Did you know that oral health is essential to your overall health?
Most people know that maintaining our health depends on many things, especially eating healthy foods, exercising regularly, and getting good sleep. But your teeth and gums also play an important role in keeping you well.
This is because your mouth is the gateway to your body. There are millions of bad and good bacteria in your mouth and brushing and flossing help maintain this.
However, more than just cavities can occur over time if you don’t keep up with good dental hygiene. Gum disease and tooth decay can affect your entire body and lead to a weak immune system. This leaves you at higher risk for illnesses, including the common cold.
Fortunately, you have the power to boost your body's ability to fight harmful bacteria by simply maintaining good dental health.
Let’s dive deeper into how the immune system, underlying health issues, and your mouth interact, and how oral health may be linked to your body’s defenses.
Understanding the Immune System and Its Challenges
It’s important to understand the immune system before we dive into its connection to oral health.
Your immune system is your body’s defense against disease, viruses, and other illnesses. Many different parts of your immune system help it succeed in warding off sickness.
Innate immunity is something you’re born with—it naturally and rapidly helps defend you against germs. Adaptive immunity is slower. This part of the immune system responds to foreign substances and microorganisms.
When working in tandem, innate and adaptive immunity help keep you healthy and resistant to infections. But when other factors come into play—such as stress, poor diet, toxins, or other health complications—your immune system can be weakened.
These factors and the resulting response from weakened immune systems leave people more susceptible to illnesses, such as the common cold. A healthy mouth is one of these factors.
Tooth decay and unclean teeth and gums can create inflammation and infections that lead to a weakened immune system.
How the Common Cold Works
As we mentioned, the common cold is a viral infection, not bacterial. The cold is typically caused by rhinovirus and affects the upper respiratory tract.
The virus attaches to cells in this region and causes an immune response—to you, that response feels like a stuffy nose, coughing, sore throat, and achy feelings as your immune system and body fight off the infection. If you’re like most of us, you probably know this feeling all too well!
Having a healthy immune system can help you fight the cold off faster and keep it from getting severe and dangerous.
You might be wondering, if a cold is a viral infection, how does the bacteria in your mouth connect to this type of illness? Let’s shed more light on this topic.
The Oral-Immune System Connection
Think of your mouth as a microenvironment filled with bacteria. Most of the bacteria in your mouth are helping you, but some are not.
Certain bacteria can cause damage to your mouth, manifesting in tooth decay and gum disease. If we maintain good oral hygiene, we can fight off these bacteria. But if we have an unclean mouth, the bacteria can enter our bloodstream. This creates inflammation, which causes stress to the immune system.
This chronic stress causes the immune system to release cytokines, which throw off the balance of inflammation further and make it harder to fight off infections. Some research states that these bacteria may also link to viral infections by compromising immunity in the respiratory tract.
This makes the immune system’s job harder because its resources are fighting off oral infection, leaving your body less able to fight off other illnesses, like the common cold.
So, oral health is connected to the cold and other illnesses because neglecting your teeth and gum health can add more strain to your immune system. Because your immune system is focused on protecting your mouth, it’s more susceptible to viruses.
Therefore, it’s very important to maintain good oral health—not only to save you from the discomfort of a cold but for your immune system to continue fighting off diseases that could become more serious down the line.
The Broader Impact of Oral Health on Your Body's Immune System
Oral health influences more than just your body's immune system—it has far-reaching effects on your overall wellness.
Poor oral hygiene has been linked to cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and even cognitive decline. The bacteria from oral infections can travel to other parts of the body, potentially contributing to these conditions.
Regular dental care helps prevent oral issues and reduces the risk of these systemic health challenges. Additionally, maintaining a healthy mouth supports better digestion, clearer speech, and greater confidence in social interactions, all of which contribute to a higher quality of life.
How A Routine Dental Cleaning Can Help
There are ways to ensure your teeth and gums stay well so your immune system can operate at its best. It’s best to take a holistic approach to support your immune system—eat healthy foods, exercise, get sound sleep, and clean your teeth twice daily.
Mountain View Family Dental is here to help with regular dental cleaning to ensure your teeth function properly and receive the attention they need.
These cleanings are imperative to ensuring your mouth is healthy. We spend this time removing plaque and tartar buildup, which is where bacteria form and create tooth decay and even infections.
What to Expect During Your Dentist Cleaning
At your dental deep cleaning, we’ll use tools to remove plaque and tartar from hard-to-reach areas you might be missing with brushing and flossing. This will help remove bad and harmful bacteria from your mouth and lower the risk of infections and systemic inflammation known to cause weakened immunity.
We’ll focus on polishing and fluoride treatments after the plaque removal, which improve the health and strength of your teeth. Polishing makes your teeth smooth and more difficult for plaque to stick to. Fluoride strengthens the surface of your teeth, which helps keep decay away. These steps help make your teeth resistant to infections and decay.
Dental cleanings also allow us to see early signs of oral health issues. We can watch for early gum diseases like gingivitis and prevent these from getting worse and further weakening your immune system. We’ll also remind you to practice good oral hygiene. This will include demonstrating how to floss, brush, and rinse properly.
We know not everyone likes coming to the dentist, but the benefits of regular appointments and dental treatments are evident. Studies show that people who maintain regular dental appointments are less likely to experience oral inflammation, which reduces the risk of conditions like diabetes and cardiovascular issues. By taking care of your teeth, you can support your entire body.
Benefits of Professional Dental Cleaning
Regular dental care does more than keep your immune system strong. Visits to the dentist have a greater effect on your overall well-being than many people expect.
This includes:
- Along with fighting infections, good oral health contributes to overall body function and well-being, so you can eat, speak, and feel good on a daily basis;
- Dental cleanings also help reduce the risk of gum disease, which can become periodontitis if not addressed. This can lead to serious issues, such as cardiovascular disease over time—regular cleanings stop the progression of these gum issues in their tracks;
- Dental cleanings promote a balanced oral microbiome. This helps create beneficial bacteria that contribute to your overall health;
- Our treatments reduce odor-causing bacteria and debris, putting an end to bad breath;
- Gum disease and tooth decay can lead to tooth loss—dental cleanings help us detect those issues early on so they may be avoided;
- You’ll feel better after a cleaning—who doesn’t love fresh breath, strong, pain-free teeth, and a healthy smile? Knowing you’re keeping your smile clean will boost your confidence and overall quality of life.
Contact Us
Your dental health is more than just keeping your teeth white. It’s part of what keeps your entire immune system in check.
You can boost your ability to fight off illnesses and symptoms ranging from the cold to more severe illness by taking care of your teeth and coming to your dental cleanings.
Contact Mountain View Family Dental today to invest in dental work for your personal health. Your smile—and your body—will thank you!
