“Every tooth in a man’s head is more valuable than a diamond” ~Miguel de Cervantes
The first thing you probably notice about somebody who you meet for the first time is their smile. A beautiful smile emanates a certain aura and makes the overall persona more appreciable. You may have a ‘six pack’ or bulging biceps with broad shoulders or even a great figure, but it is all diminished if u don’t have a great set of teeth. Many would disagree but just give it a thought and you’ll know what I mean. A good smile does not necessarily mean a set of flashy white teeth, but also healthy gums surrounding it.
It’s been about eight years since I’ve started practicing and i have treated patients from every strata of the society. The common thing that I found out from my past years of experience is the amount of neglect shown towards the teeth and lack of knowledge about the same. Teeth are probably the most ignored part of the human body and I feel it should not be the case. Just like your other organs, even your teeth need care.
Teeth are inter connected to different parts of the body through blood vessels. If anything is wrong with your teeth or the surrounding tissues, it can reflect on your other organs too. Hence it is necessary to take care of them. In January 2010, the first ever case of foetal death was documented where the cause was found to be gum disease in the mother. The problem is that no one takes issues relating the teeth very seriously. Everyone consults a dentist only when it is intolerable. Rather than running to the dentist when it is fully blown, if one just maintains and takes care of them, no one would have to suffer.
An unhealthy mouth can lead to a lot of different problems. When the gums in your mouth are not taken care of, they can get inflamed and this can lead to diabetes, arthritis, stroke and sometimes even heart disease. A healthy mouth does not only constitute your teeth, but even your gums and tongue. One has to prevent plaque and tartar build up too to have a healthy mouth.
One may ask, in what way can you take care of your teeth?
First and foremost, everyone should make it a habit to brush twice in a day, once in the morning and once before going to bed. In my opinion, brushing before going to bed is more important than in the morning. During the day, you talk, you swallow saliva, drink water, rinse your mouth etc, and hence the action of the harmful bacteria is controlled in one way or the other. But once you sleep at night,
the mouth is completely stagnant and devoid of any movement of saliva or any other means of cleansing. This provides an ideal environment for the bacteria to do certain amount of damage if the teeth are not cleaned before sleeping as there are food particles stuck to it. More than half of your dental problems are solved if your start following this.
Secondly, everyone should make it a habit to get a 
regular dental check up done irrespective of the fact whether you have any problems or not, preferably twice in a year. Doing this would be beneficial as it would help the dentist to identify any problem in an early stage and render the required treatment rather wait for it to progress and cause pain or subsequent deterioration of oral health. If you haven’t visited a dentist in a long time, I think it’s time you do. “Prevention is better than cure”, so please start taking care of your teeth like you take care of other parts of the body.
Fusion Medicare 