How to Improve Oral Health & Its Critical Role in Brain & Body Health

Welcome to the Huberman Lab podcast where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life. I'm Andrew Huberman and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today we are talking about

oral

health

, now that most people hear about it.

health

, they immediately think of the health and appearance of the teeth and presumably also fresh breath or lack of bad breath and of course two and breath freshness, whiteness and health are a

critical

component of health

oral

, today you will learn that oral health, including the oral microbiome, health. of your palate, your tonsils, in fact, the entire oral cavity is an extremely important component of overall bodily health, to the point that today we are going to add a seventh pillar to the so-called six pillars of mental health, physical health and performance.

A trivial step to add a seventh pillar to these six pillars. If some of you have been listening to this podcast for a while, you may remember that the six pillars of mental health, physical health and performance, are the six things that everyone needs to invest in, specific protocols. each day are in no particular order because of the way they sleep sunlight and light exposure in general, which by extension also include exposure to darkness nutrition exercise which we could also call movement both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training stress management and relationships and social engagement, including your relationship with yourself and today we're going to add oral health and microbiome health and I guess we could generally call this oral and gut health because, as you know, if you think about it, your mouth, your oral cavity and your gut are contiguous with each other, we are going to add Oral and Gut Health as the seventh pillar of mental health, physical health and performance because, as you will learn today, there are many aspects of oral health and daily protocols for oral health that extend to cardiovascular health, metabolic health and, indeed,

brain

health. avoiding disease in all of those

body

compartments I can't stress enough how much oral health influences overall

body

health, so today you're going to learn about the biology and health of Oral B.

We won't go too deep into the biology, but we'll go deep enough into the biology that you will learn some incredible things, like that your teeth have the ability to literally fill cavities that have formed, as long as those cavities have not penetrated too far into the layers of the teeth, but you will learn that saliva, although most of the people think about it. as simply spit is an incredible fluid substance that contains all kinds of interesting and important things that allow you to rebuild the strength of your teeth and, in fact, support the health of your oral cavity and the gut microbiome and the body in general, for what saliva is super interesting and important. and today you will learn many protocols, including zero cost protocols that will actually save you money, as well as some low cost protocols to restore,

improve

and maintain oral health and in doing so, maintain and

improve

your overall body health before you start.

I would like to emphasize that this podcast is independent of my teaching and research duties at Stanford; however, it is part of my desire and effort to provide consumer information about science and science-related tools at no cost to the general public consistent with that topic. I would like to thank the sponsors of today's podcast, our first sponsor is matina matina makes yerba mate in loose leaves and ready to drink. I often talk about the benefits of ybba mate, such as blood sugar regulation, its high antioxidant content, ways it can improve digestion, and possible minimal protective effects.

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Helix Sleep manufactures the highest quality mattresses and pillows. I've talked many times before on this and other podcasts about the fact that sleep is the foundation of mental health and physical health. and performance, one of the key things to achieving a good night's sleep is making sure your mattress meets your sleep needs. The Helix website has a short two-minute questionnaire that, if you answer it, will ask you questions like, where do you sleep? your back, your side or your stomach, you tend to be hot or cold during the middle of the night, as well as a few other questions that allow you to determine the optimal mattress for you when I took the questionnaire that I personally related to your mattress in the evening. which has allowed me to significantly improve my sleep, so if you are interested in significantly improving your sleep, visit helixsleep.com huberman take their short two minute questionnaire and you will be assigned a custom play mat and wake up. up to $350 off any mattress order and two free pillows, so again, if you're interested in trying Helix, visit helixsleep.com huberman for up to $350 off and two free pillows, okay, let's talk about oral health, This absolutely

critical

aspect of not only having fresh clothes, shiny, cavity-free teeth and fresh breath or at least lack of bad breath, hopefully, but also the health of the entire body, as I mentioned a little before, oral health is inextricably linked. linked to all aspects of

brain

and body health, both short-term and long-term. long term and is perhaps the most overlooked aspect of mental health and physical health, so today I would like to start with a test.

I'm going to ask you which of the following three categories you think you fit best into. The first category is those of you who brush and floss your teeth every day, probably twice a day, and who make an effort to try to keep your teeth clean, who like the feeling that your teeth are clean. and who pay quite a bit of attention to whether No, your teeth are getting whiter or not, maybe whether your breath is fresh or not, maybe it's okay, these are not requirements to be in this category, but maybe you are someone who Also use a mouthwash or use mints or gum.

