Bad dental hygiene can cause dementia, heart disease

Who knew not brushing had such scary consequences? Find out what this bad habit does to your health.

There is a new two-part BBC series that shows the implications of poor dental hygiene on our overall health.

This mind-boggling expose involved a dentist, Dr Christoffer Van Tulleken, who had to go for two weeks without brushing the teeth on one side of his mouth in order to find out the consequences, he achieved this by wearing a gum guard on that side while brushing only one side.

Once the two weeks were over, Christoffer brushed his teeth without the gum guard on, he discovered that his gums bled a bit and that there was blood- spattered spit in the bathroom washbowl because he had developed a mild gum disease.

Lab tests were conducted with Professor Iain Chapple at the University of Birmingham School of Dentistry in order to figure out what really happened.

The results showed that not brushing his teeth for just two weeks had damaged my immune system, this was due to the fact that his white blood cells, the soldiers of the immune system, become less effective at treating the infectious invader.

This reaction by the white blood cells, caused by his bad dental hygiene for two weeks, triggered an inflammation in his entire body.

This is a very scary discovery that people need to know, not brushing your teeth for more than two weeks will cause the white blood cells to get less efficient, thereby causing an inflammation to the whole body.

An inflammation is the body's way of reacting  to an infection and is typically seen on the outside of the body as red, swollen tissue.

This bad dental hygiene could lead to chronic inflammation capable of damaging other cells throughout the body, such as our organs and circulatory system in the long run.

Other consequences of bad dental hygiene include the development of illnesses such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s, stroke and cancer.

The link between dental hygiene and our body is very important and should not be overlooked.