You do a lot to maintain great health, from visiting the gym, to drinking plenty of water, and even attending regular preventive checkups at your physician’s office. That is because you understand that staying strong and feeling great, as you age, requires taking excellent care of yourself inside and out! By eating well, resting each night, and being physically active you know that you can help keep your body in great shape. But what can you do to care for your smile? And just as importantly, does it have any effect on the rest of your body? Your oral health does have direct correlations to your overall health, so it’s important to take just as great care of your teeth and gums as you do the rest of your body. That way you can continue to smile proudly, and to feel your best!
Why Your Oral Health Matters to More than Just Your Smile!
Maintaining a great smile is a combination of great dental hygiene, but also regular preventive care, like dental checkups and cleanings. These are essential even for patients who think their smiles are already healthy, because many dental problems are hard to detect, and most will progress without prompt restorative action.
Regular dental checkups serve two primary purposes. First, they allow a dentist to remove any calcified plaque and generally clean the teeth, helping lead to healthier teeth and a more attractive smile. But secondly, and just as importantly, regularly-scheduled checkups and cleanings provide the dentist with an opportunity to check for any threats to a patient’s oral health, and make it possible to treat any detected dental problems early on.
Dental problems like gum disease can begin to affect your entire body, since an infection or inflammation of the gums can be carried into the bloodstream. You may have heard this referred to as oral systemic health, which is a topic still being studied closely by both dentists and doctors, so they can help to better improve patients’ well-being.
These correlations between your oral health and body are yet another reason it’s important to more than just your smile that you care for both your teeth and gums, regularly! So make sure to schedule regular checkups and cleanings.
ABOUT YOUR WACO, TX, DENTIST:
We look forward to providing families with exceptional care and advanced treatment options. To schedule an appointment with Corbet Locke, DDS, contact our Waco, TX, dental office today by calling 254-776-4888. Our office welcomes patients in and around Waco, TX, including Hewitt, McGregor, Woodway, and the surrounding Central Texas communities.