What Can Your Teeth Say About Your Health?
If the eyes are the window to the soul, could your teeth offer the same sort of insight when it comes to your physical health? Actually, yes!
When your teeth are healthy and strong, it’s often indicative of a healthy body. When a mouth is riddled with decay or inflammation, it may mean there’s something else going on that requires deeper diving. Here are a few health conditions that may have symptoms that show in the mouth. If we ever notice something unusual during a checkup, we’ll always let you know.
Acid Reflux: This condition tends to wear down teeth enamel and can lead to tooth sensitivity and discoloration, as well as an increase in cavities.
Diabetes: Oral health issues that may indicate diabetes include mouth lesions, infections, the inability to taste some foods, and even gum disease.
Thyroid Problems: Thickening of your lips, larger than usual salivary glands, and burning mouth syndrome may be indicative of thyroid issues.
How to Promote Well-Being in Children
Adults aren’t the only ones who deal with daily stress. In fact, children of all ages experience challenges and anxiety.
If you have a school-age child, consider introducing the following morning routines from edutopia.org into their week to help promote wellness and reduce the stress in their lives.
Mindful Mondays: Before your child heads to school on Monday, take a moment to practice a mindful exercise with them, like self-affirmations or breathing exercises.
Thoughtful Tuesdays: When your child gets home from school, take a moment to ask them how they showed kindness today, or how someone else showed kindness to them.
Feel-safe Fridays: At the end of their week, ask your child how they feel mentally using an emotions chart, which you can print and keep on your refrigerator. This can help get your child comfortable with talking about their feelings. Bonus: They can also color in each piece of the circle.
How to Overcome Receding Gums
If you’ve ever looked in the mirror and felt like your teeth looked longer than usual, you may not be imagining it. No, your teeth didn’t suddenly grow-but your gums may be shrinking.
Receding gums happen when gums start to pull back from your teeth, exposing more of the tooth, like the root. This creates more space for bacteria to latch on to, which can lead to periodontal disease, further recession, and even tooth loss.
While a deep cleaning or tissue grafts may be recommended, it’s also important to take the preventative measures below to stop recession from continuing.
• If you smoke, kick the habit. Tobacco use is associated with an increase in harmful mouth bacteria.
• Add healthy foods like crunchy fruits and vegetables into your diet to help reduce plaque buildup.
• Visit us to treat any pre-existing oral health conditions, like crooked teeth and grinding, which can raise the risk of gum recession.
