Life-Long Benefits of a Better Smile

Keeping your teeth bright and shiny makes for a welcoming smile. It’s great for your social life and that’s just the beginning. Brushing and flossing every day and getting regular professional dental checkups are foundation stones for a lifetime of good health.

Here is a look at a few of the ways good oral health keeps you strong, happy, and healthy.

Boost Your Confidence

When you meet people, they form an impression in seconds. One of the basic ways they form that impression is by your smile. If your teeth are decayed and your gums inflamed, your smile probably won’t be wide and friendly.

Good oral hygiene gives a boost to your self-confidence and self-esteem. It makes you comfortable among others, smiling and open when you meet them. This in turn leads to a gratifying social life, one of the essentials to a long and happy life.

When your teeth and gums are well cared for, your breath smells fresh. And when they aren’t, you may have bad breath and not even be aware of it. But the people around you will.

People who take care of themselves, and that certainly includes their oral health, usually eat better and get more exercise, both of which lead to a greater sense of well-being and less illness.

It is always easier to concentrate on conversations and to appear friendly and cheerful when you aren’t distracted by the pain of aching teeth and infections in your gums.

When you have your natural teeth, you can chew your food with confidence. This also helps you with good nutrition.

Lower Your Chances of Heart Disease

Heart disease, strokes, and blood vessel blockages may seem far removed from the condition of your teeth and gums, but studies have shown a link among them.

The cause and effect is traceable back to the chronic inflammation in your gums if you have gingivitis or are fighting other oral infections.

Though more research is needed to connect all the dots, the current findings are enough to show that keeping your teeth and gums in good shape is a fundamental way to protect the health of your entire body.

Save Your Memory

The healthier your gums and teeth, the better your memory, according to the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. Participants in a study who had gingivitis, which appears as swollen gums and sometimes bleeding gums, were tested along with people with good oral health. Those with gingivitis did worse on activities that tested delayed verbal recall and subtraction, two common, everyday activities.

Dentists suggest using an antibacterial mouthwash or toothpaste, or both, to reduce the number of bacteria in your mouth. This is what causes gingivitis.

Reduces the Chances for Disease

There are three areas of your overall health that show the effects of good oral care, according to doctors.

• #1) Gum disease is associated with rheumatoid arthritis, or RA. The destruction of connective tissues in gum disease and in RA is similar and both are due to infection.
• #2) Good oral health helps you if you have diabetes. If you prevent problems with your teeth and gums, you are more likely to keep your blood sugar levels stable.
• #3) If you are pregnant, you improve your chances of carrying your baby to term if you don’t have gingivitis. Poor oral health is linked to pre-term babies and those with low birth weights.

Keeping your teeth and gums in great shape takes daily brushing and flossing and twice yearly visits to your dentist. It seems a small investment of time and energy for a lifetime of benefits. You’re worth it! Make an appointment with Stefanie Shore, DDS today.