 Hello, what's up everybody? Welcome to another episode of Sugar MD. Today, we are going to talk about something that is preventing you, controlling you from diabetes and it is hidden inside of your mouth. Yes, we're talking about the dental hygiene and how it affects diabetes and how diabetes affects the dental hygiene. Stay tuned. Let's get started. Hey guys, we appreciate you. Please make sure you subscribe to the channel. We have wonderful three videos every week. Let's get back to the topic. So guys, we are going to talk about how diabetes affect or cause gum disease and how gum disease worsens diabetes control. What happens when you have diabetes and what happens if you don't treat it? And we are going to talk about how to prevent this from happening. So let's get started with how can diabetes affect your mouth? Well, number one, your saliva contains glucose. When your blood sugars are high, your saliva even becomes sweet. So when there is sugar in an environment, you can guess the bacteria will thrive. Of course, in your mouth, no matter how many times you brush, if there is a lot of sugar in your saliva, that is a breeding ground for bacteria. So what happens to everybody is a plaque formation. So plaque forms, that's why we brush our teeth to eliminate the plaque because if you don't get rid of the plaque, what happens? Tartar. Tartar happens. Now tartar is more solid. It's hard to remove layer on your teeth. Now the bacteria hides behind it. Now, of course, if you don't treat that, then it becomes periodontitis. Well, I'm not a periodontist, so I may not be able to say this, right? But that's what happens. So it progresses. So when there's a lot of plaque and tartar and when you have the bacteria, your body starts to fight against that bacteria, then what we call is, is gingivitis. You have gingivitis. A lot of people have gingivitis. Most people don't even notice. Now how do you notice you have gingivitis? Well, you may be able to tell if you look at a healthy teeth, like here, and then you can look at a mouth with a gingivitis, like here. You can see the difference, right? So there is generally a gumline recession when you have gingivitis. If you are having bleeding when you're flossing or brushing your teeth, it's the greatest sign of gingivitis. So make sure you do not wait to see your dentist and take care of it. So gingivitis is really the driving factor for blood sugar to go even higher, because when there is infection in your mouth and anywhere in your body, like when you have your intracranfaction, when you have pneumonia, when you have a wound infection, etc., most of you know that your blood sugar will spike because your body is in a fighting mode and there's a lot of cortisol. The stress hormones are kicking in and anytime there is a stressful situation like this, your blood sugar will go up. Now this is a catch-22 situation because you're sick and that causes diabetes to worsen, but the diabetes to high blood sugar also make the disease worse. It becomes difficult to heal. And if you don't do anything about it, it's going to progress the periodontitis and that is even harder to treat. Sometimes it requires oral surgery. Now if depending on the degree of gingivitis, your dentist may ask you to do a deep cleaning. Deep cleanings may require multiple visits and believe it or not, these things are not free of pain. Even if they give you painkillers and all the injections, etc., your mouth will be sore for a while. You may not be even able to eat regular food for a while and that's for deep cleaning. And if it turns to periodontitis, then you are in a bigger problem. Some people even require oral surgery. Now who wants to get into that mess, right? So number one, what you have to do is make sure you visit your dentist every six months. Believe me, it's a very small investment. If you do not invest in your dentist's cleanings, get a cheap insurance whatever just to cover your cleanings, your x-rays, etc. Preventive dentistry is the most important thing for you to prevent, especially with diabetes. Same thing. We always emphasize prevention, prevention, prevention. See your eye doctor regularly. Check your feet yourself regularly. Don't expect things to magically appear. Don't expect everything from your doctors. You have to be responsible to schedule your eye doctor. You have to be responsible to schedule your dentist. You have to show up to your appointments. So if you don't do that, then you are looking for a gingivitis that is severe enough to require deep cleaning and that can cost you a lot, a lot more money. And you may actually start losing teeth because if you don't have a gum line, your tooth will become loose and then you're going to start losing teeth. Then think about the cost then. Well, for people who are watching outside the United States may not understand what I say by cost, but here the dental work can cause thousands of dollars. Just put a crown or something on your teeth on one tooth replacement with a crown can cost a thousand or fifteen hundred dollars just for one teeth. On the other hand, cleaning may cost you $80 or $100. Plus, forget the cost associated with it. Who wants to lose teeth? I mean, it looks horrible. I mean, really, when people talk to you, they look at your eye and they look at your mouth. They do. And you don't want to look like somebody with missing tooth or tooth hanging. It's just another good impression for anybody. And also, not only that, you may also have something called halitosis. Halitosis is bad breath. If you have bad breath, nobody will even want to talk to you. Nobody will want to be around you. So diabetes is the ultimate driver for gingivitis. And gingivitis is one of the biggest factor for high blood sugar. So make sure, guys, make sure you have your cleanings, regular cleanings done. Now, what else? Of course, when you eat sweet stuff, you are making something already sweet is sweeter. And of course, your bacteria thrives on that too. Like every time you eat something sweet. So if you end up eating something sweet, not that we recommend, but you know, at least gurgling your mouth, swish and swallow, swish or spit, whatever you want to do, or even brush your teeth, make sure that your teeth is clean, free of starches, glucose in your mouth, because these are primary factors for decay and gingivitis. So a couple more things about the prevention. So of course, we talked about brushing your teeth, but flossing is extremely important. Flossing is not just removing the content leftovers between your teeth, but also massaging your gum line is very important to keep your gums healthy. And if you're smoking, please, please, please stop smoking. Smoking is another horrible factor. Not only causes gingivitis, but it causes oral ulcers, pharyngeal, laryngeal cancers. You need to definitely stop smoking if you are doing that. If you have a dry mouth, definitely drink plenty of water, especially with uncontrolled diabetes. Your blood sugars will drive dehydration. And when you are dehydrated, your mouth will be dry. And when your mouth is dry, definitely that will not be a good environment because saliva also has antibacterial features that will prevent decay as well. So what is also interesting that a lot of people don't know about, when you have gingivitis, your risk of heart attack and stroke dramatically goes up. So you know the risk factors in diabetes that can cause heart attacks and strokes, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high blood sugars, etc. We always talk about. But this is something that we don't hear much about. And it's extremely important as one of the risk factors for cardiovascular disease. So guys, I'll hope that helps. And if it does, please give a thumbs up, share this video, and we'll see you in the next one. All right. Thank you for watching. And I want you to be more informed and more educated. So to do that, go ahead and watch this next video right here.