Risks of Neglecting your Oral Health

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CLEVELAND - If you’re looking to get healthy in the new year, it’s important to make sure you focus on all parts of your body – including your mouth.

Anne Clemons, DMD, a dentist with Cleveland Clinic, said sometimes people forget the condition of their mouth matters too.

“Your mouth is part of your body. It’s all connected. For some reason, we tend to put the mouth and put oral health kind of over here to the side, and then over here is the rest of the body,” said Dr. Clemons. “But, your mouth is the starting point for your GI tract, your whole digestive system and your respiratory tract.”

So, what can you do to help keep your mouth healthy?

Dr. Clemons recommends brushing your teeth at least twice a day for two minutes at a time and flossing once a day.

You should also keep up with dentist appointments.

She said the goal is to avoid plaque buildup on your teeth.

Plaque contains food particles, bacteria and saliva.

When there’s too much, it can cause cavities, tooth loss, tooth decay, chronic bad breath, and periodontal disease.

Periodontal disease, or gum disease, can be reversed in the early stages.

However, if left untreated, research shows it can lead to other more serious medical issues, like heart disease and stroke.

“That's a really interesting area of research, and frankly something that we still don't know exactly how they're connected. We know that we see a connection. We see people that have periodontal disease and people that have heart disease -- more commonly have both,” said Dr. Clemons. “People that have gum disease are more likely to have heart disease and vice versa, even when we control for other kind of common risk factors in both, we still see a higher association.”

Dr. Clemens adds that a poor diet can also play a role in your oral health.

The same goes for smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol.