To maintain a bright, white smile, you need to eat a nutritious diet, keep good dental hygiene, and visit your Skokie dentist every six months. However, what if you suffer from an eating disorder? How will this impact your smile?
Surveys show that millions of Americans experience eating disorders such as binge eating, anorexia, orthorexia, and bulimia nervosa. Any of these eating disorders can lead to dental health and mouth damage. When you starve yourself or binge, your body won’t get the essential nutrients that a healthy smile needs. Dry mouth, overeating, and vomiting can also seriously affect your oral health. Keep reading to know how eating disorders can impact your smile:
Overeating
With binge eating, you get too much amount of stomach acid, which goes back up to the esophagus. As a result, you can suffer from acid reflux, which tends to burn your mouth’s soft tissue and wear your tooth enamel away. These effects will increase your susceptibility to cavities and tooth loss.
Vomiting
This can erode the enamel on your tooth and injure the soft palate located at the roof and back of your mouth. When you vomit repeatedly, your teeth can look translucent, which increases your chances of experiencing tooth sensitivity and dental caries.
After you vomit, do not brush your teeth for at least twenty minutes due to compromised tooth enamel. Rather, you can just rinse your mouth with a baking soda and water solution to neutralize the impacts of stomach acids.
Dry Mouth
Poor nutrition and vomiting can cause your salivary glands to be enlarged and reduce the production of saliva. This can result in difficulty neutralizing the acidity of your mouth, putting you at risk of oral infections and cavities.
Vitamin D Insufficiency
Vitamin D is an anti-inflammatory vitamin that boosts your immunity. Thus, it can help fight oral infections like gum disease. Also, it helps with calcium absorption.
Calcium Deficiency
Calcium is essential for your jawbone health and teeth health. Without enough calcium in your diet, you could be at risk of irritated gums, brittle teeth, weak dental roots, and tooth decay.
Vitamin B3 Insufficiency
If your body does not have enough vitamin B3, you can experience bad breath, painful fissures, and canker sores.
If you have been suffering from an eating disorder, you may also be dealing with the irreversible effects of this disorder. Depending on your dental issue, you may need fillings, dental crowns, a root canal treatment, or a smile makeover to restore your smile.
