The oral parts such as mouth, gums and teeth have to be healthy for attaining overall good health. Researches indicate that the health of the oral parts has definite impact on the overall health. The oral diseases have become more and more common these days. Therefore one has to be aware of his/her oral health for attaining an overall good health. This article presents the impact of oral health on overall health and oral health problems and it also deals with the most common oral problem, the toothache.

Impact Of Oral Health On Your Overall Health

A recent research shows that the oral health has an impact on the overall health of a person. It shows that if you have a bad oral health, it could lead to some systemic diseases in you. If a person has a poor oral health, then he/she is at a high risk of getting diabetes and respiratory diseases. But this condition is more common among the older persons. Recent researches also points towards the impact of oral health on health problems such as heart disease, premature babies with low birth weight etc. Apart from its impact on overall health, the oral disease itself causes toothache, bad breath, tooth loss etc.

Oral health problems:

The most common oral health problems include throat and mouth diseases. These diseases can range from simple oral problems like cavities to lethal problems like cancer. These oral problems lead to pain, and discomfort in the oral parts. Cavities are the problems that are most common in children. Cavities, if not treated can lead to distress, dysfunction, etc. It also has a negative impact on a child’s life quality.

The most serious consequence of oral problems is the oral cancers. It is estimated that about 7,550 people are dying from oral cancers every year.

The oral problems faced by most of person are the toothache.

Toothache:

The toothache is usually accompanied by pain in the face and jaws. The cause of toothache is the inflammation of the tooth’s pulp. This is known as pulpitis. If the pulp is not treated properly, it dies and gets infected thereby forming a dental abscess.

What are the causes of toothache?

The most common cause of a toothache is the dental decay. A crack or fracture in a tooth also leads to toothache. After a dental treatment, one could face possible irritation in the pulp. Also, if you do brushing vigorously it causes the tooth root to be exposed, causing pain.

How can you prevent toothache?

Always keep your gums and teeth healthy. This will ensure that no toothache occurs.

Avoid consuming too much drinks and foods that are sugary. This will prevent the formation of cavities. Toothache can be best avoided by brushing twice a day using a toothpaste containing fluoride. Usage of dental floss, inter-dental brush or wood sticks to clean between the teeth will prevent any infection leading to toothache.

How could you tackle toothache?

Obviously, consulting a dentist will help in a great deal. However here are some tips to tackle tooth ache.

Avoid sweet, hot or cold stimuli to avoid pain due to pulpitis. If the pain persists and becomes more and more severe, taking pain killers such as ibu profen like nurofen relieves pain to some extent.

Toothpaste, which is for sensitive teeth can be used normally or even can be rubbed on tooth’s root which is exposed. This will relieve pain due to root surfaces that are exposed.

If the oral problem is due to tooth erupting, then rinsing the painful area with a saltwater which is hot will always help. This saltwater mouthwash also avoids the infection due to mouth ulcers.

Above all, as mentioned earlier visiting a dentist, makes any treatment earlier. Especially pulpitis which is usually reversible, if found and treated by a dentist makes toothache to disappear. The treatment to pulpitis usually involves a simple filling. A toothache could also lead to dental abscess, which requires the tooth to be extracted, if it is to be saved. But in most cases, the dental abscess can be treated by root canal treatment. The root canal treatment is nothing but a much complicated filling process.

Tooth loss has become a common problem in most of the older adults. The main cause for the tooth loss is the tooth decay. Tooth loss can have negative impact on ones self esteem. It may also cause nutrition problems by the limiting the food type which a person eats. Therefore one needs to be more aware of his/her oral health. This ensures a good healthy life in that person.

To achieve an overall good health condition, a good oral health is important. By taking care of the teeth, tooth decay due to formation of cavities can be prevented. Also plaque which is a film that attaches to the teeth can be avoided by giving a good oral care. The film of plaque is very much sticky so it attracts bacteria and sugar to be accumulated in the teeth. Therefore teeth care prevents the formation of unhealthy gums and cavities which makes the mouth to be sore.

How are teeth affected by poor teeth care?

