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Oral Health is Key to Men’s Health · Talking FACS

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Hello and welcome to Kentucky,
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smiles on talking facts.
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This is your host.
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Dr jennifer Hunter,
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Assistant director for family,
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Consumer sciences extension at the university of Kentucky.
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Today I'm pleased to be joined by Dr Richardson,
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the associate dean of clinical affairs at the University of Kentucky College of Dentistry as well as a fellow UK graduate.
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Welcome Dr Richardson,
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thank you for having me.
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I'm excited to be here.
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So today we're going to focus on men's health.
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That june is men's health month and um over the course of the month of june that there'll be several groups focusing on raising awareness about health care for men and encouraging boys,
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men and their families to practice and implement healthy living decisions.
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And today we're gonna predominantly focus on oral health care being a major part of men's health.
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And I would just like to um start and ask you a little bit about our men in general less likely to go visit a doctor or a dentist than women.
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Yes,
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ma'am.
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You know,
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not a big difference in the data,
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but when you look at the data and according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Uh just recently,
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2019 through 2020 young men 18 and men older are less likely than women to have a dental exam or a cleaning in the past 12 months.
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The numbers even grew a little bit from 1920 19 to 2020.
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See the same pattern when we look at the doctor visits and wellness visits.
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Um men 18 and over report visiting these service a lot less than women within the past 12 months.
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And recently I questioned our,
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you know,
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set different departments within our college of dentistry.
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And you know some interesting facts that came up.
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They when compared to uh to women men council or no show more often.
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And they are notorious for not following up not picking on us.
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But we don't,
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we send a team to come in for episodic care care that treated just for that condition.
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And most of those conditions are extractions as compared to females.
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I know with my husband that sometimes I have to mention or nudge a little bit about his annual physical.
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Um As well as now I think his dentist does a great job that they do not let him leave the dental chair until they scheduled the next six month follow up.
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But he is kind of bad about canceling that appointment and every I won't touch a dentist appointment cause it takes six months to get it rescheduled that if its schedule I'm going and he'll say oh it's okay to wait,
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wait six months um that he's much more likely to cancel than what I am.
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No,
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we we as men tend to do that.
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And in addition uh we'll say things like well get are all changing our vehicles a lot more routinely but we'll say you know what I had a great check up the last time.
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It's not bothering me.
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I think I'm good to put it off for a little bit longer.
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We hear that quite a bit.
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That is true.
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He does not miss an oil change.
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There's no doubt about that.
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Um,
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well let's talk a little bit about oral health in general and um,
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the impact on overall health or I guess maybe more specifically poor oral health and how that might impact someone's overall health.
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That that is a great question.
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You know,
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to ask how poor oral health can impact or affect overall health.
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And it can lead to well common conditions within the,
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within the mouth such as cavity gum disease,
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tooth loss.
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But what I think people don't actually realize is the bacteria in the mouth can split throughout the bloodstream.
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Uh,
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and even with things like bacteria in the mouth has been lied to to uh,
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other health challenges such as heart disease,
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cancer correlation between diabetes and and poor oral health,
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you know,
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backwards and and forth.
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You know,
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some of the things that we see that we don't often understand is just inhalation of some of the bacteria that are in our mouth can lead to lung conditions,
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bronchitis,
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pneumonias,
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a lot of these come from the bacteria within the oral cavity and people just don't realize or understand that.
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So when we talk about oral health and you know,
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we just talked about poor poor oral health.
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Um,
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what would be examples of good oral health,
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What should someone be focusing on,
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You know,
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I think when we look at good oral health,
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one of the big components of it is honestly sticking to routine regular exams,
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having a professional,
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take a look at us.
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But in addition to that,
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you know,
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when you're surveying your patients,
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you'll ask how many of them floss flossing is very important,
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not only brushing twice a day using rinses,
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but flossing flossing in the contact areas between the teeth that honestly the bristles of a toothbrush just will not get too.
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So those services collect as well.
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So you want to make sure you're flossing just to cleanse those areas of bacteria.
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But again,
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keeping those routine regular checkups,
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it's just like,
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and I keep comparing ourselves to an automobile.
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Of course we're a lot more complicated,
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but you know,
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we have routine checkups throughout a lot of things in life and routine checkup of the oral cavity of our mouths should become,
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you know,
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like a common thing that we did.
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So you mentioned about cavities,
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let's talk a little bit about cavities.
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I know that they can be fairly common among Children do,
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adults tend to need to worry as much about cavities as our kiddos do.
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Yes,
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they do.
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You know,
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because in it,
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when I look at and you think about diet and it's one of the things I could reach back and talk to when you asked the previous question,
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you know,
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good oral oral health or oral hygiene,
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we need to watch what we eat as well.
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So throughout the years uh there are a couple of things here that come into play.
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If you've had feelings,
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these feelings have the potential uh they can break down.
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It's it's what we can to structure.
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So let let me further explain that the hardest substance,
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the hardest substance in the body is enamel,
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the strongest muscle in the body is called the master the muscles.
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It's just the jaw muscles.
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So our chewing force we have enough strength in our mouth.
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We could bite through a lot of things.
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So if you can imagine those forces uh grinding together against the teeth,
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we'll have cracks in our teeth as we grow older.
