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Dominique Pryor
Professor Christine Salgat
English 111 Section 02
15 September 2014

Correlation of the Mouth and the Body

Having diseases like HIV/AIDS or diabetes can affect a persons oral health making
conditions in their mouth more severe. Whom ever knew that having a disease that affects the
cells, blood vessels, and insulin control could affect the bones also? For instance, having diabetes
makes it harder for the body to resist developing diseases in your mouth such as periodontitis or
gum diseases. The article Oral Health: The Mouth-Body Connection explains why that
happens and how the different in the mouth and the body correlate. Even though the article is
based on facts, the use of some biased ideas and statements makes the article stronger in detail.
Periodontitis is a disease where the tissue around the gums start to swell and the gums
and teeth weaken. Diabetes is the disease that periodontitis is mostly linked with. This is because
with the swelling in the mouth it causes the body to lose the potential to control the blood sugar.
Dentists are able to determine if a person has a disease by looking at their mouth. For example, if
the persons teeth is rotten or decade diabetes may be the result. Dentists or doctors are also able
to determine if a person have life threatening diseases such as heart disease and cancer just by
looking at the teeth. Up to 91% of patients with heart disease have periodontitis, compared to
66% of people with no heart disease (Barker, Joanne). Periodontitis has many risk factors in
common with heart disease. Smoking, having excess weight, and an unhealthy diet are all risk

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factors of both heart disease and periodontitis. When there is inflammation in the mouth it could
lead to inflammation in the blood vessels which can lead to a heart attack. However, by keeping
yourself healthy and not smoking you could prevent heart disease and periodontitis. It could also
prevent severe cases like heart attacks and strokes. Periodontitis not only have things in common
with heart disease, but with osteoporosis also. Both diseases are pertaining to bone loss, whereas
osteoporosis affects the bones in the arms and legs, periodontitis affects the jawbone. Obesity is
another health condition that periodontitis is linked with. Joanne Barker explains that there are
studies that show having excessive body fat can higher the risk of developing periodontitis. The
author of this article is not necessarily bias towards the situation. The article seems like an
informative article. Being biased was not necessary in this article because of the title of the
article it seems as though the writing would be based on facts and data. However, there were
some biased statements. The biased statements were not made by the author herself, but by the
people she quoted. For example, when she quoted the CDC. According to the CDC, a smokers
risk of severe gum disease is three times higher than someone who does not smoke. The CDC is
being biased towards smokers and non-smokers. Without the proof that the statement is true it is
considered a biased statement. Being biased towards a certain mouth disease or body disease in
this article would have been inappropriate. The moral of the article was to inform people how the
mouth connects to the body so opinionated ideas would have been unnecessary. The fact that the
article was mostly based on facts was appropriate.

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Works Cited
Barker, Joanne. "Oral Health: The Mouth-Body Connection." (n.d.): n. pag. Web.