Living With Diabetes and Keeping a Healthy Smile

When you are living with diabetes, you have a lot on your plate! There are so many numbers to keep track of and medications to take that it doesn’t take long to realize how consuming your diagnosis really is. Your oral health is not immune to your condition, either. November is Diabetes Awareness Month, so let’s take some time to think about how your smile is affected by diabetes and what you can do to keep a healthy mouth.

When we think of diabetes, we generally think of it affecting your diet, and maybe you’ve heard of people having extreme effects of low or high blood sugar, but the danger for your mouth comes in a different form. Diabetes lowers the patient’s ability to resist infections, which puts the patient at a higher risk for gum disease. It also means that a gum disease infection could progress much quicker than it would in someone else’s mouth.

Protecting Your Smile

Once you understand the risk, you realize that there are some things you can do to protect your smile. It begins with your hygiene at home. Flossing and brushing at least twice a day is very important, and you might consider adding an antiseptic mouth rinse to your regimen. We will monitor your health and see how you are doing. If you are still struggling to stay free of infection, we might recommend that you come in every 3-4 months instead of every 6. This gives us an opportunity to do a thorough cleaning more often, which will protect you from serious damage.

We realize that with so many other things to think about, your oral health probably isn’t at the top of your list, but don’t let it drop to the bottom of the list, either. Contact us today to set up an appointment. We would love to help you have a healthier, happier smile.