Home Wellness Health and Fitness

Health and Fitness

Latest

How Saliva Prevents Dental Diseases | Guest Post

By
Madhuri Saikia
-
0

 

Think spit is just spat? Think again. Saliva is vital in helping prevent gum disease and in keeping your digestive system running smoothly. It cleanses the mouth, protects your teeth, and helps keep your gums healthy.

Composition and Production:

Your body is continuously producing a steady stream of saliva. But what is it, and why do our mouths produce more at different times?

Saliva is 99% water. The other 1% of saliva is proteins and electrolytes. However, even though they only make up 1% of saliva, these proteins and electrolytes perform powerful functions in your mouth.

Saliva production is controlled by the autonomic nervous system. This system also controls your breathing, heart rate, digestion, body temperature, sexual response, and metabolism, as well as sweat and tears production. As far as saliva production is concerned, there are three main glands primarily responsible: the submandibular, parotid, and sublingual glands.

Your autonomic nervous system communicates with the various parts of itself. For instance, if you smell an incredibly wonderful food, taste food, are stimulated by medication, or simply perform a chewing motion, your autonomic system amps up the production of saliva.

Key Functions of Saliva:

Saliva performs a few primary functions that make life–and especially eating and digestion–operate more smoothly than they would otherwise.

First, saliva facilitates speaking and eating. It lubricates oral tissues so your tongue, teeth, and roof of your mouth can work together smoothly to create sounds. It aids in the process of eating by enhancing the taste of food, helping you break down food in your mouth, and facilitating chewing.

Without saliva, swallowing and clearing or rinsing food from the side of your mouth would be far more difficult. The enzymes in the protein in saliva help break down food and prepare it for digestion. In short, saliva helps you throughout every phase of the eating process.

Saliva also helps protect your mouth and surrounding tissues. It dilutes the sugars in food and drinks, neutralizes acids to prevent plaque production, and remineralize your teeth enamel. All these functions help to prevent plaque and tartar damage.

Additionally, saliva has cleansing and antimicrobial properties, continually working to help keep you healthy and free of disease. Lastly, it also helps to repair tissue in instances of mouth injuries or cuts.

How Saliva Benefits Your Teeth:

With all of this in mind, here are five of the main ways saliva benefits your teeth.

  • Waste removal

    • Saliva acts as a rinsing and cleansing agent for teeth, helping your mouth wipe away food debris, yeast, fungi, bacteria, and viruses. As such, it helps to prevent a variety of medical and dental issues.

  • Protective barrier

    • Saliva shields the esophagus and digestive tract from harmful irritants, as well as shielding your teeth from the sugars and acids in many of our foods and beverages. Its enzymes help neutralize acids that would otherwise damage your teeth and gums.

  • Tooth decay prevention

    • Not only does saliva neutralize acids that would otherwise contribute to tooth decay, but it also literally washes those sugars and acids away from the teeth. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t brush your teeth–it means that your saliva is working hard and deserves all the help you give it so that you can avoid restorative and cosmetic dentistry procedures.
    • Additionally, saliva remineralizes the enamel on your teeth. After you eat, the enamel on your teeth takes a beating from sugars and acids. Afterward, however, calcium and phosphate ions in saliva remineralize your enamel.
    • This is why it’s essential to brush your teeth after eating, and especially before you go to sleep: it clears any debris out of the way so your saliva can repair your tooth enamel without impediment.

  • Healthy plaque

    • While too much plaque is bad, plaque in and of itself serves an important function. Saliva coats the tooth with one of its proteins, pellicle, which then accumulates to form plaque. This plaque attracts bacteria and other agents, forcing them to form clumps which are then more easily swallowed or brushed away.

  • Wound healing

    • Saliva is packed with proteins, electrolytes, endothelial and epidermal growth factors, making it a live-in medicine for your mouth. If the inside of your mouth sustains a wound–a cut, a canker sore, or if you bite your lip–then saliva helps to facilitate the healing process.

With all these healing and protective properties, saliva is a huge player in preventing tooth decay and any resulting gum disease.

Conclusion:

Saliva’s the unsung hero of your dental and digestive health, working to prevent gum disease and tooth decay at every step. As an intelligent servant of the autonomic nervous system, it’s your mouth’s way of protecting itself and facilitating healing. Practice good oral hygiene so you can help your saliva do its job.

About the Author: Written by Bryan, from York House Dentists in Chesham & Amersham, the practice maintains and improves smiles for nearly 30 years with a comforting combination of expertise, experience and exceptional standards. For more details feel free to visit www.yorkhousedentists.co.uk.

9 Factors You Should Know About Lip Fillers

By
Madhuri Saikia
-
0

Lip fillers are currently one of the most popular aesthetic treatments on the market, and their appeal seems to be growing.

As a non-invasive aesthetic treatment, lip filler enhancements are an easy way to achieve naturally plump-looking lips without committing to surgery.

The following nine tips and tricks can help you navigate the world of lip enhancement and determine if lip fillers can help perfect your pout.

  1. Find a certified doctor

One of the most important things you can do to ensure the results you want is your research. Never leave your injections up to chance at “injection parties” and always make sure your practitioner is Board Certified, and that the injections take place in a medical environment.

Check out potential practitioner’s websites and look over before-and-after photos as well as reviews to get a better feel for their work.

