Williams Shakespeare would say “Our bodies are our gardens, our wills are our gardeners”. Our bodies hold deep wisdom and the best we can do, just like gardeners is to trust in it, learn from it, nourish it, and watch our lives transform and be healthy. It takes a strong will and disciplined determination to attain an excellent lifestyle.
Lifestyle is a general way of living based on the interplay between living conditions, individual patterns of behaviour as determined by socio-cultural factors, and personal characteristics. Sadly, there is a paucity of information assessing the role of various factors, including lifestyle, and our oral health behaviour.
“Oral health is multifaceted and includes the ability to speak, smile, smell, taste, touch, chew, swallow, and convey a range of emotions through facial expressions with confidence and without pain, discomfort, and disease of the craniofacial complex”.
It is an integral part of general health that should not be viewed separately. We can’t separate oral health and our general health, because according to the policy for oral health improvement in this twenty-first century, health hazards are interconnected, preventable, and tied to lifestyle. This is the basis of the common risk factor approach which states that changing a small number of risk factors would have a positive impact upon many diseases. Indeed, physical inactivity, smoking, and poor dietary practices are major risk factors along with others for many chronic diseases even the enlightened are yet ignorant of in this present day.
What connects our oral health to our general health and makes them inseparable is the fact that, like other parts of our body, our mouth teems with bacteria which are called normal flora. However harmless, it’s also important to note that the mouth is the entry point to our respiratory and digestive tracts, including many other orifices in our body and some of these bacteria can head along to cause diseases via these channels.
Normally the body’s natural defense system, good oral health care and lifestyle habits which I’ll get to list out soon, keep these bacteria under control. However, without these former stated in check, bacteria can reach levels that might lead to oral infections such as tooth decay and gum disease.
There are also certain medications- such as antihistamines, decongestants, painkillers, diuretics and antidepressants that can also reduce saliva flow and in turn, increase the function and activities of the bacteria. Saliva which is one of the body’s most important fluids is known to wash away food and neutralize acids produced by bacteria in the mouth, helping to protect you from microbes that multiply and lead to diseases.
Know this today and know peace, studies have shown facts that oral bacteria, tooth decay, and swellings associated with a severe form of gum disease (periodontitis) play a role in some diseases and certain diseases such as Diabetes and HIV/AIDS for example, can lower the body’s resistance to infection, making oral health problems more severe and in turn our overall health at a higher risk to disasters.
So I’ll quickly take an intermission break here to ask 3 major questions.
- What kind of lifestyle habits do you keep?
- Do you know your medical and dental status? * Do you keep a date with your Dentist?
Let me run through some “lifestyle habits you need to practice to maintain good oral health”. As simple as they may seem, they have been proven to be golden keys to ensure good oral health.
1. Twice daily brushing of the mouth not just the teeth;
It is very important to brush your mouth twice a day or if possible after every major meal, but of course I know that might be difficult. However, the least of gifts you could give to yourself is the gift of will and self-discipline. Spend at least 3-5 minutes brushing twice daily with the use of a medium textured toothbrush in other not to hurt your gums and change them every 3 months.
2. Flossing ;
Develop the habit of flossing your teeth on a dialling basis as flossing helps in removing food particles and other foreign substances stuck within the teeth cavity and in between the teeth. It prevents the increased accumulation of plaques which calcifies into calculus. Avoid using toothpicks. It causes more harm than good to your teeth and gum. Creates more space and room for overhangings of meals which leads to other problems in the oral cavity
3. Clean your tongue and your palate;
I have chosen to separate this from the common knowledge of brushing your mouth because it is as important as knowing you should brush your mouth.
Take time to clean your tongue and palate (the roof of your mouth). People miss out on this, a lot. You could make use of a Tongue cleaner or a brush. These parts of the mouth harbour bacteria which cause, bad breath or mouth odour which we term “Halitosis”
4. Avoid Sugar;
Eating meals that contain high amounts of sugar can lead to tooth decay. Sugar is like energy to bacteria within the mouth. The bacteria that are present in the teeth use the sugar to form acids that erode and corrode the enamel of the teeth resulting in cavities. We know you can avoid them logically, but you can substitute them with other options, Water can replace carbonated drinks, low citric/acid-containing fruits can also serve as a substitute, each good food instead of junk etc. It is very sad when I see children and young adults presenting to the clinic with decays and we can do nothing about them other than to extract the tooth. That’s not the goal, “a healthy tooth, a healthy smile”.
5. Avoid smoking;
If you’re a smoker then it is time to stop and make a change for good. Smoking does a lot of harm to the oral cavity and the body system at large and yes, this is not the hundredth time you’ve heard this, it is written on the packs of cigarettes, you see them every day when you pull a stick out of that box “smoker is liable to die young”. Yet you choose death instead of life. It increases the risk of cancer (oral cancer, lung cancer etc.). And accumulates to become hard stains on your teeth, is difficult to remove, and changes the colour of your teeth, making it esthetically unpleasing. It could lead to gum diseases too.
6. Your diets;
As I said earlier avoid eating junk, they are not good for both oral health and overall health. Each food is rich in vegetables, a balanced diet, and fruits as they contain vitamins and minerals such as VITAMIN D and calcium that keep your teeth healthy.
7. Drugs and addictions;
This is a whole topic for another day, but the harm and danger this causes in the oral cavity is limitless… from a dry mouth to endangered teeth, to habits from aggressive behaviour from reactions to drugs to the breathe, cancers, diseases, inflammations, brittle teeth, to the overall damage it does to the body. Too much of everything they say is bad.
8. Reducing stress;
I know this would be surprising to some, but yes an increased stress level can contribute to various periodontal diseases and oral health at large. Practice relaxation techniques such as meditation to keep your stress level within control
9. Visiting the Dentist;
A lot of people find this irrelevant, stressful, and unnecessary or some are even ignorant of the fact that they need to visit the dentist in great, good and bad times.
It doesn’t matter when; just fix a date with your dentist. Every 3 months is a perfect time. Many delay their visits and wait till the situation is bad and unsalvageable, some even go as far as self-medicating or reaching out for uncultured herbal/ traditional means of treatment. Oral problems are not shown the urgency as compared to other diseases but it is pertinent to ensure we don’t miss out on major emergencies that could be life-threatening.
10. Have a professional cleaning;
Last but not least, when you visit your dentist every 3 months, make sure you make it a duty to have professional in-office scaling and polishing done once every six months or quarterly every year as the care may infer. This would help you get rid of calculus plaques and debris that have accumulated in your mouth and can’t easily be removed by mare brushing. I like to better put it this way “Go have a dental spa”. Give yourself a treat, you deserve one. In conclusion when we talk about fashion, your oral health contributes a major part to your facial esthetics. Having a proud smile, and a loud and confident laugh, contributes to your self-esteem and projects that you are detailed about “your lifestyle and your oral health”