Diabetes is a serious disease that affects millions of Americans. For those who don't know what diabetes is, it is a disease that affects the body's ability to process sugar. Everything you eat is processed by the body and converted to sugar, which your body uses for energy. Your body accomplishes this through the hormone insulin. If you have Type I diabetes your body doesn’t produce enough insulin to convert the food into sugar. If you have Type II diabetes the body simply stops responding to insulin. This affects nearly every part of your body, including your eyes, heart, nerves and kidneys. But it also affects your teeth. Fortunately, there are steps you can take to protect your teeth and keep them healthy even with diabetes.

What Can Diabetics Do to Protect Their Teeth?

Untreated diabetes results in excessive thirst. It also results in dry mouth. Dry mouth is a condition caused by the body producing less saliva. Saliva is your mouth’s cleaner. It washes away bacteria that live in your mouth and reacts with food particles to cause cavities. If you don’t have enough saliva they you run the risk of cavities and periodontal disease. Diabetes causes you to have problems healing wounds and may cause you to run the risk of more infections.

If you are diabetic, you should have regular visits with your dentist. Your dentist can detect gum disease early and begin treating it before it causes serious problems with your teeth. You can also benefit from the deep cleaning of your teeth that your dentist does. Though regular brushing and flossing is important they can’t get your teeth as clean as your dentist can. Your dentist has tools that you don’t have.

What you can do is to control your blood sugar. Next, stop smoking. Smoking dries out your mouth. And always practice good dental hygiene by brushing twice a day and flossing regularly. If you have any questions, or if you would like to learn more, please call us today at (503) 601-0610.