How Important is Vitamin D For Your Oral Health?
With shorter days, a lack of sunlight can negatively impact your oral health.
Even though the Christmas cards that will shortly be arriving through the letterbox often depict sunny winter days with beautiful snowy scenes; most of us will be more familiar in recent years with wetter and dull days, with sunshine often being in short supply. Even when the sun finally comes out, many of us will choose to stay indoors in the warmth and if we do go out, we’ll largely be covered up against the cold. While all of this is natural human nature, it also deprives us of an important source of Vitamin D.
Also known as cholecalciferol-D3, Vitamin D is essential for a healthy body and helps us to absorb important minerals such as calcium. As we know, this particular mineral is also important for building strong teeth and we are going to take a look at this in today’s Cygnet Dental Practice blog.
Sources of Vitamin D
Before we discuss the oral health issues that can be caused by a lack of this vitamin, our Wickford patients might be interested to know where it can be obtained from, apart from sunshine, as this is something that is often difficult to find in the UK! As we mentioned, many people lack this vitamin during the winter months but it is still available from the following sources:
- Fatty fish such as salmon and sardines
- Cod liver oil
- Egg yolks
- Mushrooms grown in natural light
- Fortified foods such as milk and cereal
Even with these though, it may still be advisable to take a supplement during the winter months. If you are unsure about doing this, please discuss it with your GP or pharmacist for further advice.
Oral health related Vitamin D issues
Tooth decay
Although diligent cleaning and flossing of the teeth is the best way to help prevent tooth decay, a good quality diet is important too, and a lack of Vitamin D can reduce the amount of calcium and phosphate that we absorb. These are both important minerals for healthy tooth enamel and a lack of this may lead to weaker enamel that is less resistant to tooth decay.
Tooth loss
Many of you will be familiar with osteoporosis and the effect that it can have on older people. Usually this relates to bones such as those in the leg which makes broken bones more likely as we grow older. Perhaps less well known is that a lack of vitamin D can be a factor in this and the problem can also occur in the jawbone. Where bone loss occurs here, the teeth which are secured by the bone may become less secure and may cause teeth to become loose or even fall out.
Gum disease
Vitamin D helps to strengthen our immune system, and a lack of it can reduce our ability to fight infections in all areas of our bodies. This includes our ability to fight off gum diseases such as gingivitis. Any injuries in this area such as a cut on the gum will benefit from a sufficient intake of Vitamin D to help it heal quickly and effectively too.
Children
We know that in some areas of the world where vitamin D deficiency is severe, children can develop rickets which causes bone deformity. While this is less likely with a western diet, there is still a small risk. In the west, a more likely consequence is a delay in the child’s teeth erupting, along with potential dental malformation.
As you can see then, there are a number of potentially harmful consequences to having an insufficient intake of this important vitamin and we recommend that our Wickford patients take extra care to ensure they have an adequate supply, especially during the winter months.
It also emphasises the importance of not only good oral care at home, but the monitoring of it by the dentists and hygienists at the Cygnet Dental Practice. Make it your new year resolution to ensure you have appointments booked to do just that. You can contact us for appointments or for any dental related issue by calling our Wickford dental practice on 01268 733078.