Guest blog by Ainsley Lawrence, a freelance writer from the Pacific Northwest.
As you begin trying to conceive, the first thing you’ll hear is that being healthy is essential. It’s well-known that taking care of your health before conception helps increase your chances of a healthy pregnancy and baby.
Many things impact your health, but one often overlooked element is dental care. Your dental wellness is intimately connected to your overall health. Gum disease has been linked to a variety of health issues, and the bacteria in your mouth can multiply and cause infections.
Understanding the connection between oral health and fertility is the first step. The next thing you’ll need to do is implement dental wellness habits that will help you not only have a healthy pregnancy, but a healthy life long-term.
How Oral Health Impacts Your Health
The health of your teeth and gums has a direct impact on your overall health. Your mouth is used in a variety of daily activities, from talking to eating to smiling. If your teeth and gums aren’t healthy, you may end up struggling with bad breath, tooth pain, and swollen gums.
Also, your mouth is full of bacteria and is directly connected to your digestive system and breathing. Also, if you have gum disease, bacteria can enter your bloodstream directly through infected gums.
As a result, poor oral health is linked to a variety of health conditions:
- Infections of the lining of your heart from blood-borne bacteria
- Cardiovascular disease
- Pneumonia
- Premature birth and low birth weight
Not only do these diseases risk your overall well-being, but they can prevent you from becoming pregnant in the first place.
Your Gestational Health
More specifically, your dental health can have direct impacts on you and your partners’ fertility. One 2018 study found a positive correlation between men with poor dental health and male factor infertility (MFI). This concern can also be applied across gender lines. A more recent 2022 study found that there was a connection between periodontitis and how long it took to conceive.
Even if you do conceive, you risk obtaining the following conditions during pregnancy if you don’t maintain your oral health:
- Gestational diabetes;
- Preeclampsia;
- Preterm labor.
Moreover, your baby could also be affected by your dental health, as your baby could be born with a low birth weight.
As a woman looking to get pregnant, you want to avoid these major health concerns. Taking care of your dental health is essential. Poor dental health can also impact your partner’s fertility, so excellent oral health is important for everyone in the family.
How Your Pregnancy Impacts Your Dental Health
Just as your dental health impacts your pregnancy, the same logic applies vice versa. Due to changes in your hormone levels, your bone density — which includes your teeth — and your gum sensitivity may change. Due to these changes, you may feel less inclined to brush and floss your teeth.
In addition, your diet changes during pregnancy, which may lead to cravings for food that may harm your teeth such as sugar or more acidic foods.
Because of these changes, it’s imperative to make dental health care a habitual routine that you stick to even during the most tumultuous aspects of your pregnancy.
Preventing Common Oral Health Problems
How can you and your partner take proper care of your teeth and gums to help improve your health before and during your fertility journey? There are several steps you can take.
Regular Dental Cleanings
Over time, bacteria in your mouth turns into plaque, also called biofilm, which can’t be removed with regular brushing and flossing. That’s why it’s important to get regular dental checkups and cleanings where plaque can be removed.
Advanced techniques of removing biofilm on your teeth use mechanical engineering based on the material properties of this plaque. Whether your dentist manually removes plaque or uses more advanced technologies, it’s important to get this biofilm removed before it becomes a significant foundation for harmful bacteria.
At the dentist, they may ask about taking dental X-rays. Don’t worry — normal X-rays are safe both before and during pregnancy. If you’re concerned, however, you can wait and do them after the pregnancy.
Healthy Eating
Eating healthfully impacts every area of your health, including oral health. Growing up, you may have been told that sugar “rots your teeth,” but the truth is much more complex.
Eating foods with calcium and phosphorus helps strengthen your bones, and it also protects and strengthens tooth enamel. Fruits and vegetables have fiber and water that balance sugar and help keep teeth clean. Of course, drinking water is excellent for your health, including your dental health.
What you eat also impacts acid reflux, or GERD, which can cause harmful acid to come back up into your esophagus and your mouth, damaging your teeth, gums, and digestive system. Avoiding acid reflux can be as simple as reducing or avoiding GERD-causing foods, such as dairy, alcohol, caffeine, spicy foods, chocolate, and high-fat or fried foods.
Brush and Floss Daily
Keeping your teeth and gums healthy day-to-day involves careful brushing and flossing. Consider using an electronic toothbrush for the most effective brushing, and replace it every three months.
Proper brushing and flossing help reduce the formation of plaque on your teeth and also keep the bacteria in your mouth at safer levels. In addition to brushing your teeth, consider using antibacterial mouthwash to keep your mouth in top shape.
Stop Smoking
Smoking is terrible for your health and can cause problems with your pregnancy. It increases the chances of abnormal bleeding and birth defects, including cleft lip or palate. Second-hand smoke is also harmful, so your partner should stop smoking as well.
Smoking is also bad for your dental health, discoloring your teeth and making your breath smell. Smoking also increases the formation of plaque on your teeth and raises your chances of mouth cancer, losing teeth, tooth decay, and more.
Without a doubt, stopping smoking is one of the most important lifestyle modifications you can make to boost fertility and health.
Taking Care of Dental Health Improves Pregnancy
All aspects of your health impact your fertility journey, pregnancy, and delivery of a healthy baby. While you may know to watch what you eat, your blood pressure, and other aspects of your health, it’s easy to overlook dental health.
When you keep regular dental appointments, brush and floss daily, and eat healthfully, you’ll be doing more than preventing cavities. You’ll be helping your body prepare for a healthy, happy pregnancy.
Ainsley Lawrence is a freelance writer from the Pacific Northwest. She is interested in better living through technology and education. She loves traveling to beautiful places and is frequently lost in a good book.
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