How Does Oral and Dental Health Affect the Immune System?
Oral health is a window to your general health. Knowing how oral and dental health can affect your overall health helps you take precautions. Like other parts of the body, your mouth is full of bacteria, most of them harmless. However, your mouth is the entry point to your digestive and respiratory tracts, and some of these bacteria can cause disease.
When oral and dental health, which is part of overall health, deteriorates, it can bring many diseases with it. Detecting oral signs early can prevent many diseases, while untreated teeth often lead to infections that can damage organs such as the heart, kidneys, liver and lungs.
Endocarditis is one of these. It is an infection of the inner lining of the heart chambers or valves (endocardium) that typically occurs when bacteria or other germs from another part of the body, such as the mouth, spread through the bloodstream and attach to certain areas of the heart.