At your consultation, ask about their experience and any concerns you might have regarding treatment. A responsible practitioner should be able to easily answer your questions and put you at ease.

  1. Prepare before your appointment

Preparing for lip filler treatment start one week before your, appointment. During this time, drink plenty of water to keep hydrated and refrain from using aspirin and ibuprofen, as these can hasten bruising.

  1. Cost

Remember, when it comes to lip fillers, you get what you pay for.

Never choose your practitioner based solely on price and avoid sale offers that seem too good to be true, as they often lead to poor results.

For proper treatment, you can expect to pay between £500 and £650.

  1. Bruising depends on your procedure

Bruising is a common side effect of lip filler treatment, as the skin around the lips is very fragile and prone to bruising.

For individuals who are hypersensitive to bruising, you can mitigate your chances of turning black and blue with arnica tablets, an all-natural supplement that reduced bruising and swelling.

  1. Types of fillers

When it comes to lip fillers, there are two main categories: Temporary and semi-permanent.

Temporary fillers are usually hyaluronic acid-based, a naturally-occurring sugar substance that is typically absorbed into the body within six months of treatment. HA-based fillers offer a naturally volumised-look but require topping up every six months.

Conversely, permanent fillers can last up to eighteen months before further treatment is required.

  1. Can leftover filler be used?

Yes! If you opt to use less filler in your lips for a more conservative look, you will still have to pay for the entire vile of filler.

Your practitioner can utilise the leftover filler elsewhere on your face to smooth facial lines around the eyes, mouth, forehead, and nose to give your skin a revitalised glow.

  1. They are reversible if you are not satisfied

Are you afraid of the thought of committing to lip fillers? Not a problem! If you change your mind at any point following your procedure, your fillers can easily be dissolved with the injection of an enzyme solution to break down the HA and reverse your results.

  1. Leaving the clinic is not the end of treatments

Although there is no downtime associated with lip filler treatment and the procedure itself typically lasts no longer than an hour, it is best to take a day off from your exercise routine to allow the filler to settle correctly.

Avoid touching the treatment area for 24 hours and skip blood-thinning products, like alcohol and aspirin, for at least three days.

  1. Remember, only make decisions with self-love in mind

No one can and should make your beauty treatment choices for you. You should never feel pressured into making decisions you are uncomfortable with concerning your body and always ensure that any aesthetic choices are made with self-love in mind.

For more information concerning fillers in Weybridge, contact your practitioner to discuss how lip filler treatments can enhance your look and help you achieve a naturally beautiful pout.

Health risks associated with vaping e-cigarettes

By
Madhuri Saikia
-
0

Electronic cigarette (e-cigarettes or vapes) is a kind of electronic device that is used by heating the liquid that contains nicotine. The liquid then becomes vapor and stimulates the sensation of smoking a cigarette. Compared to a traditional cigarette, e-cigarettes does not comprise of the hazardous cocktail of compounds found in tobacco.

In recent times, e-cigarettes have gained much popularity mostly among the younger generation. But little did they know that vaping extensive amount of flavored smoke produces a high level of toxins.

However, according to a study from the University of California, San Francisco, e-cigarettes, which are sold in a variety of flavors, produces the excessively hazardous level of Formaldehyde and carcinogenic compounds that are known for causing numerous health hazards.

Highlighted below are some of the health risks that may subsequently affect one due to unseemly use of e-cigarettes.

1) Chemicals such as benzaldehyde and vanillin, used as flavoring agents in these cigarettes are known to cause respiratory issues. Besides, the World Health Organization reported that vaping kills more than 7 million people each year.

2) There are about 7,000 different varieties of flavors available for e-cigarettes. In a study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspective, highlighted that the flavoring substance, diacetyl, is linked with “popcorn lung” disease. Popcorn lung disease is a serious disease that causes coughing, wheezing, and shortness of breath. It is a condition that causes scarring of tiny air sacs in the lungs thereby resulting in thickening and narrowing of the airways.

3) Even a single puff of any of the flavored e-cigarettes can produce the unacceptably higher level of dangerous chemicals like aldehydes.

4) Vaping causes inflammation in the lungs and over time can result in serious lung disease.

5) A study conducted by the University of Connecticut found that nicotine e-cigarettes and unfiltered cigarettes are corresponding to produce significantly higher levels of potent tobacco carcinogen that are likely to cause substantial damage to one’s DNA.

6) According to National Center for Biotechnology Information, people who vaped fruit flavors had higher levels of acrylonitrile, a highly poisonous compound that is extensively used in manufacturing plastics, adhesives and synthetic rubber compared to those, who did not use those flavors.

7) Vaping can inflame cells of the mouth in such a way that could severely elevate one’s risk of getting tapered by gum disease. Consequently, gum diseases carry the risk of destroying tissues of the teeth, thereby leading to loss of the tooth.

Although e-cigarettes are considered less harmful than traditional cigarettes, they still carry the risk of causing chronic and stern damages to one’s health. In fact, a recent report shredded light on the risks carried by these vaping devices. The report said that although e-cigarettes do not contain nicotine, youngsters who smoke e-cigarettes expose themselves to substantially higher levels of cancer-causing chemicals.

Like this article? Leave your feedback and don’t forget to share it in your group.

Want to contribute? Write to us at [email protected]

 

© All Rights Reserved Silent Whispers