As mentioned above, poor teeth care invites bacteria and sugary substances into your mouth. The bacteria break down the sugar into acids. These acids produced by the bacteria eats away the enamel of the tooth causing holes in the teeth. This formation of holes is called as cavities. Also plaque causes a disease in gums called gingivitis. As a result of gingivitis, the color of the gums turns red. The gum also becomes sore and swollen. Usually the gums are pink in color and these gums help in holding the teeth at the right place. Thus poor oral care causes an unhealthy gum which affects the teeth.

How does brushing help you to maintain oral health?

Poor oral hygiene invites many oral problems. The simplest possible way of giving oral care is by brushing regularly because regular brushing eliminates many oral problems. Let us see how brushing helps us. Plaque is a film of bacteria that is very much sticky. This plaque is constantly formed inside the mouth. Even though, this bacterium is not potentially dangerous, if it remains in the teeth’s surface for more than a day, it forms colonies and secretes enzymes that are very much harmful to us. Therefore if the plaque is removed, we can maintain our gums and teeth healthy. It is here, the brushing comes into play. Brushing does the role of eliminating the plaque. Regular brushing removes the plague from the surface of the teeth and thereby protecting it from decay.

How to do brushing rightly?

Brushing should be done twice a day. If you brush your teeth excessively it also leads to some negative effects. This is because brushing excessively causes your teeth to erode. This leads to the breakdown of the whole periodontal structure. Also you must brush with a tooth brush that is soft and don’t forget to change the brush often.

To have a good effect of brushing, place the brush at an angle of 45 degrees and start brushing with short strokes directing downwards. This should be done gently. Brush up to ten strokes in each section of teeth for a period of about 4-5 minutes. Also clean up your tongue because the tongue has some bacteria.

During the brushing, if your gums start to bleed then there is a definite problem in your teeth. While brushing, handle the gums gently. This will prevent any damage to gums. To check whether your teeth are clean after brushing, scrape the surface of your teeth with your nail. On scraping, if a white film emerges out then the brushing is not effective. If your tooth is clean then no white film emerges out.

Tips To Keep Your Teeth Healthy

• Brush regularly twice a day one after your breakfast and the other before you sleep. If possible brush your teeth after your lunch or sweet snacks.
• Brush each and every tooth. Some people tend to brush only the front teeth.
• Take minimum of 3 minutes time to brush.
• Always use a soft tooth brush i.e. the tooth brush must have bristles that are soft. Also make sure to change your tooth brush periodically.
• Flossing the teeth is vital to keep the teeth healthy. Because flossing cleans away the food that is present in the places where the tooth brush can’t enter.
• Above all, consulting a dentist at least twice a year is very much important. The dentist will make sure that your teeth are clean and healthy. The dentist will provide suggestions on how to brush and floss your teeth.

Apart from brushing and flossing, the food you eat and drink also has impact on your oral health. Avoid sugary foods as it attracts plaque to your teeth. Consume foods that need sufficient chewing. This is because chewing produces saliva that restores lost calcium due to plaque. Add a lot of proteins, calcium, vitamin B and C in your diet. This provides a good teeth care.

Bad Teeth

A good oral health is very much necessary for attaining overall good health. The common dental complication that most people come across is rotten teeth or bad teeth. This rotten teeth or bad teeth arise as a result of tooth decay. The dental caries usually causes the tooth decay. ‘Caries’ is a term in Latin that represents rot or rotten. To get better oral health, treatment of bad teeth is important.

What are the consequences of bad teeth?

The bad teeth or the dental caries is a damaging dental disorder that can lead to the formation of holes or cavities in the teeth. These dental caries, if left untreated can reach till the nerve endings of the tooth. This causes severe pain in the tooth. In addition, the bad teeth can lead to unhealthy lifestyle in adults.

What are the causes of bad teeth?

Bad teeth are caused due to the interaction of three factors. These three factors include the specific type of bacteria that is found in plaque, sugar and finally a tooth surface which is highly sensitive or susceptible. Bacteria contained in plaque secrete acid as a by-product of sugar intake. When sugar is taken in by plaque as energy, it becomes much hard to stop consumption of sugar. Also the bad teeth result, when bacteria found in plaque produces the acid which clings to the teeth of the person. The acid which is produced starts to eat away the teeth’s outer most layer known as enamel. This causes the formation of bad or rotten teeth.

