The mouth is the gateway to overall health of a person. Symptoms of many nutritional deficiencies and most of the life threatening disease like Dengue fever, AIDS, Diabetes, Sjogren syndrome, Cardiovascular disorder, GIT disorder, Stroke and Bacterial pneumonia first appear in the mouth. Oral cavity of a pregnant lady can also reveal the health status of an unborn baby. A pregnant woman that has been diagnosed with periodontitis, she may be at increased risk of either delivering a preterm child and/or an infant with low birth weight.
The first noticeable symptom of Dengue Fever is bleeding from the gums. A few weeks ago, a patient reported at my clinic with the complaint of bleeding from the gums while brushing or whenever the patient tried to eat anything. He also reported told that he was all fine and this all started within 2-3 days. After a close clinical examination, I asked the patient to go for a routine blood examination. As soon as I received the complete blood count report, I asked the patient to consult a physician, as that was because of dengue fever.
Likewise, many other diseases such as AIDS, DIABETES, CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDERS & GIT DISORDERS lowers the immune response of the body and a person gets more prone to periodontal infections.
In AIDS, a person's immune system is severely depressed and the patient may have mild to severe periodontitis at times. A person with Diabetes, is always more prone to severe periodontal infections as the blood clotting time increases also if a diabetic person develops periodontal disease, it would be more difficult for the person to control the blood glucose level. Studies prove that CARDIOVASCULAR DISORDERS are very closely related to a person who has oral health problems as oral bacteria is closely linked to HEART DISEASE, ARTERIAL BLOCKAGES & STROKES. In a person with GIT DISORDERS, person may complain of halitosis and/or oral ulcers.
HOW TO AVOID? It's really very simple, you just need to show up to your dentist after every 6 months for a routine dental checkup and every time you feel there is some discomfort or something wrong that's happening in your oral cavity.
REMEMBER, TREATMENTS ARE NEVER EXPENSIVE, NEGLECT IS.