Hypoglycemia and Blood sugar

We’re probably aware that hyperglycemia is high blood sugar, but hypoglycemia is the opposite, low blood sugar. What’s the cause of this, and what symptoms are there? Does your oral care play a part in this? How can it connect directly to dry mouth? Here, we’ll give you the lowdown on what it is. 

What Hypoglycemia Is 

This is basically what happens when your blood sugar gets down to low levels. Blood sugar is basically how much glucose is within your blood. You need glucose in order to create energy, but too much, and insulin helps keep it at the right levels. But there is a threshold for safety with this, and that where hypoglycemia comes in. 

This is usually when the fasting blood sugar is about 70 milligrams per deciliter, which is based on the Mayo clinic findings. However, this does vary between different people, so your range may be a bit different for it to be considered. This is sometimes a common thing that happens in diabetics. There are other reasons for this too, including: 

• Type ½ diabetes and other hormonal problems 

• Too much alcohol 

• Overtaking of medications, or taking medications you weren’t properly prescribed 

• Rare conditions that create insulin overproduction. 

• Hepatitis, kidney problems, and cirrhosis of the liver 

• The foods that are in your meals and the combination of this 

It’s important to discuss this with your doctor if you find yourself experiencing this. 

Diabetes and hypoglycemia 

Hypoglycemia is common in a lot of diabetics, especially when there is too much insulin. This is very common with those who have type 1 diabetes, and some may experience two episodes of this during the week.Your blood sugar does rise and fall throughout your daily activities, but if it gets too low, this can be a problem. Blurred vision, dizziness, confusion, and weakness are all common, and it can lead to injuries n some cases. If it’s untreated, it can cause a lot of complications, so if you are a diabetic, you need to make sure that you control this. 

The symptoms 

The symptoms do vary based on the types of instances. But, no matter what, all hypoglycemia should be taken quite seriously. These can be quite scary, but it’s a sign that you have to correct this ASAP, for your own health needs. Some of the symptoms do include: 

• Skin being pale 

• Sweating 

• Shaking 

• Feeling weak and tired 

• Stress, irritability, or anxiety 

• More hungry 

• Numbness in the tongue, lips, and cheeks 

• Disorientation or confusion 

• Rapid heartbeat 

• Seizures 

• Losing consciousness 

• Blurred or disturbed problems with your vision 

If you have hypoglycemia, you should definitely go to the doctor to get help with this. 

How this Impacts the Mouth 

Your mouth definitely gets impacted by this. You should try to have some sugar drinks, but also keep in mind that this does put you at risk for possible cavities and what not. Low blood sugars can cause dental issues, but it’s not direct. You might experience one of the following health problems: 

• Dry mouth, due to the lack of saliva in the mouth 

• Gum disease, which is usually what happens when the blood sugar is not under control 

• Injuries taking longer to heal 

• Changes in the flavor and tastes of food. 

• Infection and disease, which impacts your immune system, making you more susceptible to possible infection or disease within your mouth

Take care of this right away, for your oral health needs!

Saliva and Dry Mouth

Saliva is great for chewing your food, is vital for digestion but some people don't produce enough saliva, and this causes dry mouth. But there are substitutes and different types of ways you can fix this, and here, we’ll discuss the  potential benefits of these, and how they impact oral health.

How Dry Mouth can Affect You 

Dry mouth is otherwise known as xerostomia, which is something that can happen from medications, autoimmune conditions, chemotherapy, and even radiation, and so much more. Some of the signs include: 

• A sticky, dry feeling within the mouth and tongue 

• Trouble with chewing, tasting, swallowing and speaking 

• Lips that are cracked 

• Burning sensations within the mouth 

• Lips that are cracked 

• Mouth sores 

• A dry tongue that’s rough.

• Mouth infection 

Dry mouth also has impacts on dental health, leading to inflammation, infections, and even tooth decay.

That’s due to the fact that saliva works within the oral cavity to improve the mouth pH, and also prevents demineralization within the teeth.

Artificial Saliva 

This is something that is great for managing and treating the dry mouth symptoms that are there.

You’ve got three main actions that happen. You can manage these conditions through medications, preventing the decay of teeth, and boosting saliva production. 

