Summary
Your mouth is one of the most important parts of the body when it comes to managing your overall health. This is because your oral microbiome helps to contribute significantly to your digestion, immune system and other key systems in your body.
John Maher: Hi, I am John Maher and 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 our topic is your oral microbiome and your health. Welcome, Dr. Nammy.
Dr. Nammy: Hi John. Thank you for having me.
What is Your Oral Microbiome?
John: Sure. So Dr. Nammy, what is your oral microbiome? What do we mean by that and what are some warning signs that your oral microbiome might be out of balance?
Dr. Nammy: Well, we’ve all heard of the term microbiome, which means small little bacteria’s that live in our body. We need bacteria to survive. We have good bacteria and bad bacteria. We have them on our skin, in our bellies, pretty much everywhere. Probably even on the laptop we’re speaking on.
There are bugs that are everywhere. And so we call them the microbiome. Biome is like home, right? So we want to say microbiome because it’s a smaller, if we really looked underneath the microscope, we would find that there’s small bugs everywhere.
And when we talk about the oral microbiome, we talk about specifically to the mouth. And that oral microbiome is very important because we swallow five gallons of bacteria every single day. Can you imagine five gallons?
John: That’s crazy. Yeah.
Good Oral Bacteria vs. Bad Oral Bacteria
Dr. Nammy: Right. If I’m going to have five gallons of bacteria, I want them to be good bacteria. I don’t want bad bacteria because what we have now learned is that there are specific bacteria that cause heart attack, diabetes, cancer, Alzheimer’s, arthritis, even ectopic pregnancy.
So, we really want to know what these bugs are and we want to get rid of them because that’s the only way we can feel healthy. And we know that we have the confidence that we’re healthy and that we know that we are making sure we’re taking care of ourselves in the best way possible.
And the way we do that is by testing the microbiome. So we want to know the specific bacteria that are bad and we want to make sure we get rid of them because we do not want them in your body nor my body.
How to Test Your Oral Microbiome
John: So how do you go about testing them and determining whether somebody has more of these bad bacteria than they have of the good bacteria and that things are out of balance?
Dr. Nammy: Science has progressed so much now, so we can actually do a spit test. So we spit into a vial and we send that off to a lab and the lab can actually look at the specific bacteria that are not so good for us.
We test about 12 species that we want to get rid of, and we really look at how can we balance that microbiome using probiotics, using laser treatment, including dental treatment to help balance that microbiome.
How to Support a Balanced Oral Microbiome
John: Beyond just brushing and flossing, how can somebody support a balanced oral microbiome, maybe through diet and lifestyle choices?
Dr. Nammy: Absolutely. The first one I’ll actually recommend is always going to be making sure the mouth is hydrated. So lots of water is really important. Breathing through the nose is really important because when we mouth breathe, it creates a dry environment which makes the bacteria grow. So we don’t want that and we really want to make sure we’re mouth taping at night.
Again, those are key things you can start doing right away. You can also floss, brush your teeth of course, but you also want to add in a probiotic. A probiotic is wonderful to be able to help balance that microbiome, giving us a boost of good bacteria that we want in the mouth.
Is Mouth Taping a Good Option?
John: You mentioned mouth taping. Is that for people who might be breathing through their mouth at night and then you’re keeping your mouth closed at night and forcing yourself to breathe through your nose?
Dr. Nammy: Yes. We now actually don’t know what we do at night while we’re sleeping because our body is completely paralyzed and we’re unconscious. So in order to be more certain that we are taking best care of ourselves, we tape the mouth close. So forces again, nose breathing, which helps us get nitric oxide, which helps us live longer and which also helps us balance a microbiome. So that’s the reason why we encourage nose breathing and mouth taping.
Probiotics Prebiotics and Their Role in Improving Oral Health
John: Talk a little bit more about probiotics and prebiotics and how they play a role in improving your oral health. And if somebody wants to start doing that, how do they go about choosing the right ones?
Dr. Nammy: So, a prebiotic is something that you take before a meal. A prebiotic is something really good, especially if somebody had acid reflux. There’s something called Swedish bitters that you can take before you start eating about maybe 15 minutes before, 15 to 30 minutes before. You have two spoons of that, and then you wait. And then what that does, it primes the body to be able to digest any food you eat.
For example, if you eat something that was really heavy, which causes a body a lot of effort to digest, we would be creating a lot of acid so that prebiotic help alkalize and use that acid and break down the food material so it can be easily digested. That is what a prebiotic is.
Now, a probiotic is specifically good bacteria that we want to help aid digestion. And the main reason that we want good probiotics is because we want to be able to take a probiotic.
I personally prefer to have a lozenge, something in the mouth that you basically suck on, like a breath mint creates more saliva, and you’re able to take the good bacteria into your body in little stages because you’re going to suck on it and it’s going to create saliva. So you’re swallowing. And then you’re going to suck on it again. It creates more saliva and then you swallow it. So as it does that, it goes into your belly in slower portions and they get activated. And what these bacteria do is they help convert the food you eat into nitric oxide.
And that’s very critical because we need to be able to break down food somehow. And we always thought, Hey, it’s only the stomach acids, but actually the stomach acids are equally important as the microbiome is or as a good bacteria it is into breaking down the food into good nutrients that our body can utilize. Especially nutrients like nitric oxide that our body can use to fight cancer, heart attack, diabetes, and things of that nature.
How is Holistic Dentistry Different from Traditional Dentistry?
John: And how does a holistic approach to dentistry differ from traditional methods when it comes to treating gum disease or cavities, especially considering this oral microbiome?
Dr. Nammy: One of the key things as a holistic, and more importantly as a functional dentist that I do, is I test everything. So we test the oral microbiome first. We do the treatment that we need to using holistic products, and then we test it again to make sure that it’s completely eradicated, especially the bad bugs that cause heart attack, diabetes, cancer, and ectopic pregnancy and arthritis. We want to make sure they are not in your mouth.
And we can do that with precision and with certainty, and we can use that do without using all natural products, without antibiotics. And that’s really our ultimate goal is to not use antibiotics because the antibiotics actually disrupt the microbiome. We want to balance the microbiome.
What Developments are Coming for Managing Your Oral Microbiome?
John: Okay. And then do you see any developments coming down the horizon here in terms of understanding and managing your oral microbiome and optimizing your dental and overall health?
Dr. Nammy: Absolutely. I feel like this is the golden age of dentistry. Dentistry for a long time has been the stepchild of medicine. We are now realizing, or actually we’ve known it or I’ve known it for a long time, for the last 20 years or so, that your mouth is really critical in the rest of your body.
Your oral systemic connection is the key to living longer, also the key to avoiding disease. And we can now test, we can now look for your genetic factors that cause inflammation and help you reduce that inflammation.
We can really focus on prevention, which is your ultimate goal, so that you can live to 120 and live a healthy life without a pill, without a product, without being dependent on me, which is awesome too. I mean, I really like the independence that we can create for our patients so that their bodies are designed to function and so what we’re doing is getting their bodies to work properly on their own, and that is really the function of a true, holistic or true functional dentist.
John: All right, well that’s really great information, Dr. Nammy. Thanks again for speaking with me today.
Dr. Nammy: My pleasure.
Learn More About Your Oral Microbiome
John: And for more information, you can visit the website at Sfgreendentist.com or call 415-433-0119.