Wilfred 
Your mouth contains various types of bacteria. While some can be beneficial, like fighting off cavities, others can cause issues.
Poor oral hygiene enables bacteria to thrive, creating acid that weakens tooth enamel and exposes dentin, the easier target for acid attack. Because of this, cavities, sensitivity and bad breath are the result.
Tooth Decay
Cavity is one of the most common dental conditions and can occur at any age. It’s caused when mouth bacteria turn sugar in food or drink into acids that break down tooth enamel, resulting in cavities underneath. Infections can penetrate deep into dentin layer underneath the enamel, and engulf painful toothaches or even extractions if not prevented.
The good mouth is free of infections and having regular oral hygiene helps in ensuring that teeth and gums are healthy. Brushing and flossing can help to drastically reduce the risk of cavities that can develop on your teeth.
As you can see poor oral hygiene can lead to the development of bacteria and acid, which cause tooth decay and a daily intake of sugary or acidic foods keeps the organisms feeding so they will always be available to fuel your teeth. Further, medications or conditions that suppress salivation make the teeth prone to cavities and worn-out fillings and appliances leave more tooth surfaces susceptible to plaque and decay.
Gum Disease
Neglect of dental hygiene can have detrimental effects on one’s (and a community’s) health and social relationships. Poor dental hygiene can lead to breath odors, gum disease and tooth decay if bacteria aren’t cleaned up with frequent brushing, flossing and antibacterial mouthwashes, or they get inside the gums leading to gingivitis or more severe periodontitis leading to gingival inflammation and bone and tissue loss, ultimately affecting your appearance, diet and speech.
Gingivitis can be treated with oral hygiene and regular dental visits to your dentist for cleanings but left untreated it will lead to periodontitis which can’t be recovered and treatment varies from nonsurgical treatment to control the bacteria to surgery to restore bone and tissue.
Respiratory Issues
The mouth is the doorway between our digestive system and our respiratory systems, so uncontrolled germs can migrate to the lungs and bring infection and disease. Hygiene and dental hygiene help keep the balance of germs at an ideal level; anything that disrupts this is liable to lead to gum disease, tooth decay and so on.
Lack of good oral hygiene increases the possibility of aspiration pneumonia. Researchers have also found that sufferers of COPD without good dental hygiene have lower forced expiratory rates per second, six-minute walking distances and higher rates of exacerbations compared with those with good dental hygiene.
Hygiene habits have a particularly negative effect among subpopulations with limited means, limited access to health care or geographic disadvantage. White problems in the American society – structural racism and discrimination and policies within institutions such as education, housing, criminal justice and health care – all influence differences in oral health outcomes and other diseases.
Cancer
We come in through the mouth, and infectious bacteria go through the mouth first. This causes systems diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Studies have associated bad teeth and gums with a higher risk of heart disease; swollen gums from bad dental hygiene cause blood clots to constrict heart blood vessels and cause heart attacks.
If you have bad breath, you are more likely to contract the human papilloma virus (HPV), which can cause cancer. Scientists at Harvard’s T.H Chan School of Public Health found that gum disease or bad breath increased the risk of mouth or throat cancer – a lethal condition if not caught in time.
One research group recently carried out a radical study of head and neck cancer patients and age-, sex- and race-matched controls. They found that routine dentist visits boosted survival by an incredible margin – the first time they had found such an association between dental markers and survival in patients with head and neck cancer.