How to prevent the bad teeth?

Although, the dental industry has a number of treatment procedures and solutions for the bad teeth, it can be best avoided by following the preventive measures. Maintenance of a good dental hygiene is the best possible way to fight dental disorders. Brushing the teeth twice a day and flossing it daily should be done regularly. This gives a good oral care to a person. Consulting a dentist periodically for checking and cleaning of teeth gives a good professional oral care to a person who is looking for a better oral health.

In addition, the usage of sealants daily is a good means to prevent the occurrence of bad teeth. Sealants are nothing but a plastic like thin coating that is provided to the molar’s chewing surfaces. The sealants are commonly applied to the teeth of a child after the eruption of their molars. The advantage of sealants is that they avoid the accumulation of plaque in the groves that are deep in the mouth of the users. Another way of preventing bad teeth is the usage of fluoride. They prevent the persons from acquiring bad or rotten teeth. Because of this, dentists usually advice the patients to use a tooth paste that has a high percentage of fluoride content in it. This fluoride fights against the bad teeth.

Who are the persons more susceptible to bad teeth?

Usually, an unhealthy lifestyle in adults causes bad oral health in the later years. Recent researches indicate that adults who have the smoking habit are more susceptible for bad teeth. Also the research shows that people deprived of social circumstances are more susceptible to tooth loss and eventually bad teeth. The individuals those who do not brush their teeth frequently and those who do not have regular dental attendance are also more likely to get bad teeth.

Tips To Maintain A Good Oral Health

• Use toothpaste that has more fluoride content.
• Don’t eat food that is sugary. Especially avoid it between your meals.
• Quit the smoking habit, if you have it.
• Look out for a dentist to have a professional advice for caring your teeth.
• After having your meals, chew a gum that is sugar-free. The sugar-free gum has sweetener called xylitol that refreshes your teeth. This can prevent your teeth from tooth decay.

The general impression on yellow teeth is that it is due to natural aging process of teeth. Yellow teeth usually occur as a result of excessive staining of the teeth due to smoking, drinking tea or coffee etc. These activities lead to the yellowing of the teeth gradually. A yellow tooth can be described as surface staining of teeth. The worrying fact is that this surface staining usually occurs in the front teeth.

What are the causes of yellow teeth?

Let us first deal with the natural causes of the yellow teeth. As mentioned earlier, yellow teeth also develops naturally in some persons with aging. This is attributed to the reason that the outer coating of the enamel thins with aging. The enamel is the protective covering of the tooth. It has a hard outer coating that is white in color. As the age progresses, this coating becomes more and more thin, exposing the inner portion’s yellow-gray color. This yellow-grey color that the inner portion exhibits makes the tooth look yellow.

These natural causes are less common. In most of the cases, the yellow teeth is due to the daily activities in which the teeth in involved.

These daily activities include smoking, drinking tea or coffee, chewing tobacco etc. These activities stain the enamel to a great extend .The smoke and liquids such as tea, coffee etc pass through the teeth and there by staining them. The unfortunate thing is that this surface staining usually occurs in the front teeth. As a result of these extensive staining, yellow teeth appears.

There could also be other rare reasons for yellow teeth.

The intake of certain medication at younger age can be the reason for the blotchy color of your teeth. This medication is the use of an antibiotic known as tetracycline. Also the consumption of water which has too much fluoride content can lead to the discoloration of the teeth. These are very rare reasons for the yellow teeth. But the more common reason is smoking, chewing tobacco, drinking tea or coffee etc.

How can you prevent the yellow teeth?

The best possible thing you can do to prevent yellow teeth is avoiding frequent consumption of tea or coffee and smoking that stains your teeth.

Stopping the constant eating of sweets will help in a great deal to fight or prevent yellow teeth. This is because the sweets invite the bacteria that cause decay in your mouth.

Make sure that you drink enough water after your meal. The water washes away the decay causing bacteria. Avoid munching on chewy or sticky candy, as candy has a recipe for cavities. Eating enough vegetables and fruits can prevent the infection to the gums. The chewing of sugary gum could prove to be dangerous for your teeth. Therefore avoiding sugary gum and replacing it with a gum that is sugar free is good as it acts as cleanser after your meal.

