Cold and flu season is well upon us, and many people are looking for ways to stay healthy. Did you know that your oral health can play a big role in boosting your immune system? Oral health connects to your immune system, and taking care of your teeth and gums can help keep you from getting sick. 

How Oral Health Affects Your Immune System

Your mouth is the entry point for many germs and bacteria. When your oral health isn’t good, it can lead to infections that can weaken your immune system. Here’s how oral health impacts your overall health:

• Gum Disease

If you have gum disease, bacteria can enter your bloodstream. This can cause inflammation in your body, making it harder for your immune system to fight off illness.

• Cavities

Cavities can lead to tooth infections, which can spread and make your body work harder to fight them off.

• Bad Breath

While not directly linked to illness, bad breath can indicate poor oral health. If you have persistent bad breath, you may have an underlying issue that could affect your health.

Maintaining good oral health can help keep your immune system strong.

5 Tips for Boosting Your Immune System Through Oral Care

Here are some easy ways to boost your immune system by taking care of your mouth:

1. Brush Your Teeth Regularly

Brushing your teeth helps remove plaque, the sticky film of bacteria that forms on your teeth, and prevents cavities and gum disease.

• Brush your teeth at least twice daily – once in the morning and once before bed.
• Use a soft-bristled toothbrush and fluoride toothpaste. 
• Brush for at least two minutes, making sure to clean all surfaces of your teeth.
• Replace your toothbrush every three to four months or when the bristles start to fray. It’s also important to replace your toothbrush after an illness. 

2. Floss Daily

Flossing is just as important as brushing. It helps remove food particles and plaque from between your teeth, where your toothbrush can’t reach. 

• Use about 18 inches of floss and wrap it around your fingers.
• Gently slide the floss between your teeth, making a C-shape around each tooth.
• Use a fresh section of floss for each tooth.

3. Stay Hydrated

Drinking plenty of water is essential for your overall health, including your oral health. 

• Water helps wash away food particles and bacteria from your mouth. 
• It also helps keep your mouth moist, which is important for good saliva production.
• Saliva is your body’s natural defense against cavities and gum disease.

4. Eat a Balanced Diet

A healthy diet can boost your immune system. Focus on foods that are good for your teeth and overall health, such as:

• Crunchy fruits and veggies, such as apples, carrots, and celery, can help clean teeth and gums.
• Milk, yogurt, and cheese are high in calcium and essential for strong teeth.
• Lean proteins like chicken, fish, and beans can support your immune system.

5. Visit Your Dentist Regularly

Regular dental visits are crucial for maintaining good oral health. At our Bee Cave dental office, we offer:

• Comprehensive Check-Ups

These include exams to check for cavities, gum disease, and other issues.

• Cleanings

Professional dental cleanings remove plaque and tartar that brushing and flossing may miss.

• Fluoride Treatments

Fluoride can help strengthen your teeth and protect against cavities.

• Sealants

Dental sealants can protect your molars from decay, especially in children.

Don’t forget about your oral health as cold and flu season approaches! By practicing good oral hygiene, visiting your dentist regularly, and maintaining a healthy diet, you can help boost your immune system. Remember, a healthy mouth contributes to a healthy body.

If you’re due for a dental check-up, contact our Bee Cave dental office today! We’re here to help you keep your smile and immune system strong this season.

How do I get straight teeth at forty years of age? I really do not want something like braces at my age. I am way too old to be a metal mouth.

Sandy

Dear Sandy,

I have great news for you. First, forty is not old. Seriously. You have many wonderful years ahead of you. Plus, you will not have to wear a mouth full of metal. There are tremendous advancements in orthodontics.

You can now straighten your teeth without anyone even knowing. There are a couple of procedures now available that use clear aligners instead of metal wires and brackets.

The first is Invisalign. The second is Spark Aligners.

Both procedures are more efficient than braces. The entire procedure will be done in a fraction of the time, too. Before you know it, you will be enjoying a gorgeous smile and no one will even know what happened.

This blog is brought to you by Lake Travis Orthodontics Dr. Alberto Tostado.

Can you help me? I had a large overbite as a child because I sucked my thumb. I had braces, which corrected it. I went to the dentist about eight months ago and they told me that I had periodontal disease. I was supposed to go back but I’ve been busy. Now I have a different problem. I have developed a large gap between my lateral incisor and my canine tooth. Is it possible to get braces just for those teeth?

Simeon

Dear Simeon,

I am afraid that you have a serious problem with your periodontal disease. Once your teeth start moving, you are in danger of losing them. Taking care of the gum disease needs to be your first priority or you will not have teeth to straighten. I hope your dentist made clear to you how serious this was. No matter how busy you are, make time for this.

Hopefully, your teeth can be saved. If that is possible, once the gum disease is under control, then you can have your teeth placed back into an esthetic position with braces. You may also need a splint to help keep the teeth in place once they are back into alignment.