When you’re increasing this, you can get artificial saliva rinses or sprays, which you’re able to purchase. There are also drugs that boost saliva production naturally. Artificial saliva is great for helping this, but keep in mind they don’t have the enzymes used for digestion, and it doesn’t have the same minerals that the regular saliva that your body makes.

It’s important that, if you do use artificial saliva, you don’t just rely on this, but also rely on other types of ways to relieve this.

These include: 

• Having water, or sugarless drinks that don’t contain caffeine 

• Using humidifiers 

• Chewing gum that’s sugar-free, or having candy that’s sugar-free to suck on

• Avoiding foods that are dry, hard for you to chew, along with spicy and salty items 

• Using a lip lubricant 

• Avoiding sugary or sticky foods 

• Avoiding tobacco and alcohol, even mouth rinses that have alcohol within them 

You’ll want to try different kinds of treatments that do work best and using this is based on the direction of the doctor, however, when you consume these, do not drink or eat for up to 15 minutes after you’ve used this. 

Substitutes Vs. Stimulants 

There are also saliva stimulants, but they’re a bit different. Saliva substitutes do cause you to have a more moist mouth, and they usually are devices.  They won’t stimulate your salivary glands, but they can help with moistening the mouth.

But a saliva stimulant is basically a way to boost the production of this in there.  The best way to boost this is through chewing, causing the muscles to start to compress, release the saliva, and boost the production. Chewing gum for instance might be a great simulant, especially if you don’t want to use a substitute. 

If you are going to stimulate the salivary glands, you should use sugarless gum in order to make this work. 

Overall, it’s important that you get the help that you need with your dry mouth. Discuss this with a healthcare provider, to figure out the best treatment plan. You don’t need to live with this daily annoyance, but there are different treatments that you can get, helping you boost your oral health, and bringing your oral health back to the state that it was in before.

Wisdom Teeth - The Worst Tooth Pain I’ve Ever Been In

Wisdom Teeth - everyone has them! Unless of course you don’t have them, which can happen in some cases. To be honest, I don’t really know what wisdom teeth are, how they form, or what they’re for, but I know that a lot of people have to get them out in their teenage years or early adult life. For me, I had to get mine out at the start of the summer before I began my internship. I was told I had 4 wisdom teeth in total that needed to come out and that they could do it all in one morning. I have heard lots of stories about people getting their wisdom teeth out, including from everyone in my family. It’s a little different from person to person, but for the most part it is generally not the end of the world for most people. Dry sockets were my ultimate fear, however, as I had heard many horror stories about them and how badly they hurt. I remember hearing that tooth pain is some of the most severe pain because the nerve endings don’t need to travel through the spinal cord to get to the brain - they have direct access I guess.

I got my wisdom teeth taken out May 4th, 2021, which also happens to be Star Wars Day - “May the 4th be with you”. Anyways, my mom and I drove down to a dental surgeon in Holland MI and I got all checked in. After some last minute xrays, the dentist's assistant pointed out something strange; I actually had 6 wisdom teeth, not 4. Somehow this was missed in my first round of x rays. The dental surgeon said it’s not that big of an issue and that they could remove the other 2 free of charge. Interestingly, only 2% of people have more than 4 wisdom teeth. So I’m pretty much a huge deal. They administered some laughing gas which didn’t really do too much for me while they put the IV in and prepared to put the full blown anesthetic in my arm. I was kind of nervous at this point and I remember watching the dental surgeon slowly inject the syringe of anesthetic and asking him if I’m gonna fall asleep soon. That’s the last thing I remember. 

The surgery went well and they woke me up to keep me in the stabilizing room to make sure there were no problems immediately after surgery. I barely remember anything at this point because I was still under a lot of sedation, but I took a few videos of myself and I didn’t appear to be super confused about what was going on. My mom told me later that I was the most put together out of my sisters, so that’s pretty good I guess. 

The recovery process for the holes where my wisdom teeth once were was longer than I expected. I experienced quite a bit of pain the first few days and having to keep the gauze in my mouth was very annoying. After about 4 or 5 days, things started to get better. That is until I got an infection on my left side which caused my jaw and mouth to continue bruising and swelling. This is some of the worst pain that I have ever been in.