What are the treatments for yellow teeth?

In milder cases, the yellow teeth can be treated at home itself. These home treatments include simple treatments like chewing gums that whiten the gums after drinking tea or coffee. It is also an effective preventive measure for yellow teeth.

The treatment that a dentist gives to whiten the teeth depends on the cause of yellow teeth. Hence based on the cause, the dental hygienist gives professional cleaning to the teeth. The treatments also aids in keeping the teeth healthy and lasting till death .Some of the common treatments that dentist gives include bleaching, which is nothing but the whitening of teeth. It also includes capping the front teeth evenly. This is done by covering the teeth with a material that is similar to enamel. There are also other advanced highly technical and laser treatments that are available for whitening the teeth. These treatments are expensive and can be preceded by dental insurance.

The teeth can be whitened during surgery using strong peroxide and also with laser treatment. In milder cases, you can do the whitening process by yourself using a weaker substance and dental trays. These should be molded by the dentist.

The bottom line is that, you can prevent the yellow teeth by stopping smoking, avoiding consuming excess tea, coffee. Brushing your teeth properly and regularly is the simple way of getting good, healthy teeth. After all, a whiter smile makes you look good than you actually are!

Now a day everyone wants to have great healthy teeth not only for chewing the food but also for a good smile. The teeth which are straight, white and healthy gives a good smile and makes you look stunning. The condition for perfect teeth depends on how they look in relation to each other. The teeth that are straight should be spaced equally and also should be symmetrically arranged from left to right. These straight teeth should also be lined up with the opposite jaw’s teeth. A tooth has no standard size. The criteria for perfect teeth are that they must be proportionate to the mouth size and also to the rest of the body.

What are positions for perfect teeth?

Apart from the symmetry of the teeth, it’s positioning is also equally important. The positioning should be such that they need to be vertical, having no angular teeth or protrusions.  The tooth-line must be semi-circular and smooth. Mostly, teeth that make the largest impact on your appearance are the front teeth. Although the molars are also visible during laughing or when you open your mouth, the front teeth which is visible most of the times has largest effect on your face.

Color of the teeth:

For perfect teeth, the color of the teeth is very much important. Many whitening products are available that removes the stains from the teeth and makes it look white. Some of them include tapes, tooth trays, brush-on liquids and tooth pastes. But the disadvantage with these whitening products is that they are not as much effective.

How should perfect gums look like?

To have good perfect teeth, healthy gums are necessary. The healthy gums with healthy teeth give a great smile. The gums should be ideally pink in color. Poor hygiene leads the color of the gum to turn from pink to red or black.

Dentistry And Its Role In Maintaining Healthy Teeth:

Due to the intake of salt, sugar, tobacco, caffeine, alcohol people get yellow champers and rotten gums. Therefore to maintain healthy teeth, modern medicine has a solution in the form of dentistry. Dentistry has different disciplines such as cosmetic dentistry, implant dentistry orthodontics, periodontics etc. The person who wants to get rid off his rotten teeth and show white smiles can be benefited by cosmetic dentistry. The people who have crooked teeth naturally can be helped by orthodontics which corrects this problem. The elderly people and hockey player’s teeth problem are corrected by implant dentistry. The people who eat lot of garlic, onions, mustard, cabbage and tuna can go for periodontics. Therefore dentistry solves a variety of dental problems.

What are the various medications for healthy teeth?

Scientists are aiming at removing dental caries by developing vaccines. The bacterium that damages the teeth is streptococcus mutants. They secrete large quantity of lactic acid which erodes the enamel of the tooth. Scientists are developing vaccines that target streptococcus mutans. Scientists are saying that the vaccine against mutans can be given to a child between 1½ years to 3 years as this is the best period of time to immunize the children. This vaccine does not target and attack mutants directly, instead they target the enzyme. Scientists are now developing a different type of vaccine that has antibodies which are highly purified. These vaccines are meant to directly attack the bacteria. But this vaccine is still under clinical trials.

To obtain perfect and healthy teeth, it is necessary to follow a strict schedule of oral hygiene. Apart from this regular dental cleaning, brushing, flossing etc can help to get healthy teeth. You can try to avoid smoking and drinking coffee because this causes the gums and teeth to be infected and stained.