If your eyes are the window to the soul, your mouth is the door to your body. Mind Your Mouth – you’re worth it focuses on our top tips for a healthy mouth. The most common oral diseases (tooth decay and gum disease) are largely preventable. Get the basics right and improve your oral and overall health and quality of life. Find the key oral health messages here.
There is more to gain than a nice smile. Many risk factors for general health also affect oral health. A healthy smile looks good, feels nice and keeps your breath fresh as well as preventing pain, costly dental treatment and disruption to your work/school/family life. It’s not about changing everything! Rather adjusting and refocusing your efforts taking, time to reflect on your mouth care – indeed Mind Your Mouth because you’re oral and overall health are worth it. These key messages reflect the scientific basis for oral health advice.
Your mouth reflects your overall health and well being. Your oral cavity – mouth teeth gums etc are integral parts of our body. Everything we eat and drink enters through our mouths. Our teeth, lips, tongue, cheeks and saliva all work together to prepare food for digestion. Food and drink provide nutrition. Good nutrition combined with physical activity can help us maintain a healthy weight, reduce our risk of chronic diseases (like heart disease and cancer), and promote overall health. This is obvious when you consider child growth and development but is equally as important as we live longer into old age and retain our teeth.
Our mouth, teeth tongue etc are key for speech and language development. Think of children sounding out words. The key tools for communication – and building healthy relationships. Consider how speech and language impacts our day to day lives and how loosing teeth early or suffering oral disease e.g. oral cancer, might affect our ability to communicate with our loved ones, or our ability to swallow food and drink.
Teeth are more than just a smile. It has been said that a smile can launch a thousand ships, but think how our mouths convey emotion and are central to our feelings of well being. Think how you feel when you see someone grimacing or smiling! Smiling is a real mood booster! Choosing to smile when you are feeling stressed, low or just under the weather can give rise to happy feelings that occur naturally when you smile. Smile more – everyone benefits! 🙂
Just a few thoughts on how your mouth, and its health impact our lives. From birth to death, and every day in between. Learn more about your oral health, and it’s relationship to overall health and well being by taking MyDentalScore and Time Out For Teeth.