Healthy mouth = healthy body

            What do you think makes you a healthy person? The food you eat? Your “daily” exercising you say you do? Your health is determined by many different aspects of your lifestyle but there is one many people don’t think about.

            The health of your mouth is one of the most important! If people don’t take care of their mouth it can lead to many different health issues that most don’t think would be associated with their oral health.

            What diseases are caused by a lack of oral care? There are many but I can’t talk about them all. The one I want to focus on is periodontal disease and diabetes. We all have bacteria on our teeth but when we don’t brush and floss regularly our body thinks there is an infection and the immune system takes action. There is a simple way to know if this is happening to you. If your gums are inflamed and very red then you need to pay extra attention to them by brushing and flossing. In many cases you will notice that the brushing and flossing hurts and that your gums are now bleeding. Many take this as a sign to stop, but the opposite is true. Over time your gums will go down and return to the color of pink if you keep brushing and flossing. However, if you don’t take the necessary actions the bacteria will start to eat away at your gums and the bone structure that keep your teeth in your mouth will weaken resulting in your teeth falling out. How does this connect to diabetes?

                              

            People have diabetes because there body has difficulties with breaking down sugar because they don’t have enough insulin. People who have diabetes get more infections. This is when getting periodontal disease occurs rapidly.

            To help your body out and to make your life simpler wouldn’t you want to eliminate the easier thing you can control? It is easy to try to control periodontal disease. The first step is to brush three times a day and to floss twice a day as well as see your dental hygienist every four months instead of six. These little things will go a long way in improving your health and keeping those teeth that make your smile amazing.

            Have a healthy mouth makes you have a healthier body. You can’t over look the little things in life, especially your smile.

The Cleaner the Better

The most important thing about the dentist office is keeping the environment clean. It takes about 10 minutes to set up for each patient that comes in. When a patient is in the waiting room they may see their hygienist walking out a patient and think that they are probably next and will be called to go back within 2 minutes but the reality is it will probably more like 10 maybe even 15. The hygienist and dental assistants have to go through a legal process created by OSHA. It is important that these rules are followed they are not only to protect the patients but also to insure the hygienist or dental assistant keep their job.

The hygienist and dental assistant are mature individuals who know that they wouldn’t want to be exposed to the germs of another patient so they clean more than they actually have too. They change everything in the room they can and if they can’t replace it they wipe it down with a Clorox wipe. Keeping their patients healthy is their number one priority. Just remember that when walking into a dentist office it gets cleaned every single day whereas your house gets cleaned every few days or so.

           

            How could cleaning a room the size of a prison cell take 10 minutes? The hygienist and dental assistants are not only in charge of their room but also the instruments used on the previous patient. They have to go into what is called (at the dentist office I interned at) the sterilization room. There they have to wash/sterilize all the instruments. Imagine your kitchen, you’re putting the dirty dishes in the dishwasher and eventually those dishes are going to be clean so you will have to empty it. This is exactly what happens at the dentist office, but sometimes the person who put the instrument in the sterilizing machine isn’t there to empty it and to make life easier on everyone in the office, other hygienist and dental assistants empty it so they can put their instruments in and so on. The dentist office is a lot like keeping your kitchen clean at home.

            In addition, hygienist and dental assistant cannot just leave a patient to go to the restroom or answer a call or text from their family member. After they have cleaned their rooms and taken care of all the instruments they might need a few minutes to take care of personal issues. The 10 to 15 minutes that a patient is waiting to be called in after they have noticed their hygienist or dental assistant walking out the last patient seem like forever but to the hygienist and dental assistant it seemed as if only 5 minutes has past.

Pet Peeve as a Patient

Many people fear the dentist office and as a patient I understand because I have also had some not so great experiences. However, after spending time at a dentist office, as an intern, I can see how the hygienist, dental assistant, and even the doctor could over look the simple things.

            I am one of those people that if someone talks about lice I start to itch my head because all of a sudden my body thinks I have lice. The same happens when I’m told I cannot swallow. Normally, I never have the need to swallow my spit every 2 seconds until my mouth is pried open and I cannot. Sometimes I feel as if the dentist doesn’t even know that the stupid saliva ejector (or suction) isn’t the same as actually swallow my own spit. If you put the saliva ejector thing in my mouth I’m still going to feel the need to swallow and that is all I will think about and secretly hate you for not letting me do so.

            As an intern at the dentist office I started to understand why the hygienist, dental assistants, and doctors don’t always let their patients swallow. It is a simple as the “operation” they are undertaking requires their mouth to be as dry as possible. By the dental assistant putting the salvia ejector in the individual’s mouth they are trying their best to make them feel comfortable and not have the patient hate them, but at the end of the day it comes down to getting the job done.

            If the patient is constantly swallowing they have to restart which can be frustrating because they have multiple patients to attend to. They cannot spend all their time on one patient. With that being said, each and every patient means a great deal to the dentist and they want to spend the appropriate amount of time required for the job but they cannot hurt the bottom line.

            Have you ever tried to get a task done but an individual will not cooperate so you start to get upset? That is exactly how the employees at a dentist office feel, so if they start to get a tad bit short with the “open your mouth wider” or “please turn this way” they are still human. However, if anyone at the dentist office is being overly rude, everyone knows when someone has crossed the line, then it is your job, not anyone else, to confront the problem.

            

Why a Smile

I was in seventh grade in a new unfamiliar school and I noticed that everyone had braces but me.  Not only was I the new girl but I also looked like I was six, whereas all the other girls in my grade had already gone through puberty and had nice beauty smile. Sadly, I knew that I was going to be far behind them from looking at my older sister and the stories I heard from my mother. I found myself not only behind in looks, but also with my smile. From there I started to look at everyone mouth and examine it and compare it to mine and so the first orthodontist appointment happen.  I was so excited and I just wanted a smile I would proud of and want to show off.

From that point in my life I realized how much a smile means. It is the first thing most people notice, a smile tells a great deal about a person, whether you are a clean person, whether you care about your health, or how well you take care yourself. To me a smile tells me what kind of person you are. What is more important? Designer clothes or a straight, clean, healthy smile?

                             

There are so many people that say they cannot afford braces or to go twice a year to see a hygienist or get a crown to make their smile look nice. The dentist office is expensive, but to me it’s worth it. Take going to a job interview, if you have a gorgeous smile to show off that says, “I have great personal hygiene and I care about the health of not only my mouth but my body”, I feel that individual has more of an opportunity to get the job. How well they keep up their smile shows how well they will care about other tasks, such as a job, in their life.

I want to make it a point in my career to give to others. I want to make going to the dentist affordable. I want to make sure everyone has a clean mouth and a great smile. Those two things will make others look at an individual differently. A smile is not just used to boost self-confidence but also to brighten another person’s day, with a smile and a laugh.

                                                                                                          All it takes is a Smile!