Diabetes and Dental Care

CEBU, Philippines — Diabetes being a metabolic condition, what a diabetic eats is closely associated with the dangerously low or high blood glucose levels that are constitutes the main symptoms of the disease.

However, the quality of their food consumption is not the only thing diabetics have to watch out for. Diabetics should also take their dental care seriously, since they tend to be more susceptible to problematic dental and oral conditions.

Some of the dental or oral conditions which diabetics should pay particular attention to are:

Oral dryness linked with poor oral tissue healing – With diabetics, dental procedures are prone to complications, given that diabetes impairs proper blood flow for tissue healing.

Oral dryness is an indication of poor oral tissue healing, and this may compound problems when a diabetic undergoes dental procedures like tooth extraction or root canal treatments. Oral dryness has also been linked with other mouth and dental problems like mouth ulcers, sores and tooth loss/tooth decay.

Oral thrush – Also known as oropharyngeal candidiasis, oral thrush is a yeast infection in the mouth and/or tongue. In the case of diabetics, abnormally high blood sugar levels also mean high sugar levels in the saliva, which can bring on oral thrush.

Gingivitis – Bacterial infections in the mouth are conditions which everyone should watch out for, as these tend to be the primary cause of different oral and dental problems.

Diabetics are often doubly warned against conditions like gingivitis and certain types of gum diseases, since abnormal white blood cell levels impede makes the  immune system to effectively fight bacterial infections.

Though there have been advances in the area of dental care for diabetics, the saying “a pinch of prevention is a pound of cure” is still good to heed in order to keep dental and oral problems at bay. Proper oral hygiene and regular visits to the dentist are still the best ways to fend from mouth and dental conditions, for diabetics and non-diabetics alike.