Gastrointestinal Conditions and Caries: All You Need to Know

Our mouth is the mirror of our health. Remember that your doctor first checks your mouth, your tongue, and your teeth while diagnosing your diseases. This is because our tongue is like a litmus paper. The color of your tongue will determine the probable gastrointestinal disease you have.

Usually the colors are white, yellow or purple. There’s a black hairy tongue syndrome as well, caused due to bacteria and fungus buildup on lengthened papillae. The name is enough to make you regurgitate your hot dog.

Gastrointestinal means ’of the stomach and the intestines’ in common language. Since it is all connected to your mouth, it is natural to link the relevant diseases together. So when you deal with the issue or rather, the prolonged issue of cavities in your teeth (Caries), it may be helpful to investigate possible disorders of the stomach.

The After Effects You Need to Know

You don’t just have to deal with digestion problems here. Gastrointestinal problems and their effects in your mouth are many. Here is a look at a few of them.

• Ulcerative colitis & Crohn’s disease: –

Inflammation in your bowels, characterized by sores in your mouth and swelling of the gum tissue and inner cheeks. As the heat due to inflammation increases the mouth gets dry, the tongue develops cracks and slowly the acids produced by bacteria reduces enamel of teeth leading to cavities. The catalyst here is decreased capacity of your intestines to absorb vitamins and minerals.

• GERD (Gastroesophageal Reflex Disease): –

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) is being detected increasingly in both children and adults. Dentists can, in fact, detect this severe disease if they observe tooth erosion due to unexplained causes. Gastroesophageal reflux is usually a natural process and does not warrant anxiety. However, excessive gastric regurgitation can lead to some harmful oesophagal conditions.

We treat our stomach like a dust bin just for our tongue’s sake. Overeating and oily junk food causes the acid level in the stomach to rise. The excess acid enters the esophagus due to malfunction of esophageal sphincter (LES) and enters the mouth. The saliva in mouth is incapable of neutralizing the entire load and the excess acid dissolves enamel to calm down. The dental enamel consists of calcium phosphate is insoluble in alkaline medium. But due to excess acid it is demineralized. End result – dental enamel erosion and cavities. It mostly starts in maxillary teeth.

• When your mouth is unusually dry your salivary gland may be inefficient [due to some medicines or psychiatric disorder such as bulimia]. Insufficient saliva reduces its buffing and clearance effect, predisposing teeth to demineralization.

Prevention is better than cure:

Even the death of a single soldier can mark the defeat of an entire army. Try not to ignore early indications of tooth decay. It can indicate a gastrointestinal disease. Remineralization therapy can protect the long-term health of teeth by assisting the natural healing factor of our body. But you need to create the right environment for it to work. That means you need to limit your dietary consumption and eat healthy foods. Since you can control what goes into your body through your mouth, you should regulate it strictly or both your dental and gastrointestinal health may be at risk.