When teeth get rotten

As part of World Oral Health Day Ginger Nuts of Horror brings you some real life horror.  

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 As World Health Day approaches, we look at the consequences of not looking after your teeth. The results can be pretty gruesome…

 

Bad breath

While bad breath can come from eating pungent food like garlic or drinking coffee, chronic bad breath is caused by food particles not getting washed away and breeding bacteria in your mouth, which is where the smell comes from. If you find that no amount of mouthwash or teeth bruising solves the problem, you might have an abscess or gum disease, which only a trained dentist can help you with.

If you’re paranoid about your breath, make sure you floss as well and brush, as this is the only way you’ll dislodge food particles from the gaps between your teeth.

Heart disease

What’s the worst that can happen if you don’t go to the dentist? A few more fillings? Discolouration? What about heart disease?

A study in Scotland found a link between how many times a person brushed their teeth and their likelihood of developing heart disease. Inflammation in the body (such as inflamed gums) can cause the arteries to get clogged and some researched think that they have found a link between bad dental hygiene and heart problems. While the evidence is not 100% conclusive and other lifestyle factors might be more to blame, it should be enough to get most people keeping regular appointments with their dentist.

Missing teeth

A dentist will always do what they can to save a tooth by treating an infection, giving you a filling or spotting an early sign of gum disease. The problem is that too many people leave too long between visits because they’re afraid of sitting in the dentist chair. That’s when problems have the chance to fester. If you leave it too late, your tooth might become unsalvageable and you might have to have it taken out entirely. 

Gingivitis

If you don’t brush your teeth and use mouthwash regularly, plaque builds up on your teeth and gums. Over time, your gums could get swollen, irritated an infected, giving you gum disease (or gingivitis).

When food particles get lodged into little pockets in your gums (which are formed when irritated gums start to pull away from your teeth), it can form a breeding ground for bacteria. As you can imagine, this bacteria can start to develop a bad pong after a while, giving you a case of seriously bad breath.

Gum disease is one of the most common tooth problems which affects up to 15-20% of the UK population. It’s relatively easy to treat and doesn’t have to be serious – if you attend to it and see a dentist. If you don’t it could get progressively worse and you could develop an abscess and could even loose an entire tooth or have to get costly root canal treatment.

If there’s one terrible British stereotype it’s that we’re all walking around with bad teeth. But while many of us have started to take our dental hygiene more seriously recently and have even started investing in dental health plans, there are a few Brits walking around with some Freddy Kruegar like gnashers. As well as being seriously bad for your social and love life (yellow teeth are not usually seen as attractive by the opposite sex), not to mention your self-esteem, those are some of the biggest dental problems you could face of you don’t brush and floss regularly.

 

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