Please don’t put off getting this taken care of.
This blog is brought to you by Bee Cave Orthodontist Dr. Alberto Tostado.
Click here to learn about orthodontic emergencies.

My two front teeth are crooked. Other than that, the only thing that is really wrong with my teeth that they need to be much whiter than they are. I was hoping to get six porcelain veneers, but my dentist said with my crooked front teeth I should do Invisalign first. I thought porcelain veneers can make your teeth straight. Do I really need both?

Abigail

Dear Abigail,

Getting a dentist to make your teeth look straight with porcelain veneers would take one of the top cosmetic dentists in the country. They would be more expensive than your average cosmetic dentist. The reason your dentist is suggesting the Invisalign is because he does not have the skills to do that without it.

If the only thing wrong with your smile is the crooked front teeth and that they need whitening, I think I can save you a small fortune. My suggestion is that you get Invisalign to straighten the teeth, then you can either whiten your teeth after that or get some whitening gel to wear in your Invisalign aligners. They are able to double as teeth whitening trays so it is perfectly acceptable to do both of the procedures at the same time.

Your dentist should be able to provide you with the whitening gel to wear in the aligners. If he refuses, you can likely find some online. It won’t be as strong, but it will whiten your teeth.

Even if you were to get porcelain veneers you would still have to whiten your teeth. You mentioned six veneers. Most smiles are eight to ten teeth wide so you would want to whiten the rest of the teeth so that they blend in with the veneers.

Invisalign and whitening gel together are thousands of dollars less expensive than veneers alone.

This blog is brought to you by Bee Cave Orthodontist Dr. Alberto Tostado.
Click here to learn about Braces for Adults.

I am 42 years old, which is way too old for glasses and a mouth full of metal. I wonder if you think that a dental flipper will at least help my teeth to look straight. They snap over the teeth and could at least improve how they look.

Jane

Dear Jane,

I am glad you wrote. A dental flipper does not go over teeth. Instead it fills in a space for a missing tooth. They are often used as temporary tooth replacements while patients wait or save up for a better option. What you are probably thinking of is a Snap-on smile.

While this does snap over your teeth, I do not believe it is going to give you the result you are hoping for. First, it will look bulky because it snaps over your teeth. It also will not look very natural, especially up close because it is made of acrylic.

Alternatives to Braces

You may not be aware that you no longer have to wear metal braces any longer to straighten your teeth. In fact, you can now completely straighten your teeth without anyone even knowing your are wearing orthodontics. Two options for this are Invisalign and Spark Aligners.

Both of these options have advantages over traditional braces. Here are just some of them:

• They work in half the time of braces.
• They are much more comfortable.
• There are no limitations on what you can eat.

I’d look at these options before something like Snap-on smile, which you’d have to replace every few years.

This blog is brought to you by Bee Cave Orthodontist Dr. Tostado.

I was using smile direct club to get my Invisalign, but they’ve gone out of business. I don’t have all my aligners and have been wearing the same pair since December when they closed down. I’ve been trying to either get the rest of my aligners or at least part of my money back, but I’ve had no luck with either. I can’t keep wearing these forever, plus, my teeth still aren’t straight. Do you know of another company like this one that will let me continue where I left off?

Cara

Dear Cara,

I want to qualify a couple of things for the benefit of others who may be reading this. Smile Direct Club was not a part of Invisalign. Instead, they used their own type of invisible aligners to distribute through their company. This was a mail-order company that allowed patients to get a type of Invisalign product without going through a dentist or an orthodontist. They said this would save them lots of money.

As to your question, are you sure you really want a company like Smile Direct? They haven’t really done a good job for you. One of the reasons they went out of business was because many of their patients had horrible problems with the treatment.

Not many people knew about this because they used to suppress bad reviews by only allowing patients to get a refund if they signed a non-disclosure agreement about the problems they faced with their treatment. It wasn’t until June of last year that a court case said they were no longer allowed to do that. This released even previous customers from their agreements and all the bad reviews started rolling out. By September, they were bankrupt. When they could not find a buyer for their company, they closed their doors.

The problem with using an online company to do your orthodontics is they are going to have the same weaknesses as Smile Direct did. You won’t be under the care of an orthodontist who knows what they are doing. Plus, our bodies rarely follow the prescribed treatment without needing some adjustments. When you are not under the care of a orthodontist or a dentist there is no one to help you with those adjustments. People have actually lost their teeth when trying to do orthodontics on their own.

Your safest option is to do the real deal such as Invisalign or Spark Aligners. I am so sorry this happened to you.

This blog is brought to you by Bee Cave Orthodontist Dr. Tostado.

I know that Smile Direct Club went out of business. Do you know of another option like that? I don’t want to have to go to a dentist every two weeks.

Joe

Hi Joe,

I am glad you wrote before just following through with this idea. One of the things that is awesome about a free market is that you can find just about any type of service if you look hard enough. However, this comes with comes with some dangers. Just because something is available, does not mean that you should use it.