To try to keep your mouth smelling and looking fresh and your mouth clean, okay, so this first category doesn't require you to do all of those things, but let's just make it a basic requirement to participate in this category that you brush your teeth routinely at least twice. a day and floss at least once a day. Okay, if you fall into that category, you're in category one, and by the way, if you're in category one and you do those things and you do a lot of other things like whitening your teeth. and maybe you go to the dentist especially often more than the recommended twice a year, which still puts you in category one.

Well, the second category is those of you who are, let's say, a little more nonchalant about your oral and dental care, those of you who maybe just brush your teeth in the morning to get fresh breath, clean that kind of feeling. stickiness in your mouth that builds up during the night, sometimes you brush and maybe floss at night, but you know that many times you fall asleep without doing it or you don't feel like doing it or maybe you don't floss at all , okay, maybe you go to the dentist once every 6 months maybe a little less maybe once a year once every two years, so while there are a lot of different things that could put you in Category 2, let's establish as a basic requirement to belong to Category 2 that you brush your teeth once a day but not twice a day on a regular basis or that you brush your teeth twice a day but rarely floss, that's fine, that's it.

I would put into what I call category and then of course there is the third category that maybe some of you fall into and this is the CATE category of people who are extremely diligent not only in taking care of their teeth but also in health oral in general, in maintaining the microbiome of your mouth, how to make sure that your gums are very healthy, how to make sure that your soft palette and your hard palette are very healthy, how to make sure that yes, your teeth are clean, that they do not have so much accumulation of bacteria and other things. that can cause cavities, but also that you pay special attention to your oral microbiome and the overall state of your oral health and the fact that your mouth is linked to all of these different aspects of brain, heart, and metabolic health.

If you fall into that third category, great, but let's be honest, most people, I would say 95, maybe even 98% of people or more, fall into category one or category two, so when Listen to this, you're probably thinking, well, if I'm in category one I'm fine, right? I go to the dentist twice a year. I brush with dental floss. I use a mouthwash. I even whiten my teeth. Know? I make sure that if I have a sugary food I rinse my mouth. I try not to drink acidic foods, things that we'll discuss today to see if they actually have relevance to cavity formation or not, but guess what if you're in category one like I described or category two, you're probably doing things. to really deplete and disrupt your oral health, that's right, even if you pay a lot of attention to your teeth.

Health chances are if you are like most people simply because you do not have the latest information on what oral health really is. and how to best support you, you are probably doing things that could be keeping your teeth white and clean and free of cavities or not being told that you have cavities that need to be filled when you go to the dentist. twice a year or more, but it is messing with your oral health in a way that is depleting other aspects of your brain and body health and I'm not here to scare you, I'm just here to tell you that if you're in the Okay category, you're clearly doing some things that are beneficial for you, but there are some additional things that you can do and some things that you should avoid that will most likely improve your overall health of your health very quickly and the good news is that those things will. also zero or low cost or in some cases it can save you substantial costs now if you are in category two you are probably depleting both your oral health and your overall body health but this is what is interesting for some of the people in Category 2 who are not.

Do everything you can to, say, clean, renew and whiten your teeth, you actually have a healthier overall oral microbiome. That's not always the case, but it can often be the case, so what you'll find out today is whether you're in the category. 1 or Category 2 there are some wonderful, easily accessible practices that are well backed by science and, by the way, in preparation for this episode, I also consulted with no less than five dentists, including a pediatric dentist. I spoke with a periodontist. I spoke to people who fell into the category of functional dentist,I talk to people with a lot of different orientations who are highly qualified to talk and make recommendations about oral health and dental health, etc., and what I'm going to explain to you today is essentially the overlay on the Vendo diagram of what they all They agreed.

I will highlight some differences that each had and that several of them fall into different camps, but I was positively surprised how much overlap or consensus there was in terms of the best protocols for teeth and oral health and, by the way, if you are in that third category of people who are doing a lot for the health of their teeth, their appearance and their breath, etc., but also for their oral health and their microbiome, I am sure that today you will also learn something new about health. practices and some things that will allow you to expand on your already excellent oral health practices, so let's get into the oral health material, focusing first on the anatomy and health of two teeth and a little more on the anatomy of the mouth.

