How Bad Oral Health Affects a Child?: Oral health is nothing but the dental health of the kids. The condition of oral health affects the physical, mental and emotional health of kids. Bad oral health includes tooth decay, gum diseases, teeth loss, teeth pain, and so on. Oral health affects the overall health of a person if it is too bad.
In this article, we are discussing the impact of bad oral health on the overall health of children, what is oral health and what are the risk factors of it.
What is Meant by Oral Health?
Oral health is the condition of the children’s teeth, gums, and the health of the muscles and bones in their mouth. A person’s oral health impact their health in multiple ways like tooth decay, gum diseases, and even tooth loss.
Risk Factors of Oral Health
A mixture of factors contributes to a kid’s oral health. They are personal, economic, social, cultural and environmental. Eating habits and hygiene plays an important role in having good oral health. Parents and educators have to teach children the importance of oral health and how to stay healthy. Follow the Student Nutrition Guide to avoid oral health issues. The most common oral health risk factors are along the lines:
- Consuming sweetened beverages such as soft drinks, sweet fruit juices, and energy drinks daily.
- Eating sugar-laden snacks like cakes, biscuits, sweet preserves, muesli bars and sweetened dairy.
- The cost of dental care
- Lacking oral hygiene and having regular dental check-ups.
- Waiting for public dental care sessions
- Untreated dental decay can cause infection and the spread of disease
- Alcohol usage
- Tobacco usage
How Bad Oral Health Affects a Child?
Oral health is maintaining healthy teeth, gums, and mouth. Bad oral health can lead to tooth decay, gum disease, digestive issues, low self-esteem, and issues with speech. All these are the Most Common Dental Problems in Children.
Tooth Decay
Bad oral health can result in tooth decay. It happens when plaque forms on the tooth’s surface. It converts the free sugars in the foods into acids. These acids destroy the tooth over a period of time. The small holes or cavities formed in the teeth can lead to tooth decay.
Cavities are mostly caused by poor diet, sugary foods and poor oral hygiene practices. Most children are not aware of their oral health which is prone to tooth decay. This disease causes pain, discomfort and affect your child’s health.
Students will have a hard time concentrating at school. In return, their overall performance at school will decline. They will even miss school because of dental appointments and pain. So, ensure your child has the best oral hygiene practices and eats a healthy diet to avoid tooth decay.
Gum Diseases
Bad oral health can also lead to gum diseases. The symptoms of gum disease are bleeding and swollen gums. Kids will face a hard time when chewing and cleaning their teeth. If this condition gets worse, you have to see the dentist immediately.
Digestive Problems
Bad oral health can make the students feel difficulty in chewing and swallowing. If your child has an orthodontic problem or painful dental problem, they face difficulty in eating. If you don’t chew food problems, then it affects the digestive system. As a result, they feel indigestion, belly discomfort, stomach pain, gastric issues and vomiting.
Issues with Speech
Bad oral health can lead to tooth pain and it can affect your speech. For instance, an overbite or underbite can affect how your child sounds certain sounds. As a result, your child can’t perform well in communication skills at school and at home. This also affects their academic performance and confidence. It is better to look for orthodontic treatment from a professional.
Low Self-Esteem
If your kid has an orthodontic issue, their self-esteem can get affected easily. If your kid has an underbite or overbite, then they can’t smile confidently. This can affect their overall performance at school since they won’t want to associate with other kids.
Other Health Issues From Bad Oral Health
Bad oral health can result in severe illnesses in your kids such as heart disease, respiratory diseases, and dementia.
Dementia
If your kid has several untreated oral health problems, they could lead to dementia. If they have gum diseases, they see a dentist as soon as possible. Otherwise, swollen gums tend to release a specific substance that might affect the brain. This substance can even destroy brain cells and leads to memory loss.
Heart Disease
When your child has bad oral health, they have a high chance of contracting heart disease. The excess amount of bacteria in the mouth can lead to the bloodstream. The same bacteria can travel to the arteries. Consequently, it forms plaque around the arteries and leads to severe heart diseases.
This increases the chance of getting a heart attack. So it is important to ensure that your child follows proper oral hygiene practices to prevent plaque build-up.
Respiratory Problems
Poor oral health affects kids’ respiratory health. If there is an excess amount of bacteria in the mouth, then it travels to other parts of the body. At times, bacteria can travel to other parts like the lungs and cause a build-up of plaque. As a result, your kid can get respiratory infections.
FAQs on Poor Orak Health of Kids
- What are the effects of poor oral health?
Poor oral health can affect dental problems like dental cavities, and gum diseases and has also been linked to cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
- Why do children have poor oral health?
Children have poor oral health because of a poor diet that is high in sugar and poor hygiene or brushing their teeth with fluoride toothpaste.
- What are bad oral habits in children?
The bad oral habits in children are sucking their fingers or thumb and it can cause their front teeth to protrude.
- What are three 3 health problems that can result from poor oral hygiene?
The common 3 health problems that can result from poor oral hygiene are cavities, oral cancer, and gum disease.
Summary
Maintaining good oral health helps to stay healthy. Oral health affects your child’s overall health. If you want to boost your child’s health, ensure that their oral health is in check. Try to feed a proper diet and follow hygiene to avoid bad oral health.
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