Dental Health
Regular dental check-up is essential to ensuring that you are free from any dental problems. Experts maintain that regular 6- or 12-month dental check-up and separate hygienist cleaning, dental problems will be kept to an absolute minimum.
Ways a dentist can help
Clearly regular visits to a dentist are the best way to maintain healthy teeth and gums. As well as identifying potential problems and providing treatment at an early stage, your dentist can also use X-rays to identify your ‘risk profile’ as a patient. X-rays enable your dentist to pinpoint problem areas and offer specialist advice on how often you should be seen and how best to care for your teeth.
Warning signs
Any pain, discomfort or other troublesome symptoms should mean a trip to the dentist. However, if symptoms are more pronounced or you are experiencing pain, you may need to seek emergency dental care to ensure you are seen before a problem worsens.
Discoloration
The likely cause of yellowing teeth is ageing or staining from food and drink
This problem does not indicate any other issues with the body.
Bad breath
It could also indicate you’re a little dehydrated or stressed. Other causes of bad breath include low-carb diets, snoring or even alcohol consumption.
Bad breath is usually caused by poor oral hygiene, and comes from plaque and food debris stuck in between teeth
If you suffer from bad breath regularly, it might be a sign of diabetes so it’s worth speaking with your dentist or doctor
Gum disease
If your gums bleed regularly after brushing, it may be a sign of gum disease. Symptoms of gum disease also include bad breath and a bad taste in the mouth. If left untreated, gum disease can also lead to receding gums, black triangles between teeth and even tooth loss.
But gum disease can also lead to more serious conditions in the rest of the body. “There are lots of links between gum disease and systemic health, the main ones being heart disease, diabetes
Mouth ulcers
Having a mouth ulcer can be very uncomfortable, but most of us suffer from one from time to time. However, if you get ulcers regularly, or they take a long time to heal, they could be a sign that something else is going on behind the scenes.
Mouth ulcers can be caused by nutritional deficiency, particularly a lack of vitamin B12 or iron, it could also be due to stress, hormonal changes, certain medications or even coeliac disease which can lead to deficiency of vitamins and minerals.
Eroding Enamel
It is often caused by a high intake of acidic foods, including alcohol, erosion can also be caused by health conditions, including tooth grinding, reflux, and hiatus hernia. It can also be a sign of the eating disorder bulimia.”
- In Africa, poor oral hygiene is the leading cause of school absenteeism, with children who experience dental pain missing school and performing poorly academically.
- In Africa, the dentist to population ratio is approximately 1:150000 against about 1:2000 in most industrialized countries.