I promise not to get into this. into too much depth, but we really need to have a firm foundation a foundation of understanding of what the oral cavity actually consists of and I'm not going to throw out a bunch of names for the sake of nomenclature. I don't need to cloud your hippocampus with that kind of information unless it's functional information, but it is critical functional information for the rest of our discussion, where we'll talk about ways you can actually build the strength of your teeth even if cavities have already occurred. started to form and how to make your saliva really the best, healthiest saliva for your mouth in general and for your gut and for your brain, your heart, etc.

Okay, let's talk briefly. I promise briefly about the anatomy and a little physiology of these things. Well, the teeth we are all familiar with. what are the teeth and the tongue the tonsils in the back of the mouth we have our soft palette hard palette the gums let's talk a little bit about how that all fits together focusing on what most people think of when they think about oral health and that It's teeth is just a good starting point for us your teeth are layered structures, like almost every structure in your body is a layered structure, it's simply the way those structures form the cells that are born in one place, They migrate and form piles or layers.

Different layers have different types of cells and your teeth are no exception, so while there are different types of teeth in your mouth, teeth have an outer layer which is enamel, enamel believe it or not, it is not white, It is translucent, light can pass through it, but it is not transparent It is not like a transparent window It is translucent, light can pass through it but it is a little opaque Well, underneath the enamel there is a structure called dentin Dentin is important for today's discussion because it turns out that Cavities surprisingly do not form from the outside of the teeth.

Cavities and cavities, as the name suggests, are holes that bacteria burrow through the enamel and, if you're unlucky, reach the dentin. Our goal, which means your goal is to engage in correct daily protocols, daily protocols that are simple, fast and zero or very low cost that allow you to avoid the formation of those cavities yes but also that can allow you to fill those cavities this is One of the most important things to understand about oral health that I frankly didn't know until I started researching this episode and talking to all of these experts in the field, is that you can repair cavities that have started to form.

The right environment for your mouth is based on its chemistry and some things that are mechanical, but mostly based on its chemistry, in particular, how acidic it is. is or how basic it is it is always in a state of what is called demineralization or remineralization now those words are difficult to say and they are especially difficult to say quickly so demineralization remineralization is a bit of a tongue twister today I'm going to use an abbreviation which is a convention in the field of Dentistry, which is De Min or remin to refer to demineralization or remineralization, remineralization is good, it is the process by which within the enamel and to some extent in the deeper layer of dentin of the tooth , but especially within the enamel, new minerals can be added that essentially form very robust chains of crystals.

Okay, if you've ever looked at a crystal of any kind under a microscope or seen a photo of it, they are incredibly well organized. a network of very strong crystals, often even though they are weaker, very strong bonds and structure, it's like the structure of a really well-formed building, well, remineralization is the process of putting minerals back into that crystalline structure and, In fact, it is possible to refill them. those cavities that bacteria have begun to form, especially when those cavities have sunk into the enamel but have not yet reached the dentin layer of the tooth or teeth.

Okay, it's very important to understand. It is especially important to understand the context of the event. Usually, not always, but generally, if you have a cavity formed in one tooth and let's say it's only half or 3/4 of the way through the enamel layer, if you have cavities in other parts of your mouth, chances are they are at the same depth. or level not always, but most likely it's big news if those cavities haven't reached the dtin layer yet, why is it big news? Well, I don't know about you, but I don't like having my teeth drilled.

Like getting drilled and cavities filled. I had a very traumatic childhood regarding dentistry and oral health. I'll talk about that a little later in the episode. It's not like I had tons and tons of cavities. I actually had this other problem where my permanent teeth appeared behind my baby teeth. They removed all my baby teeth. I had to take a bunch of Novacane injections in my mouth. I didn't like having injections in my mouth, so I opted to have the cavities I hadn't drilled out. Novacane isn't because he was a tough kid, although that definitely toughened me up, it was because he hated having syringes in his mouth.

He might even have bitten a dentist or two or three. I no longer bite the dentist. I thank the dentist for I think dentists are wonderful. Regular cleanings are wonderful. We'll talk about the frequency of cleanings, but this is the point. If you are someone who likes to have your teeth drilled well, then I don't know what to say, but if, like most people, with the proper wiring of your neurology, then you don't like to have your teeth drilled and you can avoid it. in many cases remineralizing that layer of enamel on your teeth now, if there is a demineralization down to the deeper layers of dentin of the tooth, then most often it will need to be drilled, drilled and filled, as they say or as some people say. , which is a little more cynical, drill, fill and build because they charge you for it or they charge your insurance for it.

