For many, a visit to the dentist is mostly about getting a refill or tooth extraction. However, oral health goes beyond the teeth as it covers one’s entire well-being because, according to medics, the state of your oral health affects the whole body. Healthy Times’Donah Mbabazi spoke to Dr Madeline Uwamahoro, a dental surgeon at Oshen King Faisal Hospital, on how oral cavities affect the entire body.

Dr Madeline Uwamahoro. /Courtesy

How does oral health affect the entire body when the anatomy of oral cavity is minor?

Oral cavity can have a big impact on the whole body. Although the oral cavity is relatively small, it is the entry point. It is also in close proximity to the central nervous system.

How does the infection happen?

When the oral cavity is not healthy, let’s say one has dental caries or periodontal disease, these can produce infections that can be transmitted through blood circulation to other parts of the body.

The microorganisms that are transmitted can be pathologic, especially if they are anaerobic microbes directly surrounding root canals.

Are there particular parts that are affected?

Of course there are some organs which are more targeted than others. Organs like the heart, lungs and kidneys. It can even affect the growth of the baby in the woman’s body. Some systemic diseases have manifestation in oral cavity, though some are not common.

Why are some parts more affected than others?

For example, with the heart, it is the very important as it is the organ that pumps blood, as for the lungs they are the ones to give oxygen, whereas the kidneys are responsible for filtration, processes that are abound in the movement of these toxins and microbes.

So what are the health issues that are bound to happen?

One can get cardiac diseases, hypertension and even stroke. With hypertension, if the gum has microbes, so many cells attack the body which can cause inflammation, and when there is inflammation, there is vasoconstriction which makes the heart pump a lot.

These toxins and microbes going to the blood stream can also cause endocarditis, an infection of the endocardium, which is the inner lining of the heart chambers and heart valves. The toxins build walls inside blood vessels and these walls have plaques, when these plaques go to some blood vessels of the nervous system, they block circulation which can cause stroke.

Oral health can also affect other medical conditions, for example, if you are diabetic, a mouth infection can disrupt the blood-sugar levels making it hard to control diabetes.

Other conditions include low birth weight and premature babies for expectant mothers, malocclusion — a misalignment between the teeth of the two dental arches when they approach each other as the jaws close. This can lead to temporal mandibular joint problem.

Because of poor oral health, one can lose teeth which causes poor digestion since it’s hard for one to chew, and without proper digestion one can get ulcers, and constipation, among other conditions.

How long would it take for such to happen?

This depends on one’s body defence mechanism. When one gets dental caries, without proper treatment the microbes begin to progress, they can start destroying the bone and can cause gum bleeding.

But what causes dental carries in the first place?

They are mostly caused by consumption of processed sugars; the acids produced from the sugars react with bacteria present in the plaque on the tooth surface. There are specific microbes in sugars called streptococcus; these microbes release acid that destroys the tooth.

However, if you eat sugar and you brush, you remove them. This is the importance of brushing. Remember that even the food we eat normally contains sugars so it matters to brush whenever we eat anything.

What would you recommend for one to have good oral health?

Maintain a healthy diet, that is, consuming sugars on a minimal, but mostly brush three times a day. We all know that sometimes it is somehow difficult to do this during lunch time, but at least one can rinse the mouth with water. People should also brush after meals, not before.

Flossing and use of mouth wash is very important, you can do this every after a few weeks. Otherwise people need to understand how relevant maintaining oral health is, and with this, more awareness is needed.