The Benefits of Maintaining Good Oral Health in a Covid World

The ongoing COVID-19 Coronavirus outbreak has caused a lot of changes to people’s lifestyles in the last year.  Encouraging people to stay home as much as possible has helped slow down the spread of the virus, but it’s also had some downsides – like encouraging people to skip their dental care.

We want people to know: dental offices are safe to visit.  Dentists are employing top-tier techniques to clean and disinfect their offices.  This is important because it’s truly vital to maintain your oral health, even during the pandemic.  It’s not just a good idea for your mouth; it can help protect you from the coronavirus!

Why Maintaining Your Oral Health Is Important During The COVID-19 Outbreak

There are two big factors to consider here.

1 – Poor oral health makes you more susceptible to disease

Having oral disease weakens a patient’s immune system.  If they have oral infections, their bodies’ defenses are occupied trying to fight off those infections.  Worse, untreated oral infections tend to linger, lasting for months or even years.

So anyone with active oral infections is immuno-compromised from the start.  This makes them more susceptible to catching diseases in general, and that definitely includes the coronavirus.  Keeping your mouth healthy means the rest of your body is more likely to be healthy as well.

2 – Poor oral health can make COVID-19 worse

Researchers have been looking into whether there’s any direct link between oral health and either the spread of, or not, of the severity of COVID-19 infections.  And it seems that there is.

First, COVID-19 seems to have an affinity for the mouth, and a diseased mouth gives the disease extra opportunities to breed.  This means an increased viral load is expelled every time an infected person breathes out, making it even more vital that people wear masks in public as much as possible.

Also, it seems that having poor oral health can contribute to the severity of COVID-19 as well.  Basically, the close link between the mouth and the lungs makes it easier for higher amounts of the COVID-19 virus to make their way into the lungs, not to mention the other nasal passages.  So, the infection becomes worse, and harder to treat.

In short, it truly is vital to maintain your oral health during the pandemic.  If it’s been more than six months since your last dental visit (and it probably has) please contact  Princeton Center for Dental Aesthetics & Implants, 609-924-1414.