Dental Health: Oral Care Tips Diabetics Should Follow During The Covid-19 Pandemic

Diabetes is a chronic condition which requires constant management of healthy blood sugar levels. If left uncontrolled diabetes can affect different organs of the body. You will be surprised to know that diabetes is linked with your oral health in different ways. People with diabetes need to be extra careful to keep their oral cavity disease-free. Diabetes and oral health have a two-sided relationship. In diabetics, one of the first signs can be seen in the oral cavity as multiple oral infections in the gums and the teeth. Some early indicators are gum bleeding, swelling, recession, or bad breath. All these develop as a result of unhealthy gum status.

Elevated insulin levels interfere with the immune system of a person, further increasing the chances of periodontitis (a severe gum infection) causing the infective bacterial load to travel into the bloodstream.

Oral care tips for diabetics

Any infection in the body can elevate blood sugars. The presence of infective bacteria often interferes with the sugar breakdown and the efficiency of insulin in the body. Unfortunately, gum infection is one of the most common infections in the body and seen in more than 95% of the Indian population. These infective bacteria accumulated in gums are known to raise blood sugar levels. It is said that maintaining optimum gum health reduces the insulin requirements in an affected individual and improves their overall health.

As diabetes in itself reduces a person's immunity, the infective bacteria that multiply in our oral cavity augments the impaired blood sugar levels in the body.

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Diabetic patients must get thorough scaling and gum curettage at least twice a year to maintain optimum oral health. However, during Covid-19, extra care is required for keeping diabetics from falling in a pit of additional diseases.

• Therefore, deep teeth and gum cleaning should be combined with simple home care regimens that can ensure better immunity.
• Proper brushing twice a day, gum massaging, flossing, and tongue cleaning every day improves the insulin levels and helps us in keeping hale and hearty.
• Regular mouth rinses after meals are a must in a diabetic's everyday routine for minimum acid formation in our mouth and achieving wholesome health.

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Keeping the current scenario in mind, not just diabetics but everyone should keep oral hygiene is of prime importance. The mouth harbours millions of beneficial and infective bacteria at once. Considering the rise on infection, it is vital to maintain good oral hygiene practices like brushing twice a day, tongue cleaning, regular mouth rinses, etc. Not many people are aware but it is absolutely important to keep the toothbrush away from other toothbrushes of non-infected people and immediately change it post the disease.

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Ideally, the toothbrushes of all family members must be kept in separate rooms or bathrooms. This helps in making sure that the infection does not travel to other toothbrushes. Furthermore, we should keep this in mind not just in regards to Covid-19 but also in case of any flu or common cold attack. Changing a toothbrush is a must to avoid re-infection.

(Dr. Mohendar Narula, Founder, MyDentalPlan)

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