All women experience fluctuating hormone levels at various stages throughout their life. While men experience fluctuating hormone levels as well, the fluctuations that women experience are much more impactful on their overall health. When women undergo these hormonal changes, both their bodies and their mouths experience hefty changes. During these hormonally-charged periods in a woman's life, it is incredibly important that she pays particular attention to her oral health care regime. Read on to learn more.
When a woman undergoes extreme changes or fluctuations in her hormonal levels, she becomes all the more at risk for periodontal disease. This works as follows: the surge or stark increase in certain hormones comes to negatively impact the blood flow to the gums. In addition, these hormonal fluctuations also come to impede the body's ability to positively respond to bacteria and plaque. These conditions are all the more likely to occur during several crucial stages in a woman's life including:
Adolescence / Puberty
Everyone—men and women alike—undergo puberty during their adolescence. When women undergo puberty, both their estrogen and progesterone rise. When these two things occur, in tandem, there is also an increased flow of blood to the gums. With this increased blood flow also comes gum tenderness, redness and even swelling. Most people who experience these symptoms will also experience consistent bleeding when they brush and floss their teeth.
When a Woman Is Menstruating
What few women recognize is that during their menstrual cycles, they are all the more at risk for oral health conditions. During a woman's monthly cycle, she will likely experience swollen, painful gums and canker sores and may also experience gum-bleeding during oral health care practices. Indeed, there is even such a thing as menstruation gingivitis; menstruation gingivitis will typically develop a few days before a woman's menstrual cycle and will be rectified within a few days of her cycle being completed.
Menopause
Last but not least, women experience serous hormonal changes during menopause. When a woman undergoes menopause at this later stage of life, often her different sensory experiences will be seriously affected. For example, during this time her mouth will often become excessively dry. One of the negative repercussions of dry mouth is that the saliva that would normally be there cannot adequately diminish the bacteria in the mouth.
Because women's hormone levels have an intimate impact on a woman's oral health, it is incredibly important that she pay attention to her oral health practices during hormonally-charged times. Visiting a dentist at a clinic like Panther Hollow Dental Lodge can help catch hormonal related dental issues early on to prevent serious conditions from developing.
Share3 February 2015
