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In this episode of The Functional Medicine Radio Show, Dr. Carri’s special guest Ryan Nolan explains about the oral microbiome, and how our oral hygiene affects our entire health.
Ryan Nolan, DMD, is a dental materials scientist who is among the nation’s leading clinicians on studying cutting edge preventative oral care. Ryan approaches dental health from a comprehensive standpoint advocating for early intervention, proper diet, custom hygiene regimens and risk factor testing to address problems before they arise. Today he continues to innovate dental materials and hygiene regimens and discover new ways to improve oral health.
Main Questions Asked about Oral Hygiene:
- How does our oral health affect our entire health?
- What are the signs and symptoms of periodontal disease?
- Can you talk about the mouth being the gate keeper to the gut?
- Is there a test that dentists can do to see if we have biofilm in the mouth?
- Can you expand on proper diet and hygiene?
Key Points made by Ryan Nolan about Oral Hygiene:
- A good place to start if you’re talking about systemic health rates and overall health is probably periodontal disease.
- People who have periodontal disease are going to be far more likely to have a preterm birth. They’re more likely to have increased chance of atherosclerosis, which is hardening of the arteries. And we know that causes heart attacks. They’re five times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease
- Periodontal disease is the destruction of the bone, but also the destruction of the tissue; your teeth can get loose and the gums are more likely to bleed, meaning those oral junctional epithelium are not happy
- Gingivitis is actually the precursor stage for perio, and gingivitis is essentially just bleeding gums.
- If you have bleeding gums, you’re going to get bacteria from the mouth trans-locating to other places. One of those places is the gut. The other thing is that you swallow every four seconds. I’m not necessarily convinced that if you’re swallowing bacteria the acid in your stomach will kill it.
- These things are super resistant. The bacteria in your mouth form biofilms, which is the reason why they’re a thousand times more resistant to antibiotics than regular bacteria.
- These bacteria can manipulate your endocrine system in your gut and make you crave more sugar.
- So with the biofilm really what you’re testing for in the mouth is the various kinds of pathogens that could be there. You land on a spectrum. Either you’re going to have the decay or you’re going to have periodontal disease, right? And so, your risk for one or the other, they’re kind of like inverse to each other usually.
- If you have the proper diet, have the proper oral hygiene, you can keep things at a threshold level such that you don’t exhibit or develop disease.
- Antibiotics are not the correct method to address biofilm issues in the mouth.
- We developed a plant based nano silver rinse, which is very good at getting into the biofilm and resetting the pH to a higher pH, so an alkaline pH, in a much quicker timeframe than saliva can do.
- Proper diet is absolutely critical. Your body was never designed to have access to unlimited carbohydrates at any given time. The reason why microbiomes get out of balance is because of people’s diet.
- Diet will influence your risk for inflammation. And we know inflammation is the common thread for all the chronic diseases.
- A lot of the disease we see is very preventable. And the thing is if you’re taking care of your mouth and you have a good oral hygiene regimen and your diet’s clean, you’re just going to be an overall healthy person.
Resources Mentioned about Oral Hygiene:
Book – Reclaim Your Energy and Feel Normal Again
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