Influence of lifestyle on dental health behaviour
BY READERS DIGEST
15th Nov 2021 Wellbeing
Lifestyle does have a strong influence on dental health behaviour. Often, people develop habits that are not good enough for their dental health and might put their teeth at risk of getting damaged or prone to diseases because of their lifestyles.
Perhaps, you are now wondering how this is possible. Well, you don’t have to think much about it as we will teach you everything to know about the connection between a person's lifestyle and their dental behaviour in this article. To understand this fact, we will look at what lifestyle and dental health mean.
Dental Health refers to the state of being mentally sound and well. Dental health behaviour refers to the effect of traits composed of oral health hygiene, nutritional preferences, and the pattern of utilizing dental services on dental health. Lifestyle is the style of living that reflects attributes, attitudes, and values.
With the definitions stated above, we can say that dental health behaviour refers to different lifestyles on dental health. This article will further highlight the influence of lifestyle on dental health behaviour by discussing various lifestyles and dental health behaviours regarding how they influence dental health habits, either in a good or bad way.
Dental health behaviours
These are the two major dental health behaviours, including:
- Oral hygiene: Commack dentist Dr. Perrino, a specialist dentist with years of experience, describes oral hygiene as practices and conditions that promote good oral health. It involves activities taken to help protect and preserve the mouth from diseases. The activities practiced to preserve oral health include visiting the dentist,brushing the teeth twice daily and flossing after meals.
- Nutritional preferences: This refers to preferred foods that are rich in specific nutrients. These nutrients are beneficial to oral health. Similarly, foods contain specific nutrients that are harmful to oral health. Abstaining from foods with beneficial nutrients to oral health results in oral diseases.
- Use of dental services: Specific dental services and products are designed to help promote good dental health behaviour. Adopting a pattern of using authorized and trusted dental services and products is an excellent dental health behaviour.
Lifestyles that influence dental health behaviour
The lifestyles that influence dental health behaviour are classified into two: These lifestyles are:
Lifestyles that influence dental health behaviour negatively: These are attributes, attitudes, and values that are harmful to oral health.
- These lifestyles are eating unhealthy meals like meals with high sugar content. These meals result in oral diseases like tooth decay, cavities, and more.
- Regular intake of drugs and alcohol can also result in dental diseases.
- Also, teeth clenching and grinding causes the teeth to lose shape and form, just as engaging in sports without using protective gears to protect the mouth can cause damage.
Lifestyles that influence dental health behaviour positively: These are attributes and values that preserve oral health. They are:
- Regular visits to the dentist for oral advice and adherence to the dentist’s advice. Abstaining from substances that are harmful to your oral health.
- Paying attention to eating healthy meals with nutrients that help oral health.
- Abstain from teeth clenching and grinding. If possible, go for bruxism treatments and therapies to help overcome this habit.
- Endeavour to use protective gears that protect your mouth when engaging in sports activities. Protective gears like helmets and mouth guards are suitable gears to protect the mouth.
Diseases that are born from bad dental health behaviour
These are the diseases resulting from practicing poor dental health behaviours:
- Dental caries/ tooth decay: Excess sugar present in the mouth forms plaques. These plaques form on the tooth and weaken it, eventually leading to tooth decay. This is a result of poor nutrition habits.
- Periodontal disease: This affects the gum, characterized by bleeding, odor, and for more severe cases, teeth falling out. It results from poor oral hygiene.
- Oral cancer: This disease causes irregular growth in different mouthparts ranging from the lips to the oropharynx.
- Oro-dental trauma: This is characterized by injuries in the mouth and the presence of cavities. It results in mouth odor.
- Cleft lip and palate: This results from regular tobacco, alcohol, drugs, and other harmful substances.
Conclusion
Lifestyle can be considered as one of the significant factors that affect oral health behaviour. This article has provided an all-inclusive guide on maintaining a healthy lifestyle by practicing good oral health behaviours.
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