Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.
You’re doing everything right when it comes to protecting yourself from Covid-19. You’re washing your hands, wearing your mask, limiting who you come in contact with, and staying home whenever you can. That’s all you can do, right?
Not quite. If you’re not taking your oral health just as seriously as your other precautions, then you need to step up your self-protection game.
While brushing your teeth well and seeing your dentist often won’t keep you from contracting COVID if you come in contact with it, it could determine how sick you get – or even if you get sick at all! You can, however, depend on a dentist Oshawa has to ensure that you won’t be exposed to the virus.
Your oral hygiene is more directly linked to your immune system than you know. We’re giving you the details, below.
Oral Tissue and Immune Function
Think about how easily your gums, tongue, lips, or inner cheeks bleed if you accidentally bite them. They’re made of very thin tissue and it doesn’t have much of a barrier to keep out viruses and germs – especially if there are any sores or abscesses that leave them open to the rest of your mouth.
Keeping your gums and mouth tissue healthy is like having an extra barrier against germs and virus particles that you may inhale or accidentally transfer to your mouth by touching your face.
Gum Disease and Your Immune System
The most common way oral health relates to your health is through gum disease, also called gingivitis or periodontitis, depending on its severity. In fact, severe gum disease has been shown to be a risk factor for developing Covid-19, according to a recent study.
When there are too many bacteria in your mouth, that bacteria nestles between your teeth and into your gums. The bacteria then cause inflammation, redness, and swelling in your gums – and often lead to bleeding when brushing or flossing.
That inflammation is an infection, which causes the body to initiate an immune response, spending its resources fighting the bacteria in your mouth. Since your immune system is so busy working on treating your gum disease, it may not be strong enough or have enough resources to treat other infections or viruses (like Covid-19) in your body.
In addition, that inflammation can lead to sores and openings in the tissue, which allows even more bacteria to enter into the gum tissue and your bloodstream, putting you at risk for more infections than you would be with healthy gums. It is important to head over to the right expert, and if what you require also involves physical alterations related to oral health, there’s a cosmetic dentist Guelph residents go to.
As you can see, keeping your gums healthy plays a big role in your overall health.
How to Keep Your Gums Happy and Healthy
If your gums don’t hurt or bleed when you brush and floss, you likely don’t have gingivitis or periodontitis, which is great! We want to keep it that way.
You can avoid developing gum disease by avoiding smoking, keeping your diet low in sugar, brushing your teeth with proper form twice a day, flossing, and giving your gums a gentle rub with your toothbrush when you brush your teeth. Take it a step further by achieving the perfect pearly whites, which a teeth whitening London | Cosmo Dental Centre can help you with.
If you’re already suffering from gum inflammation, call dental office as soon as possible. We’ll help you figure out the source of your gum disease, give you a treatment plan, and be a partner in your journey back to perfect oral health!
Disclosure – this is a collaborative post.
