As someone with diabetes, you know what you should and shouldn’t do, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you understand why. However, failing to take care of your body can impact several essential functions, and poor maintenance for individual functions like your mouth can affect your overall well-being. In terms of diabetes and gum disease, the benefits of managing both well are thoroughly documented in studies because these two are linked! But how? Keep reading to learn about the connection between gum disease and diabetes and what you can do to ensure a long-term confident smile and healthy body.
What Is Gum Disease?
Gum disease, clinically called periodontal disease, is an oral infection that affects the gum and jawbone tissue. When inflammation-causing bacteria are allowed to remain and thrive in the mouth, particularly around the gumline, they attack healthy gums, making them red, swollen, and easy to bleed.
At later stages of this disease, the connective tissue that holds gums to teeth breaks down, leading to recession, deep pockets of trapped bacteria and plaque, and damage to the exposed jawbone. Eventually, the jawbone doesn’t provide enough stability for teeth, causing them to come out completely.
However serious tooth loss can feel for your oral function and self-confidence, perhaps more importantly, untreated gum disease has been closely linked to a significantly increased risk for heart disease, Alzheimer’s, certain cancers, and other conditions, namely diabetes.
How Are Diabetes and Gum Disease Connected?
At first glance, it may not make sense for an oral infection to have much impact on your blood sugar levels or the reverse. Regardless, these diseases affect each other. A person with poorly managed diabetes is more prone to infection and struggles to fight it and heal. As a result, their chances of getting gum disease and suffering the consequences of tooth loss rise. On the other hand, a person who has untreated gum disease often consumes too much sugar in their diet, allowing the oral plaque and bacteria to spread. Sometimes, dentists are among the first to notice a potential diabetes issue based on the condition of the patient’s mouth and habits, making gum disease a common indicator of this condition.
What Can I Do About Diabetes and Gum Disease?
Whether you have one of these diseases or both, your care should involve your dentist and your physician. These professionals can help you break the cycle and recover in the most efficient way. First, you need to get your diabetic condition under control. Whether you require extra medication, nutrition counseling, exercise, or another lifestyle change, try to implement it into your routine. Basically, you need to reduce the sugar you have daily and maintain a healthy blood sugar level.
Meanwhile, you must work with your dentist to stop gum disease from progressing further through treatment, including a process called scaling and root planing and then potentially topical antibiotics. In scaling, teeth are cleaned well below the gumline to extricate plaque from the gum pockets. Root planing entails smoothing the rough root texture on exposed teeth, which makes gum reattachment easier and reinfection harder in the future. Then, once the infection doesn’t pose an immediate threat, you can brush and floss your teeth every day to prevent plaque from building up again, along with having regular periodontal maintenance visits with your dentist.
As frustrating as these conditions can be, it’s important to stick with treatment, healthy daily habits, and good lifestyle choices to protect your body and your smile from irreparable harm.
About the Author
Dr. Stephen Boyles is originally from the Midland/Odessa area. In fact, the family’s dental practice, Boyles General Dentistry & Implant Center has served this community for more than 40 years. In his career so far, Dr. Boyles has already achieved success few dentists in the country do: he is a Fellow with the Academy of General Dentistry. He also cares about the patient as a whole, not just their mouths! To schedule a comfortable, productive appointment with Dr. Boyles, contact our dental office online or call 432-685-7011.