How Can Diabetes Affect Your Oral Health?

November is American Diabetes Month with the theme of “Everyday Reality”. Diabetes has been found to directly correlate to gum disease and oral health infections. This is because diabetes affects your blood glucose levels, which can damage blood vessels that help your gums stay healthy. There are other factors that lead to worsening teeth and gums with diabetes. Find out what those are and reduce your risk for problems!

Diabetes 101

Diabetes is an incredibly common condition. In the United States alone, there are 100 million people that are diabetic or pre-diabetic, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This is a disease that you have for life once you get it. Some are born with diabetes based on their genetics or illnesses in the past. Many others develop diabetes from how they eat, especially if a diet is high in low-nutrient sugary foods.

Diabetes can be a fatal disease if patients with it don’t control their blood sugar levels. Your blood sugar helps turn your food into energy. When you eat, your blood glucose—known as sugar—needs to be moved out of the blood and into your cells. You need the help of hormone-regulated insulin to move that sugar from the cells. However, with diabetes, you become insulin resistant, meaning that insulin isn’t able to move all the sugars from your blood. Your blood gets flooded with sugars it can’t control. This can make people faint, shaky, physically ill and can lead to death if sugars aren’t controlled with medicine like insulin.

Diabetes is the 7th leading cause of death in the United States according to the American Diabetes Association. Over 30 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with the disease, but there are many undiagnosed patients with the disease as well. As many as 70 million people are in pre-diabetic stages, meaning their health is in such a state that they are becoming insulin resistant. This process can take years to happen, but once you have diabetes, you have it for life.

How Is Your Oral Health Affected?

Your blood plays a large role in keeping your teeth and gums healthy. You must brush and floss your teeth every day to keep the outside surfaces of the gums and teeth clean. You do that so you don’t have acidic plaque and sugars working to weaken and erode your teeth. You have three layers of the teeth: the outer, protective enamel, the more porous dentin layer and the inner layer of nerves and blood vessels. Those blood vessels nourish your teeth to keep them healthy and alive.

Your gums, as well rely on nutrients from the blood and proper blood circulation to stay healthy and living. With diabetes, sugars abound in the blood. Your body can’t take those sugars out of the blood to be used as energy. This hinders circulation and nutrients getting to tissues that need them, like your gums. You also can’t fight off mouth wounds or infections as easily because of that nutrient loss.

Bacteria in your mouth mixed with your food can build up along your gum line and get into gum pockets. There, it can cause infection and abscess. Gums become inflamed, get swollen, redder and they bleed often. Your gums can also start to recede from the teeth, causing them to fall out. Meticulous attention to what you are eating, how you’re taking care of your teeth and your oral hygiene must be followed to prevent tooth loss and mushy gums.

How Is Sugar a Problem?

The American Diabetes Association reports that sugary drinks do, in fact, play a role in the development of type II diabetes. Diabetes isn’t always caused by eating too much sugar or from being overweight, but both of these are high risk factors in your body becoming insulin-resistant. Many people drink sodas on an everyday basis. Many of those soda drinkers are having several glasses a day. Just one soda can have up to 60 grams of sugar when the recommended daily limit overall is 6-9 grams for an adult. Carbohydrates also break down into sugars in the body, which makes sugary drinks really bad for many people.

Not only can they lead to diabetes, but they can erode your teeth. Any drink with fizzy bubbles gets those bubbles from carbonic acid reacting with water. That acid can easily strip minerals from your teeth, weakening them and causing them to become thinner. That is how your teeth can change color over time and become thin and weak. Sugars also have the same reaction on your teeth, as they mix with mouth bacteria to become plaque, which is an acidic film that sticks to your teeth.

What Should You Be Doing Already?

Anyone can develop diabetes depending on their food and lifestyle choices. If you have a diet rich in sugary foods and low-nutrient foods, you are definitely putting yourself at risk for diabetes and countless other health problems. Your body needs specific nutrients and sources of energy to run properly, and added sugars isn’t one of those things. With a minimal amount of natural sugars (like from fruit), your body can run correctly.

If you want to reduce your risk for diabetes and oral health problems at the same time, make sure you:

• Eat nutrient-rich foods and very minimal sugary, processed foods.
• Brush your teeth at least twice a day for two minutes at a time.
• Floss every single day, getting up into the gum lines to clean them, while scraping your teeth as you go.
• Keep up on doctor visits and dental cleanings/exams. At these, you can assess your risk for diabetes and take measures to either avoid it or to control it well.

If you have diabetes, are pre-diabetic, or just want to check up on your oral health, call Dr. Varley’s office today at (303) 872-7907!