Elsevier

Disease-a-Month

Volume 65, Issue 6, June 2019, Pages 147-154
Disease-a-Month

Nutrition and oral health

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.disamonth.2018.09.009Get rights and content

Abstract

To maintain health, the human body needs daily nourishment in the form of carbohydrates, proteins and minerals. The associations between oral health conditions, dietary practices and nutritional status, and general health status are complex with many interrelating factors. Inadequate nutrition can affect the oral health including dental caries, periodontal diseases, diseases of oralmucosa and infectious diseases. Compromised oral health can alter food choices and negatively impact food intake leading to suboptimal nutritional status which can lead to chronic systemic diseases. Recognizing and treating oral health and nutrition problems are important in improving the health and quality of life.

Introduction

Nutrition, a pillar of human development, is the study of how food affects the body.1 Nutritional health requires the adequate provision of vitamins, minerals, fiber, water carbohydrates, proteins, fats and other micronutrients to cells and organisms, to support life.2 The World Health Organization defines malnutrition as the cellular imbalance between supply of nutrients and energy and the body's demand for them to ensure growth, maintenance, and specific functions.3 Understanding the role of nutrition is very important for an individual's heath. There is a strong association of nutrition and oral health conditions with many inter-relating factors. Malnutrition may influence growth and development orofacial components, oral mucosal and dental diseases and oral cancer. Similarly, compromised oral health may affect daily dietary intake, which consequently degrades the nutritional status. It is evident that dental diseases negatively impact self-confidence and overall quality of life (QoL). Thus, identifying and managing oral health conditions and issues related to nutrition is important in order to improve health and QoL of affected individuals. This mini review will elaborate on the relationship between nutrition and oral health.

Section snippets

Influence of nutrition on oral health

Nutritional intake of micronutrients and macronutrients impacts both the oral mucosa and dental hard tissues. Under-nutrition as well as over-nutrition influences the oral health in several ways.

Influence of poor oral health on nutrition

Nutrition and oral health are inseparably associated to each other. Poor nutritional status can impair oral health while poor oral health can influence the individual's dietary intake resulting in malnutrition. Several studies establish the role that poor oral health increases the risk of several chronic disease. For example, periodontal diseases is known to be associated with diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases and some types of cancers.54, 55 Partial or complete teeth loss has been

Conclusion

Nutrition is an important modifiable parameter, which can have a major impact on oral health. Poor nutritional status can adversely affect oral health and poor oral health can influence dietary intake and subsequently lead to malnutrition and oral health can play acrucial role in maintaining good nutrition. Interdisciplinary teams of general practitioners, dentist, nurses and dieticians working together can help assure that patients maintain good oral health status and adequate nutrition are

Competing interests

The authors did not receive any financial assistance from or have any personal relationships with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence (bias) their work.

Funding statement

None.

Author's contribution

All authors: concept, design, analyses, interpretation of data, drafting of manuscript or revising it critically for important intellectual content.

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