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If your diabetes is not under control, you are more likely to develop problems in your mouth. The good news is you can keep your teeth and gums healthy. By controlling your blood glucose, brushing and flossing every day, and visiting a dentist regularly, you can help prevent serious problems in your mouth.
The Symptoms of Untreated Diabetes
The warning signs of diabetes affect every part of your body. After a blood test, you may be told by a doctor that you have high blood sugar. You may feel excessively thirsty or have to urinate a lot. Weight loss and fatigue are other common symptoms. Diabetes can also cause you to lose consciousness if your blood sugar falls too low.
If diabetes is left untreated, it can take a toll on your mouth as well. Here's how:
- You may have less saliva, causing your mouth to feel dry. (Dry mouth is also caused by certain medications.)
- Because saliva protects your teeth, you’re also at a higher risk of cavities.
- Gums may become inflamed and bleed often (gingivitis).
- You may have problems tasting food.
- You may experience delayed wound healing.
- You may be susceptible to infections inside of your mouth.
- For children with diabetes, teeth may erupt at an age earlier than is typical.
Diabetes is a chronic, systemic disease and affects all parts of the body. While its effect on the nerves, eyes, kidneys, and skin is more common, their oral effects are less known. However, diabetes will vouch how they lost tooth and have dry mouth after their sugars went out of control.
- Oral Symptoms in Diabetics: There is a strong correlation between oral health and poorly controlled blood sugars. Some of the common oral indications of diabetes are as follows.
- Dry Mouth: There is less amount of saliva, which brings with it a whole lot of symptoms including soreness of the mucosa, ulcers, increased chances of infection, gum inflammation and tooth decay.
- Thrush: The saliva has higher sugar levels and attracts fungus (Candida in particular) which thrives in this dry, sugary environment. This produces a burning sensation in the mouth.
- Periodontal Disease: The gums get severely infected with gingival recession, where the gum line recedes exposing more of the tooth (tooth length seems to have increased). There is “pocket” formation, or space between the tooth and the gum which hosts a variety of bacteria. The periodontal ligament loses its strength to hold the tooth in place, and thereby teeth become mobile. If not worked upon in time, there could be multiple teeth lost.
Why People with Diabetes Are More Prone to Gum Disease
All people have more tiny bacteria living in their mouth now than there are people on this planet. If they make their home in your gums, you can end up with periodontal disease. This chronic, inflammatory disease can destroy your gums, all the tissues holding your teeth and even your bones.
Periodontal disease is the most common dental disease affecting those living with diabetes, affecting nearly 22% of those diagnosed. Especially with increasing age, poor blood sugar control increases the risk for gum problems. In fact, people with diabetes are at a higher risk for gum problems because of poor blood sugar control. As with all infections, serious gum disease may cause blood sugar to rise. This makes diabetes harder to control because you are more susceptible to infections and are less able to fight the bacteria invading the gums.
As much as it sounds alarming, it is not. There are easy, simple ways to manage these. In fact, good overall management of diabetes will ensure the oral symptoms are also maintained under control. Following are some things to do which will help in managing diabetes in general and the oral symptoms in particular:
As soon as diabetes is diagnosed, visit a dentist to take stock of the oral health condition. Any identified problem should be treated to avoid progression.
- Keep a close watch to ensure blood sugar remains as close to normal as possible.
- Switch to a toothbrush with soft or extra-soft bristles. This will help reduce the pressure on the gums and thereby prevent gum bleeding
- After every meal, remember to brush the teeth.
- Flossing at least once a day will help remove food deposits between the teeth. Alternately, use interdental brushes.
- Rinse at least twice daily using an antiseptic mouthwash.
- Denture-wearers should always clean them daily and never go to sleep with the denture in the mouth.
- Smoking with diabetics is a strict no-no, work on quitting at the earliest.
- Visit a dentist every 3 months to ensure oral issues are identified at the earliest and treatment done with minimal intervention.
- Any dental procedure should be done only when sugar levels are under control.
Managing diabetes is a lifelong commitment, and that includes proper dental care. Your efforts will be rewarded with a lifetime of healthy teeth and gums. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Dentist.
We know that diabetes can harm your eyes, nerves, kidneys, heart and other important systems in your body. But did you know it can also cause dental and gum problems in your mouth?
The link between diabetes and oral problems is real, though lesser known. Diabetics are at a higher risk for periodontal or gum disease which is an infection of the gum and bone that hold your teeth in place.
Untreated periodontal disease can lead to pain on chewing and even tooth loss, if it’s left untreated. Gum disease can also more severe and take longer to heal if you are a diabetic.
Research also shows that alternatively, periodontal disease may also make it hard for you to control your blood glucose.
If your diabetes is not under control, you are more likely to develop problems in your mouth like-
- Dry mouth, a condition that happens when you do not have enough saliva—the fluid that keeps your mouth wet. It is a common symptom of undetected diabetes and can also cause mouth soreness, ulcers, infections, and tooth decay.
- Another problem diabetes can cause is a fungal infection called thrush or candidiasis because diabetes usually causes the glucose levels in your saliva to increase. And this encourages the fungus causing thrush to grow in your mouth, leading to painful white patches.
- When diabetes is not controlled, high glucose levels in your saliva also help harmful bacteria grow in your mouth. These bacteria combine with food particles to form a soft, sticky film called plaque which causes tooth decay. Plaque also comes from eating sugary and starchy foods.
- And some types of plaque cause tooth decay or cavities and other types of plaque cause gum disease and bad breath.
- Diabetics have a higher incidence of Gingivitis which causes unhealthy, red, inflamed gums. You need regular flossing as well as cleaning at the dentists to prevent it.
What can you do?
- You must keep your blood glucose under control to prevent mouth problems. Diabetics with poor blood glucose control get gum disease more often and more severely than diabetics whose blood sugar is under control.
- If you have diabetes, you should brush and floss every day and follow this up with regular dental check-ups.
- Call your dentist when you notice a problem in your mouth. Keep observing and checking your mouth regularly for any problems. Don’t ignore minor stuff like gum bleeding during brushing and flossing. And also notice dryness, soreness, white patches, or a bad taste in the mouth. All of these are big enough reasons to visit your dentist.
- Tell your dentist if your dentures suddenly don’t fit right or if your gums are sore.
Also, take care to quit smoking. Smoking makes gum disease worse and causes dry mouth which aggravates oral problems.
Needless to add, good blood glucose control is your best defence against the oral complications of diabetes like gum disease. If you wish to discuss any specific problem, you can consult a dentist.