{"id":105,"date":"2025-06-11T15:07:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T14:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/?page_id=105"},"modified":"2026-06-03T16:12:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-03T15:12:00","slug":"why-important","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/oral-health\/why-important\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is oral health important?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Why oral health matters<\/h2>\n<p>Your mouth is a big part of your overall health.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ohft-box green\">\n<p>If your mouth is healthy, it helps you:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>eat and speak properly<\/li>\n<li>feel more confident<\/li>\n<li>take part in school, work, and social life<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"ohft-box red\">\n<p>But if your mouth is not healthy, it can:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>cause pain and affect how you sleep<\/li>\n<li>change what you eat or drink<\/li>\n<li>affect your mood, behaviour, and how well you can focus<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p>How your mouth looks is also part of your identity. It can affect how you feel about yourself.<\/p>\n<h2>Oral health and general health<\/h2>\n<p>Your oral health and general health are closely linked. Problems in one can affect the other.<\/p>\n<p>Some of the same things that cause poor oral health can also lead to other health problems. For example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eating or drinking a lot of sugar \u2014 in fizzy drinks, sweet snacks, fruit juices or smoothies \u2014 can lead to tooth decay and obesity<\/li>\n<li>These are called non-communicable diseases, which means they aren\u2019t spread from person to person<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Oral health through life<\/h2>\n<p>Looking after your mouth is important at every age \u2014 from babies to older adults. Good oral health helps you stay well throughout your life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why oral health matters Your mouth is a big part of your overall health. How your mouth looks is also&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":204,"parent":79,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-105","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":174,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/105\/revisions\/174"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/79"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oxfordhealth.nhs.uk\/cds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}