When you hear a dentist say that they treat patients “comprehensively,” you might not quite get what that means. It means that they understand the body as a whole and the way that various conditions can interact. A good dentist doesn’t treat individual diseases—they treat a person, completely.

This concept is particularly relevant to dentistry, as recent science suggests that what happens in the mouth can significantly affect the rest of the body. Serious issues like oral cancer are a threat, but even just gum disease can increase your risk for a myriad of other conditions. If you’re curious about how gingivitis can affect the rest of the body, here are a few diseases that gum disease might put you at an increased risk for.

If you haven’t had a dental checkup in a while, you might have noticed a new addition to the process: your dentist will now take your blood pressure whenever you see them. For some people, that might seem kind of strange—why would your dentist care about your blood pressure?

As it turns out, there are a few reasons why they would need to know this information. Here’s a little bit more information about why your dentist cares about your blood pressure levels.