There has been a lot of discussion about gum disease and the way it affects overall health. When talk about gum disease, we usually talk about a bacterial infection which can infect gums. However, it’s much more than gums that you need to worry about when it comes to gum disease. While initial stages may not bother you much, this disease at advanced stage can wreak havoc not only on the oral but also overall health. The gum disease at initial stage is called gingivitis while the one at advanced stages is known as periodontitis. It may also be worth mentioning here that nearly 75% of all of the adults suffer from gum diseases at some degree.

The good news here is that gum disease is mostly preventable. Having that said, here are some of the ways you can prevent gum disease.

• When it comes to prevention, the first thing you will have to take into the account is brushing your teeth regularly. Brushing is an integral part of oral hygiene. But you have to make sure that you are brushing your teeth in the way you should do it. The minimum duration of brushing should be no less than 2 minutes. While brushing your teeth, make sure you are cleaning most of the surfaces in your oral cavity.
• Apart from brushing, you should also floss regularly. Flossing is an amazing activity. It allows you to clean interdental spaces of your mouth in pretty effective way. The main purpose of flossing is to clean the areas of teeth that are not accessible by toothbrush.
• You should keep a high quality mouth rinse with you the entire time. You may need it at different instances during a day. For instance, when you eat or drink anything which may result in bad taste or bad breath, you can immediately use a mouth rinse to get rid of the debris which can allow bacteria to flourish in your mouth.
• Make sure that you are spending your life while sticking with the healthy habits. You should avoid foods which can be harmful for your oral and overall health. And you should not use tobacco in order to keep you oral cavity and lungs healthy. Furthermore, you have to make sure that you are avoiding sugar intake at any cost.

Along with the healthy habits which you need to stick with, you also have to make sure that you visit your dentist on regular basis. At dentist’s office, you can get yourself checked thoroughly for any dental or oral infection which can arise and make your life difficult.

Connection between Gum Disease and Birth Defects

Let’s first discuss what gum disease is. Gum disease is basically an infection which can result in a number of oral and overall health problems. Good news is that you can prevent and get rid of this issue while it is in the initial stages. Elaborating the definition, we all have a self-defense system which causes the tissues to inflame when they are attacked by bacteria. When there is a bacterial buildup around the gums, they get inflamed in order to kill those bacteria. This inflammation is also known as gingivitis.

If gingivitis is left untreated, it can turn into periodontitis which is an advanced form of gum disease. This advanced condition can cause real harm to the jawbone as infection enters into the root area through the gum line. It can turn out to be pretty bad for your oral health. More specifically, this condition can be very harmful for the pregnant women because gum disease has been found to have great links with pre-term births and lower birth weight of the babies.

Gum disease during pregnancy

Some facts are worth mentioning here.

• About 75% of women get gum disease and 50% of them see the condition getting worsened during pregnancy.
• It is pretty common for the pregnant women to have diabetes and hormonal changes. Both of these conditions can result in gum disease.
• Other studies suggest that bad socioeconomic conditions and higher maternal age are linked to gum diseases in the pregnant women.
• Although the real reason for it is not known, gum disease in the pregnant women can lead to preterm birth and lower birth weight.

Why is this problem worth paying attention to?

Studies show that babies having birth weight less than 5.5 pounds are exposed to the risk of slower development from physical, emotional and social viewpoint. The babies, who are born too early, are also exposed to the same set of risks. They can have problems with vision, hearing, breathing and digestion for the rest of their lives. There are some additional problems linked with the preterm birth. You can know about these problems by having a discussion with your doctor.

Preventing gum disease

With gum disease having huge link with the birth defects, it is pretty important to make sure that you do everything to prevent this condition. For this purpose, you have to make sure that you are paying good attention to preventive dental care. Since you are going to have extra liking for sweet and sour foods during pregnancy, you will have to pay attention to proper cleanliness of your teeth and gums.

Furthermore, you will need to visit your dentist regularly to get your oral cavity checked. During these dental visits, the dentist is going to tell you about everything you can do to maintain the best of your oral and dental health.