Total oral health is an ideal worth striving for...
From a young age we are taught that brushing and flossing our teeth should be part of our daily routine. As we grow, it becomes something we just do and the why fades into the background of our busy days. While we understand that taking care of our teeth and gums is important, we often don’t consider how good oral health truly affects our lives.
We overlook the many ways that having a healthy mouth not only preserves our smile but also impacts our overall health and wellbeing and leads to a healthier happier life.
Smile & Appearance
The most obvious benefit of good oral health is that it improves our appearance… how we look.
Not only does it affect our smile, but it helps maintain our teeth and the surrounding structural components which form an important part of our facial structure that shape how we look. By maintaining our oral health, we preserve this integral structure, keep our look, and also our look our very best.
…and a smile is a glorious thing. One that is often not given the credit it deserves. Has someone ever told you that your smile lights up the room? It’s not just a shallow compliment. Smiling transforms our face and lifts the mood in others. People react more positively to people who smile.
Smile and the world smiles with you.
Confidence & Self-esteem
Good oral health helps us look good and feel good about ourselves, increasing our confidence and self-esteem.
Whether we are at a family gathering, on a date with that special someone, or interviewing for that dream job, our mood and how we carry ourselves affects how people see us. When we feel good, we project our happiness and confidence through all of our interaction with others.
By keeping up with our oral health, we look and feel our best and remove those niggling doubts about how others might see us. We remove any worry about imperfect teeth or bad breath confident in the knowledge that we are looking and feeling our best. By taking charge of our oral health, we can put our best foot forward and positively shape our social interactions with others.
Longevity & Health
We all want to live a good life. Good oral health can ensure that we are happy, healthy, and have all of the time we need to get the most out of life.
Our oral health is intricately tied to our overall health and wellbeing, so keeping our mouth healthy is an important step to keeping our whole body healthy. Good oral health helps to prevent gum disease and defend against bacteria that could negatively affect our health and immune system.
Good oral health can reduce the risk of disease and inflammation and can lower our chance of everything from arthritis to pneumonia to osteoporosis. It has been shown to lower the chance of heart disease, cancer, and stroke letting us live healthier and longer lives.
Diet & Fitness
In addition to improving our health by preventing disease, good oral health also improves our overall health and fitness.
It’s said an apple a day keeps the doctor away. But what if you weren’t able to eat that apple? By preserving our teeth and oral health, we can not only eat the foods that we love but we can also continue to eat all of the foods we need for a varied and healthy diet.
Taking care of our oral health also helps keep us on track to better health by promoting health and fitness in other areas of our lives. By taking care of our mouth, we know deep down that we are doing something good for ourselves… something that keeps us healthy. This knowledge motivates us; we feel better emotionally and physically and we are encouraged to expand this care to other aspects of our health and lives.
Additionally, feeling good means we get out more, do more. No one wants to go out and exercise when they are in a bad mood or are feeling poorly. Good oral health lets us breathe fully, unimpeded by pain, and encourages us to go out, stay fit, and live our lives to the fullest.
Mood & Memory
Good oral health also promotes good mental health.
Looking good, feeling better about ourselves, being social, and staying healthy and fit can all improve our mood and mindset. In this way, our oral health can have a positive influence on our emotional and mental wellbeing.
Good oral health not only promotes brain health by lowering our risk of stroke but can also reduce the presence of harmful bacteria that affects the brain, possibly helping to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline.
Brain health is also closely tied to how we breathe, and our oral health can affect our breathing in various ways. Improving dental alignment can improve airflow and affect the sinuses, helping to improve our ability to breathe and sleep. Good oral hygiene can also reduce the risk of harmful bacteria entering the lungs, reducing the risk of respiratory inflammation and illnesses.
By preventing inflammation and pain, improving mood, and promoting a proper night’s sleep, good oral health can positively affect recall, cognitive function, and our ability to focus and concentrate. It helps us to remember, be alert, and be happy.
Good Oral Health Is Vital
Good oral health improves our lives in so many ways… some big and some small… some yet to be discovered or fully understood. By maintaining a happy healthy mouth, we can improve how we look and how we feel; we can connect with others and build lasting relationships; we can be happier and healthier; and we can vastly enhance our quality of life.
If our eyes are the window to the soul, then our mouth is the door; a door to better health and a better life.
