Oral Hygiene maintenance tips for Diabetic Patients:

Diabetes is a serious, chronic disease that occurs either when the pancreas does not produce enough insulin (a hormone that regulates blood sugar, or glucose), or when the body cannot effectively use the insulin it produces. Diabetes is an important public health problem, one of four priority noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) targeted for action by world leaders. Both the number of cases and the prevalence of diabetes have been steadily increasing over the past few decades

A regular dental check-up is a must for every diabetic person

Apart from the other consequences of Diabetes, maintenance of the oral hygiene also becomes an important part of daily life of a diabetic patient as the periodontal tissues (gums and bones around teeth) become frequently infected due to high sugar content which further results into tooth decay and loss of the tooth.

Here we are going to learn a few tips for maintaining oral hygiene for Diabetic Patients:

  1. Maintenance of a healthy diet is always a good step towards both, the control of blood sugar levels and maintenance of oral health. This comprises avoiding simple sweets, carbonated sugary drinks, sticky sweets such as bakery products and simple refined sugar products such as sugar syrups.
  2. Making an effort towards oral hygiene practices such as brushing twice daily with a use of mouthwash with 0.2% chlorhexidine gluconate helps a lot towards maintaining a good oral hygiene. Also flossing the tooth for cleaning the interdental area (space between the two adjacent teeth) keeps the tooth and gums bacteria and decay free.
  3. If you have diabetes, and you have frequent episodes of food stuck between your teeth, never try to remove the food using metal pins or wooden sticks. As it may injure the gums and bleeding may occur resulting in localised swelling of face and gum infection. Also in diabetic patients, wound healing is delayed due to high sugar content which can also worsen the condition.
  4. Visit a Dentist every 6 months as it is very crucial to maintain oral health as most of the gum diseases are painless and show their effects in advanced stages only. Hence only a dentist can evaluate a dental problem in the earlier stages of the disease.