Dr. Nammy Patel of Green Dentistry explains what her practice calls a gum detox and how she evaluates bleeding gums, bad breath, and oral biofilm. She discusses guided biofilm therapy, lasers, Emdogain, oral microbiome testing, and the home-care habits she recommends to her patients.
John Maher: Hi, I’m John Maher. I’m here today with Dr. Nammy Patel, founder of Green Dentistry in San Francisco, California, helping patients recognize the vital connection between dental health and whole body health and author of the bestselling books, Age With Style: Guide to a Youthful Smile and Healthy Living and Total Wellness: Understanding the Link Between Your Teeth and Your Health. Today, we’re talking about gum detox, how to reduce oral biofilm, gum inflammation, and bacterial burden. Welcome, Dr. Nammy.
Dr. Nammy Patel: Hi, John. Thank you for having me.
Bleeding Gums, Bad Breath, and Gum Detox
John: Sure. Dr. Nammy, when a patient says they want a gum detox, what does that mean, clinically, from a biological dentistry point of view?
Dr. Nammy: What’s interesting is that patients don’t ask for a gum detox. I tell them they need a gum detox. What patients usually come in with is saying that, “Oh my gosh, my gums just bleed for no reason. I have no idea why. I don’t know what’s going on. I brush, I floss, I do everything right.” Or they come in saying, “I have bad breath. I do everything right. I’m drinking enough water. I am having probiotics. I’m doing everything right, but still I have this really bad breath and I’m very self-conscious around it.” So that’s what usually patients come in asking me about.
And then when they come in, we actually do a thorough assessment. We’re trying to figure out why are the gums bleeding? Why is there bad breath? What is going on inside their internal system that needs detoxification? Because you should not have bad breath, your gums should not bleed unless there’s something happening upstream.
Understanding Oral Biofilm and Whole-Body Health
John: And what is oral biofilm and why is that different from somebody just saying that, “Oh, I have plaque on my teeth?”
Dr. Nammy: Oral biofilm is a colony of bacteria, many bacteria. It’s not just plaque. It’s actually bacteria, viruses, fungus all come together and that creates what we call a biofilm of bacteria, viruses, and fungus that needs to be taken away on a daily basis. Now, if that biofilm is not removed, meaning the bacteria, the fungus, the viruses are not removed on a regular basis, what they actually do is cause diseases in the gums as well as the whole body.
And those diseases, we often know of as heart attacks or cardiovascular risks. We know that as bone diseases like arthritis, or joint diseases like arthritis. We also know diabetes. We also know Alzheimer’s, which is getting a lot of attention because there’s specific bacteria that’s inside the mouth that go across the blood-brain barrier and go into the brain. We call that Alzheimer’s.
So there’s a lot of things that we’re looking at with the biofilm, even including pregnancy. Some of these bacteria or biofilm also passes through the placenta through into the baby as one path. The second path is through natural birth through the vaginal canal. They’re actually exposed to the bacteria, viruses and fungus that the mom has. So we really want to be mindful of what is this biofilm made of? What specific bacteria, what are the specific viruses, what fungus is there, and what should be there and what shouldn’t be there? So how can I make it healthy?
Guided Biofilm Therapy and Deep Gum Cleaning
John: Do you do what might be called guided biofilm therapy or a deep gum cleaning? What are those?
Dr. Nammy: Well, deep gum cleaning, in our practice, we call it gum detox. The way we do our detox, absolutely, we use guided biofilm therapy. What we first do is stain all the teeth so that we can see where the bacteria is. Where is this biofilm located? Then we use a special powder with erythritol and we put it with ozonated water and we put it all around the teeth. So what that does is acts like a natural antibiotic in the mouth and it kills off all the bacteria, all the viruses, all the funguses that should not be in the mouth. Then we go ahead and smoothen all the surfaces. And then we use red light therapy in order to induce collagen, induce photobiomodulation to help the body heal itself. Then we finish it with ozonated oils and hydroxyapatite varnishes to help protect the teeth.
