that the structure of the tooth beneath the dental enamel has been revealed. Here we can see the softer, yellow dentine and the pulp chamber, where the tooth’s nerves and blood vessels are contained. You can even see vertical cracks and fractures where the tooth structure has given in to stress.

“The incredible damage this patient has done to his or her teeth has resulted in the need for most of them to be extracted and replaced with implants,” says a Arizona dental implant surgeon. “The condition that can lead to this kind of damage is termed Bruxism and unless you are diagnosed and fitted with a mouth guard to wear at night or when you most often grind your teeth, you could completely destroy your dentition.”

What Does Bruxism Reveal About Your General Health?

The precise cause of teeth grinding and jaw clenching are not known, but these habits are believe to be associated with a stressful lifestyle and typically present in patients who are anxious and who struggle to cope with stress. As such, with only a brief examination of your teeth, dental implant surgeons in Sun City can tell just what kind of lifestyle it is you lead and how well you are coping with the levels of stress you experience on a daily basis.

What’s unnerving about Bruxism is that it’s a condition that typically strikes at night whilst you’re asleep! How can you control this damage if you aren’t even conscious about doing it? You can’t control the compulsion to grind your teeth and clench your jaw, especially if it’s nocturnal. What you can do is have a retainer custom fitted, which you wear to bed every night. This will help to prevent the extensive damage Bruxism can do to the biting surfaces of your teeth.

Stay Tuned for Part 2

To find out more about what dental implant surgeons can tell about the general health of Arizona residents from the state of their mouths, stay tuned for the second half of this two-part article series.