How does oral health affect diabetes?

5 Ways Diabetes Can Affect Your Oral Health and Ways To Treat Them

Diabetes is a silent killer and it can creep up to you without you finding out. Your body may be indicating that the blood glucose level is fluctuating but you may confuse the symptoms with some other disease.

Studies have shown that diabetes affects other parts of the body as well, particularly mouths. If you do not visit your dentist regularly, you may not even recognize the way that diabetes is affecting your oral health.

Here are some of the ways that diabetes is known to affect the overall health of the oral cavity:4

1. Infections: A person suffering from the disease will know how weak their immune system becomes. He or she suffers from things like a yeast infection commonly known as oral thrush or candidiasis. A white layer of yeast covers the tongue and the inside of the cheeks, leaving a bad taste in the mouth. It is quite common among people who wear dentures.
2. Change in Taste: This is one of the biggest lifestyle change that you will have to which you will have to adjust when suffering from the disease. Your tongue will not be able to differentiate the flavors and it might lead to an increase of the spices in your diet.
3. Gum Disease: If you are a diabetic, you would have noticed that sometimes, your gums would bleed while brushing teeth or flossing. Regular bleeding of the gums can lead to their weakening and over time, to an extent that causes the teeth to fall down, causing you the mastication of your food difficult.
4. Slowed Healing: Any cut or sore inside the mouth of a diabetic remains so for longer durations and are not healed as fast as they used to before. This can be quite hurtful and can also cause irritation in the mouth. This is usually due to a lack of control of the body over the sugar levels in the blood.
5. Dry Mouth: Diabetics have been prone to dry mouth due to the lowered production of saliva in the body. Throughout the day, they feel parched and extremely thirsty. They constantly drink water and hope the feeling goes away but without fail. The lack of saliva in the mouth can also cause a high risk of development of cavities in teeth.

Due to the aforementioned problems, there is a serious risk to the oral health of a person suffering from diabetes. A regular visit to your local dentist is going to prove useful but there are some other ways in which you can contain the risk factors and control the effect of the disease on your oral health. There are some things, proven by studies and trials, that you can incorporate in your daily life which can lead to the better oral health of the patient:

1. If you are suffering from infections in the mouth due to dentures or yeast, you will have to consult your dentist in order to be provided with the appropriate cure for the infection in your mouth. This could be in the form of a better denture or a mouthwash to cure the infection.
2. To cope with the change in taste, you can add a bit of spice to your diet. However, you must take care not to add too much sugar to the food or else your blood glucose levels might shoot up. If your mouth is unable to recognize the tastes even then, you should consult your dentist.
3. The problem of the gums can usually be solved with proper brushing and flossing every day. It can also be eradicated with the use of a proper diet plan. You should control your blood sugar levels in case you fail to do so on a regular basis.
4. Due to diabetes, the blood sugar levels are almost always off the charts. This is why, the healing capacity of the body is affected, leading to the prolonged sores and cuts in the mouth. The best way to deal with this situation is to consult your physician or dentist so that you can receive proper medication for the issue. Nowadays, with the advancement in the field of dentistry, even the complicated dental procedures have become very safe and easy. With the introduction of IV sedation and Criticare Capnography, you no longer have to worry about any dental procedures if the need arises.
5. To deal with a dry mouth, you will have to consume large quantities of water which will help you to deal with the dehydration within your mouth. Other options can include the chewing of sugarless gum and a healthy portion of fiber within your diet, which will help you to have the juices in your mouth flowing.

There are ways in which you can test the ways in which your body is responding to a disease. You can choose the ways in which you deal with diabetes, taking control of the food you eat and managing the way that you undergo the weight loss. Everything that you do will be a step towards a healthier way of life.