So a gum detox or a gum cleaning needs to be very thorough, very specific in order to help our patients make sure that they are detoxified from the bacteria, viruses and fungus.
Lasers, Red Light Therapy, and Emdogain
John: And how can lasers and an Emdogain fit into a gum health plan?
Dr. Nammy: So lasers are really wonderful because what they do is twofold. One is that they kill specific bacteria. The second is that it induces our own body to heal itself. Red light therapy is really fascinating. We’ve heard about red light therapy for our bodies because it gets mitochondria to work better. The mitochondria is our workhorse. That is where all the proteins are synthesized, that’s where all the toxins are eliminated. And so it’s really important that we one, get rid of the bacteria which is in the environment and second, get our bodies to heal themselves and stay healthy.
John: And Emdogain?
Dr. Nammy: So Emdogain is a wonderful product. Emdogaine is utilized, it is a peptide. A peptide is something that induces our bodies to do something. Emdogaine is used in areas of gum recession and we can actually tell our bodies to make more collagen so that we can help avoid grafting and painful procedures.
Gum Inflammation and Systemic Health Markers
John: What are some of the signs that gum inflammation might be affecting more than just the mouth, like bleeding gums, gum pockets, bad breath and loose teeth, things like that?
Dr. Nammy: So those are things that we see in the mouth and we can be aware of. So we see loose teeth, bad breath, bleedy gums. Those are a given. Now if we’re looking at systemic conditions, we want to look at our blood work. What does our LDL look like? Do we have the rheumatoid factor? Do we have arthritis? What does our insulin level look like? Those are some key indicators. If you’re not able to stabilize your blood sugar, if you’re not able to stabilize your LDL, if you’re not able to stabilize your rheumatoid factors and your inflammatory factors like CRP, we really need to start looking at the mouth as a root cause and really put that into the medical plan because it is the missing link.
Oral Microbiome Testing and At-Home Gum Care
John: Is there anything that a patient can do at home to support healthier gums, or when do they necessarily need professional periodontal care instead of trying to handle it themselves?
Dr. Nammy: So my professional opinion is get to the dentist, take an oral microbiome test so that we can treat you with precision, because there are things you can do at home and they’re great and I will give those to you. But the reason I stress testing first is because we want to personalize and customize your care. It’s not a one size fits all. Every person needs to be detoxed differently. Their gums need a different treatment plan in order to stay healthy.
Now, things you can do at home, there are some simple things and the easiest thing you can start with is hydration, making sure that you are drinking a lot of water. That is the key. One of the biggest reasons why we have bacterial overgrowth in the mouth or fungal overgrowth in the mouth is because a mouth is dry. Now that mouth becomes dry for several reasons.
You and I are spending a lot of time speaking. Sometimes we just get really busy. Sometimes we’re drinking that coffee that dehydrates us. Sometimes we’re snoring, that dehydrates our mouth. So there’s a lot of reasons, or even anti-anxiety medications, even high blood pressure medications make the mouth super dry. And what that does is create a breeding ground for bacteria to overgrow. And when that breeding ground is there, we have a lot of disease.
So we always want to start with the simplest lifestyle habits. Start with hydration, hydration, hydration. The second thing you can do, of course you want to floss, of course you want to brush your teeth, but you want to tongue scrape, scrape that tongue, get all the toxins out of the tongue because the tongue is an integral part of the body as well as the mouth. Once you do that, try oil pulling, use coconut oil or you can also use sesame oil in order to swish around the mouth to hydrate the mouth. And that hydration really helps populate healthy bacteria into your mouth and also balance the oral microbiome.
John: All right. Well, that’s really all great information, Dr. Nammy. Thanks again for speaking with me today.
Dr. Nammy: Absolutely. My pleasure.
John: And for more information about Green Dentistry, visit the website at sfgreendentist.com or call 415-433-0119.
