Why Are Dental Visits Good For Your General Health?

Making regular appointments with your dentist is about more than just ensuring the quality of your dental health – it’s also fantastic for safeguarding your health in a number of other ways. This week, our dental experts at AP Smilecare have taken a few moments to elaborate on exactly why bi-annual checkups are so crucial.

6 Reasons To Have Regular Dental Checkups:

1. Catching oral cancer early.
2. Catching developing cancers in your lymph nodes.
3. Stopping infections.
4. Identifying damage to your teeth or jaw.
5. Minimising chances of heart disease.
6. Preventing onset of diabetes.

Oral Cancer Detection

As well as looking at the state of your individual teeth, we also examine the health of your mouth in general. This is vital for catching oral cancer early on – and the earlier we catch it, the better! Certain dental disease don’t show many symptoms but can progress quickly, so the importance of regular dentist appointments definitely shouldn’t be underestimated in this regard.

On this note, too – as a dental clinic in Blackburn, our access to an X-ray machine is also a major asset for safeguarding your health. With X-rays, we can uncover damage to your jaw that might be causing you pain but invisible to the naked eye. We can also identify bone decay, swelling, tumours or cysts – equally scary things that whose effective treatment often depends on early identification.

Catching Heart Disease

New research is being conducted into heart disease all the time, and some recent discoveries indicate that bacteria from infected gums can travel throughout the body, eventually blocking the arteries and leading to heart disease. What’s more, according to a study by American scientific website Science Daily, of all the patients they studied with heart disease, 91% also had gum disease.

Similarly, inflamed gums and loose teeth can both be warnings of heart disease – warnings that our dental professionals AP Smilecare can spot quickly, giving you timely medical advice to help give you the best chance of recovery.

Preventing Development Of Diabetes

Most of the points we just made above similarly apply for diabetes. Gum infections can weaken your body’s ability to control blood sugar, which can potentially aggravate diabetes. It’s worth noting that gum disease is the most common health condition for diabetics. It doesn’t necessarily mean that by having one you definitely have the other, but it definitely does help make the case for regular, bi-annual dentist appointments.

Our experts at AP Smilecare can identify these dental issues quickly, helping ease any pre-existing diabetes conditions, or even stop you from developing it in the first place.

Performing Head, Neck and Lymph Node Checks

As part of a standard dental checkup, our dental specialists will also perform an examination of your lymph nodes. They’re located throughout your body, but we’ll often check the ones just below your jawline (at the very least).

If you’re not familiar with your lymph nodes, they essentially contain lymph fluid. It’s a clear, watery substance that’s carried round your body much like blood is carried through your veins; it brings oxygen, nutrients and white blood cells to key points in your body while whisking away waste products like carbon dioxide. Lymph fluid building up in your body is usually a warning sign – at the very least it could mean an infection, or it could potentially mean something worse; even cancer. You’ll almost never notice a build-up of lymph fluid yourself, which is why having a regular checkup is all the more important!

Of course, if you’ve not been to your dentist for a while that doesn’t mean you have any reason to panic. Getting an appointment booked, though, is essential to your dental well-being, and it can be a great opportunity to get a general heads-up on your overall health too. If there are any developing issues, it can give you a head-start on dealing with them – and trust us, you’ll be thankful in the long run!

Give us a call today on 01254 297 000 to book an appointment, or just pop into our dental clinic in Blackburn to arrange one in person. We look forward to seeing you!

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter: @APSmilecare