The Mouth Body Connection

Since October is Dental Hygiene awareness month, we feel it is important to highlight the relationship of the health of your mouth to the health of your entire body.

After reading this I hope you will cherish every healthy tooth that you have in your mouth, begin to take steps to correct the unhealthy ones, and practice regular periodontal health preventative measures such as flossing on a regular basis.

You might not know, but the health of your mouth can be directly related to the health of your overall body…from uterine fibroids to intestinal matters to congestion of the lymphatic system.

Dental professionals stand in an awesome spot to really make a change in their patient’s health in a holistic way, and actually this is an emerging field in medicine that I think all practitioners should be aware of.

You see, the health or ill-health of the mouth is not just contained within your teeth and gums.  On-going research now shows the relationship of oral health to; obesity, heart disease and stroke, pregnancy problems, diabetes, respiratory diseases, osteoporosis and more.

Back in July of 1998, the American Academy of Periodontology launched an effort to educate the public about new findings which support what dental professionals had long suspected: Infections in the mouth can play havoc elsewhere in the body!

You see, periodontal bacteria can enter the blood stream and travel to major organs and begin new infections.  Remember, bacteria and other pathogens are opportunists.  They look for the path of least resistance and when they find a ‘sedated’ or weakened area, they call it home.  They start a family, proliferate in numbers and make their presence known, slowly breaking down the body’s organ and glandular structures. 

Other area’s that can lead to such problems or ‘open up the toxic dental door’ are improperly done or dental work that has gone bad such as root canals or even toxic amalgam fillings.

What I have found to be one of the most fascinating discoveries in this field is the mapping that has been done that links individual teeth to individual acupressure points and organs throughout the body.  Very similar to the practices of acupuncture and acupressure.

For instance, it has been shown that the front two teeth, top and bottom, reflex to the prostate, uterine and adrenal areas.  So, if someone has had dental work in these areas that have gone bad, or maybe had trauma to these areas, and they are presenting with uterine or prostate or adrenal issues…this little fact should not be ignored. 

Another example would be if tooth number 7(next to the two front teeth on the top right) had a toxic metal filling, it could possibly affect the right side of bladder or kidney, or even the lumbar area of the spine (L2 and L3).

So the message to be learned is, “don’t ignore your dental health.”  If you value your oral as well as your overall health, a periodontal evaluation as well as keeping up with dental hygiene is a good idea.