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That just happens if we've got a filling in that constant barrage of us biting and chewing and grinding could cause that the surface of the feeling where the interface for the tooth and that particular filling come together.
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It could widen.
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It could be a harbor for bacteria.
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So yes.
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Uh Do we have to worry as much?
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I would just say we need to pay attention and again I have I have to keep pointing back to making sure that you're going to those appointments.
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So yes,
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it's a lifelong process of making sure you're taking care of your teeth and watching not you know,
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I don't like to call it worry but let's call it concern.
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I kinda thought to myself and smiled to myself a minute ago when you were talking about flossing because I knew I was getting ready to ask the cavity question that mentioning about my husband being a little bad about maybe canceling his dental appointments that he had,
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he had a cavity a couple years ago.
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But the positive of it,
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it has made him an avid flosser because his statement was,
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I'm not getting cavities as an adult,
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you know,
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so,
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but it did like change his daily oral health care or his oral care because he,
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the association with getting the cavity and becoming a very good flosser now,
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you know that and that's great.
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And you know,
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that that's one of the reasons and flossing.
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Like I talked about the contact areas.
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That's one of the reasons we take radiographs of doing x rays routinely.
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You know,
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doing those exams,
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we can't see great,
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you know,
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a great deal of uh things that are happening on the contact areas are in between the teeth.
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So those radiographs allow us to see not only the bone level.
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Uh,
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that's,
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but the contact areas between the teeth and a lot of instances,
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this is the first place,
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the very first place the cabinet will start.
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So let me ask you this about growing older.
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And I think sometimes I've heard older adults say this,
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that maybe there is this general level of acceptance that as people age,
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that they're going to have more problems with their team or that maybe they're gonna lose teeth.
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Um is that something that people should just accept?
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Are the preventative things that that folks can do or um even as they've aged and maybe if they started having some difficulties with their teeth,
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are there still things they can do now that there are,
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you know,
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things that they can can do now are things that I think they should be practicing all along?
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Well.
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First of all,
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let me go back and address what you just said about the acceptance rate of people thinking they're gonna lose to it's upwards close to 60% when surveyed will say that,
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hey,
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you know,
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uh,
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it's,
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it's not avoidable.
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We're gonna,
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we're gonna lose some some teeth and again,
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with the constant trauma of chewing and grinding functioning or having feelings.
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Yeah,
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that that's a possibility.
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But no,
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we shouldn't accept that.
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You know,
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what are the things that listen,
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you know again,
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let me just revert back.
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I keep pointing back to how great it is to have those maintenance appointments,
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Those every six month appointments,
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there are certain things that you can do,
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Like you're not getting your teeth any cleaner by using a hard bristle toothbrush will use a soft bristle toothbrush.
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And when you're using a soft bristle bristle toothbrush,
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how often should you change that man?
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When I say that we have A lot of things that,
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you know,
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a lot of people aren't using the manual toothbrushes were using electric toothbrushes today?
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How often should you change that head on your electric toothbrush or your regular toothbrush brush that you have?
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Uh,
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surveys show that we should change it every 3-4 months.
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Uh,
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when patients have asked me in the past,
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uh,
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my standard answer has been,
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you know,
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3 to 4 months is a great average,
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but for me it's more the bristle condition of the toothbrush,
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just as that toothbrush starts to become really comfortable.
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What I'd say when the bristles start to fray out or turn,
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you will tend to press your gums in addition to brushing your teeth and you want to keep away from the gums,
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so you don't end up with recession of those kind of things.
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So it's more a condition of the bristles of the toothbrush versus the actual time frame on it.
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So,
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regular checkups,
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brushing and flossing twice a day diet and changing your toothbrush often enough for a lot that you know,
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in and of itself will help you maintain what you have.
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Okay,
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so I'm gonna ask a follow up question on this toothbrush,
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because this is a conversation we have at home,
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Is there any difference between using an electronic toothbrush versus a manual toothbrush or a recommendation or preference,
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one or the other to individual preferences and it will honestly uh,
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depend on the provider you talk to.
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And there's no wrong answer on this is one better than if you have a great brushing technique.
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Um then you're fine without that manual toothbrushes are I'm sorry,
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electric toothbrushes,
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I think initially uh were brought into play for folks that had problems brushing their teeth.
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They may have had some type of physical condition that didn't allow them to to grip the toothbrush a particular way or to move a particular way or was painful,
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or the motion was limited,
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a limited range of motion.
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And that I think initially that's why they were for one of the initial reasons that we had the electric toothbrushes.
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It is not a cure all or a panacea.
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You're not gonna do any better.
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You still have to use an angle it the right way.
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But no,
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I think it's individual preference on that.
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But,
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you know,
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there are other things out there as well.
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Water picks,
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uh there's several different adjuncts that you can use in addition to brushing with that.
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I hope I answered I answered that you did,
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you know,
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essentially though you didn't settle our debate at home,
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you said we're both right.
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So that's that's good too.
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We can we can both win one dr Richardson,
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thank you so much for joining us today and bring awareness specifically to oral health care during men's health month.
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Alright.
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It's been an honor and a pleasure to be able to do this.
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Thank you all so much for having me.