Oral health is the most neglected area of a human body. 90% of the population suffers from oral diseases which can easily be prevented. To raise awareness of oral health in general population, world dental organization has started oral health awareness campaigns in the year 2013 on 20th march, since that year, every march 20 is celebrated as world oral health day. More than 100 countries participate in this day from all over the world. Every year a theme is decided around which oral health awareness campaigns are designed. Here is the themes that were decided since 2013, on which a few awareness points are mentioned.

2013 – Healthy teeth, healthy life. Elaborating on the theme, teeth don’t only affect your oral structure but also inner health. Healthy teeth helps you in eating all kinds of food, providing you nutritional value, when you lose, the kind of food you eat gets limited affecting your overall health. Mouth is the first step of digestion, when you chew your food thoroughly, the salivary proteins and enzymes help you breaks down the hard materials making it digestible. When your chewing ability gets restricted due to depilated teeth, even your digestion gets affected, robbing you the complete nutritional value of a given food. For a healthy life, you must maintain healthy teeth.

2014 – Brush for a healthy mouth. Though oral hygiene practices have been noticed as early as 3000 BC, there are still some people who don’t value tooth brushing. Brushing teeth not only keeps your teeth clean and breathe fresh; it also keeps you confident and saves you from pain. Not brushing teeth can lead to accumulation of plaque and calculus in your mouth, which can lead to painful gum diseases, bone loss and bad breath. Today when looks matter more than soul, keeping your teeth clean and bright can help you make the social connections with ease.

2015 – Smile for life. Smile is the most spoken non verbal language among humans, when you see a loved one, a smile pops up without any effort and you smile when you want to make someone your loved one. Smile conveys many things like happiness, approachable, broad mindedness, kindness; it is the best makeup you can wear. Smile can be enhanced with advanced dentistry techniques and it can also get deteriorated because of poor oral hygiene. Losing teeth can bring changes in your overall bone structure of the face, changing it permanently. 70% of the opposite sex gets attracted to you by seeing your smile; surely you don’t want to scare them away with missing front teeth or crooked teeth and putrid smell emanating from your mouth. With invent of teeth whitening techniques, gum depigmentation and orthodontics with which you can move your irregular teeth into regular dimension, enhancing your smile is never been easy. Get to your dentist, to evaluate your smile and to know the possible things which can be done to make it more charming and attractive.

2016 – Healthy mouth healthy body. This year world dental organization again raised the awareness of oral health maintenance related to overall health. Having dentures can decrease your chewing ability by 300%, so protect your teeth. Having mucosal infections can cause you excruciating pain and leave you with putrid odor, have regular dental visits. Today gum diseases are related to heart diseases, with slogan it is easy to remove plaque from tooth than arteries, and the importance of keeping your gums and teeth clean has never been strong. Every year one million cases are registered in India of oral cancer, when detected in early stages can easily be treated but late stage cancers metastasize to other organs. It is imperative you maintain a healthy mouth to have a healthy body and mind.

2017 – The theme of this year is “live mouth smart”. As part of world dental organization, Ankura dental clinic and its doctors know they also share responsibility for imparting smartness in oral hygiene in its patients and public alike. Here are the few ways you can live the theme of this year: live mouth smart.

  • It is not the amount of sweets you eat that cause cavities, it is the frequency. If you eat a lot amount of sweet at one meal the effect of sweet remains less in comparison to frequent eating of sweets. Frequent eating of sweet spikes sugar ratio in the mouth, giving bacteria the chance to break down sugar many times and attack on teeth causing cavities.
  • Cleaning your tongue is as important as cleaning your teeth.
  • Even infants with no teeth have bacteria in their mouth, cleaning of infant gums is necessary.
  • Leaving milk bottle in child’s mouth for longer periods of time can cause nursing caries. It is important to remove the bottle and clean his/her mouth after feeding to curb bacterial growth.
  • Many children miss school due to tooth pain, taking child to a doctor when you notice cavities in their mouth can save those missed school days.
  • The correct age of orthodontic treatment is 7-12 years, when treatment is done in this age; it can prevent many problems your child can face in the future.
  • Excessive hard brushing can erode enamel and cause tooth sensitivity.
  • The ideal brushing time period is two minutes with a soft brush and a mild abrasive.
  • Drinking less water can cause dry mouth and caries due to less amount of saliva in the mouth.
  • Digestion begins in the mouth, so chew your food properly.
  • Don’t insert toothpicks in between your teeth frequently, it will cause gaps.
  • Bleeding gums is a sign of swollen/ infected gums get a cleaning done at a dental clinic.
  • Regular checkups in children are as important as regular checkups in an adult.
  • Don’t ignore your child’s teeth, a stitch in time, saves nine.

Starting today, live mouth smart, if you dedicate daily two minutes in your day to your oral hygiene, you can prevent multitude of problems. Encourage others to follow good oral hygiene and to take care of the mouth because mouth is the gateway of your body. If you keep your mouth healthy, your body will be healthy.

Written by
Dr. Andaleeb Zaidi

Ankura Dental – Best Dental Clinic in Hyderabad

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