When we think about well-being we think about spa retreats, yoga and meditation. You might make your bed every morning, go to the gym and drink two litres of water a day, but how is your oral health?
A lot of people are afraid to go to the dentist because of the common misconception that it’s painful and expensive.
The truth is that not giving your oral health the proper attention can affect every area of your life, whether you’re aware of it or not.
We’ve put together a list of 6 ways that neglecting your dental health can impact your wellness:
Contents
1. Nutrition and Digestion
Proper nutrition and digestion start with the mouth and the proper digestion of food is related to mastication.
If you have oral health issues such as tooth decay, missing teeth, misaligned teeth or sore gums, you might avoid certain nutritious foods, and not be able to chew and swallow your food properly.
“Misaligned teeth are actually a common cause of getting fewer nutrients out of your food because you’re not biting properly,” says Dr. Katrina Zhao, Principal Dentist and Managing Director at Midas Dental.
To correct even major misalignments, Zhao recommends Invisalign: “it’s a subtle way to improve your oral health, without the treatment affecting your confidence.”
2. Changes in Your Physical Appearance
Misaligned teeth and missing teeth are not just bad for your nutrition but have a big impact on how your face looks.
Missing teeth lead to bone loss and subsequently facial sagging. That is because the bone structure of the whole mouth is damaged and it leads to altering your overall appearance.
Crowded teeth aren’t only responsible for an imperfect smile. They usually affect your jaws, causing overall misalignment which leads to an asymmetrical face.
3. Self-esteem
Having bad oral health leads to a lot of self-esteem issues. Our society places a lot of emphasis on beauty and every advertisement features models with healthy, straight, beautiful white teeth.
If that’s not how your teeth look, you might feel embarrassed to laugh, which affects your self-esteem and trickles into all other aspects of your social life, such as love life.
Crooked, yellow, or missing teeth are all considered unattractive. A survey by Match.com revealed that 71 per cent of women and 58 per cent of men judge their dates by their teeth.
4. Mental Health
Self-esteem issues that stem from bad teeth end up causing mental health problems for a lot of people.
Because social acceptance is very important to us, a lot of people with bad teeth try to hide their smile. The Oral Health Foundation found that 87% of people under 35 feel self-conscious about their smile.
That’s just the beginning if left unaddressed, bad teeth can then lead to less confidence in public and speaking less in general.
That leads to feelings of anxiety and depression and ends up affecting every other aspect of people’s lives.
5. Job Prospects
Bad teeth don’t just affect your physical and mental health, your confidence and your relationships, but they can also have a bad impact on your career and job prospects.
This is especially true if your work involves hospitality or client facing-roles. Bad breath, yellow or decayed teeth would dramatically affect a job applicant’s chances of getting work.
6. Overall Health
Modern medicine has caught up to the fact that everything related to health is interlinked. The way we’ve come to realise that stress affects our physical health, we’ve also come to understand the mouth to body connection.
For example, bad teeth have an impact on your heart health. Let’s say your teeth are misaligned. That makes it more difficult to brush and floss them properly which can lead to plaque and over time, cavities and gum disease.
This, in turn, can lead to periodontal disease. This ultimately leads to the infection spreading through the body which can be linked to heart disease, diabetes and more.
Conclusion
As you can see, poor oral health has a major impact on all areas of our life. It affects your health and appearance, and your overall joy.
But thanks to modern dentistry, any issues you have with your teeth can all be corrected.
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