SmileDirect would have gone out of business much sooner had they not been suppressing negative reviews. Once the court said that SmileDirect couldn’t hold people’s money hostage unless they agreed to not say anything negative about them, all the truth about the problems with their treatments and procedures came flooding out. They went out of business shortly after that. Yes, there are other companies that will step into the consumer market when SmileDirect went out of business, but they are going to have the same problems in regard to their treatment.

First, without an accurate impression your treatment plan is going to be off. That could be slightly off or it could be disastrously off. Second, you don’t have an adequate examination before your treatment. Most of these companies either go by a photograph, which cannot tell you what you need to know about things like gum disease, etc., or they will use dentists who are on their payroll and under tremendous pressure to approve them for treatment. Third, there will be no one monitoring your case carefully. They may or may not have you send in photos, but again, that is completely inadequate. Bodies, rarely follow a blueprint. Because of that, dentists and orthodontists often have to make adjustments to your treatment along the way. These mail-order companies cannot do that.

If your only hesitation about using Invisalign is that you don’t want to go to the orthodontist every two weeks, I have some great news for you. The common treatment plan is to get two sets of aligners that you wear for two weeks and then you go in for an examination once a month. That is half the visits that you were expecting to have to do.

If you want the best, safest treatment, then I would stick to the real deal, which would mean either Invisalign or Spark Aligners.

This blog is brought to you by Bee Cave Orthodontist Dr. Alberto Tostado.

I live way out in the middle of nowhere in Alaska. It takes me about three hours to get to any town of significance. Almost 5 to get to a bigger city. I want to get my teeth straightened using Invisalign. However, I can’t really take a trip which is that far every two weeks for the new aligners. Is there a way this can get stretched for any length of time more than two weeks?

Stan

Dear Stan,

I am glad you wrote. I have three pieces of good news for you. First, you picked a great procedure with which to straighten your teeth. Invisalign does a fantastic job and has a very high patient satisfaction rate.

Second, while the Invisalign aligners are are switched out every two weeks, your dentist generally will give you a full month’s worth and then have you come in to switch them out monthly. That has already cut the number of visits you need in half.

That being said, given your situation, unless there are any complicating factors with your particular case, I bet you can find a dentist who would be willing to come in even less. As I said, that does depend on your particular case, but it is at least worth investigating.

I hope this helps.
Enjoy your treatment, as well as your new straight smile!
This blog is brought to you by Bee Cave Orthodontist.
Click here to learn about Spark Aligners, another option in Invisible Braces.

I have used the same orthodontist for my other two children. They have all had braces. However, now there is Invisalign. He insists it is not as good as braces and refuses to even consider placing them. I feel like my daughter has a pretty straight forward case. Should we just go to a dentist who does Invisalign and skip the whole orthodontist thing?

Stacey

Dear Stacey,

This may not be the best orthodontist for you. Bear in mind that I have not examined your daughter’s bite and there may be complicating factors that I am unaware of. It used to be that Invisalign could only treat the ideal cases. Now, it has improved to the point that it can even take on many of the more complicated cases. There are still some cases which require braces, but not nearly as many as their used to be. If your daughter’s case is a straight forward as you say then the issue is more likely that your dentist has not embraced the technology and is telling you that it is not as good to keep you from going to a general dentist.

My suggestion is that you still see an orthodontist, however, see one who offers Invisalign. In fact, an orthodontist who does Invisalign, may also do Spark aligners. This is another brand of invisible aligners. It has some advantages over Invisalign, however, they can only be placed by orthodontists with specialized training.

One of the advantages of doing this through an orthodontist is the assurance you have that is something does not go according to plan you are already with a specialist that can make any needed adjustments quickly and keep your child’s treatment on track as safely as possible.

This blog is brought to you by Bee Cave Orthodontist Dr. Alberto Tostado.

I have teeth that protrude quite a bit. I went to my dentist hoping to get Invisalign, but he said that he didn’t think I was a good candidate. I don’t know if that is because he really does not think I would be a good candidate or because he doesn’t offer them. Do you know if protruding teeth will be a problem?

Avery

Dear Avery,

Protruding teeth can be treated by Invisalign. However, I have not examined you and there may be some other circumstances that complicate matters. When Invisalign first came out, it could only treat basic cases. Now, it has advanced enough where it can handle all but the most difficult cases.

There are many options in adult braces these days. You may be better served going to see an orthodontist who can offer both Invisalign and Spark aligners. Spark is another invisible braces brand that only orthodontists can place and have some advantages over Invisalign. Plus, you’ll have the benefit of being under the care of someone who has specialized training in tooth adjustments.

This way, no matter how complicated your particular case is, you will be able to get your teeth straightened and have a smile you will be proud to share with the world.

This blog is brought to you by Bee Cave Orthodontist Dr. Alberto Tostado.