Well, let's get back to tooth anatomy. and anatomy of the mouth we talk about the enamel layer of the tooth on the outside. I told you it can demineralize demmin or remineralize remin. This is a key point, your teeth are always in a demon or remen state. That is, demon or remen. It's not both at the same time, it's one or the other and it depends largely on the p, that is, the acidity of your mouth, which depends largely on the amount of saliva you are producing and the mineral content of that saliva. . Keep that in mind.

I think it's a very important point now, another key point is that next to the teeth, right where the gums are, the gingiva, as it's called now, the gum plays a very important

role

in keeping the teeth stable. We don't usually think about it like that. but even though that stuff looks rubbery and soft, it's soft tissue, it's very important for securing the teeth to the bone, it's not just the roots that extend up to the jaw under the gums, they're very important for keeping the teeth where they are . It is actually also a small ligament between the gums and teeth that resides a little deeper, but the gums form a critical barrier between the oral cavity and the deeper layers of what will eventually be bone and to the general blood flow or bloodstream of the body.

It is very important to understand that the gums are a seal around the tooth. So when you go to the dentist, they're paying attention with that little toothpick, they're paying attention to how high or, hopefully, how low the tent is, the little gaps. or pockets of gum along the here in my mouth, yeah, I'll try not to do that during today's episode. I point out my teeth so much that then you can't understand what I'm saying, that the gums are providing a seal between the oral cavity and essentially the bone and the bloodstream in general. Now this is so critical because let's take a step back and think about the oral cavity and what an extraordinary place it is, think about it, this is a huge hole in our body okay, we have other huge holes in our body, but those tend to be holes based on sphincters, yeah, I realize there's probably some laughter as soon as you say sphincter like yeah, the anal sphincter, okay, we're anatomists, we're biologists, we can talk. about that, stay closed, things usually don't go up there and if it's not very frequent, your nasal passages are fine, yes those are holes, but you know there's a lot of stuff in there, there's mucus to catch things, there's a shape plate CRI, there is a bone, there are a lot of things that act as barriers between the nasal cavities and the brain that is located right behind the olfactory bulb and yes, we have eyes and then you know we have the outside of the eyes and there is a susceptibility there, but we have our blink reflex, there's also an eye microbiome, there's a lot of stuff there, but think about this huge hole in the front of our face that we use to eat, talk and breathe.

Well, it's a huge hole and, as a result, it's full of bacteria. from our outside environment all day, all day, sometimes at night, although we will talk later about the critical need to breathe through the nose at night and not through the mouth, not only to avoid sleep apnea , but also because it turns out that dry mouth is one of the ways you can really ruin your oral health in a major way; In fact, it is one of the leading causes of cavities in people like meth addicts or if you see people who breathe through their mouths. oral health and your teeth in general, but certainly your oral health is seriously impaired, so you have this big hole in the front of your face and you're talking, eating and moving throughout the day, even if you breathe through your nose when you're not You're not talking or eating and all this bacteria is coming in and it's a very humid and very warm environment, so the combination of moist and warm bacteria means that this is like a petri dish for growing things that could be really bad. for us, but it has this incredible characteristic which is that if the pH is correct, the bad things are eliminated, they do not reach our system, they do not alter our oral health or our body health, it also has a critical characteristic which is that the bacteria that they are good for us they proliferate and support the sealing process of the gums against the teeth and the health of the teeth and the health of the tongue and palette Health Etc.

Okay, so the oral cavity is amazing in how vulnerable it is but also because of how robust it is. There are other ways too, but that is one of the main ones and it is a huge portal to the rest of the body and, if the oral cavity is not surprising to you, already Based on what you have heard so far, think about this if you cut your arm , hand or shin, unless you are one of those extraordinary people who always heal without scarring as long as you are about 25 years old. or greater, usually a small scar will form, something will be noticeable there, the oral cavity can also get cuts and burns and things like that, unfortunately those things happen, but with rare exceptions it heals without leaving almost any scar, sometimes There is a scar, but almost zero scarring, which is notable because it's basically an open wound with a lot of bacteria inside and it's warm and moist, so clearly there is something special going on in this thing we call the oral cavity, in fact there is. and it is anchored in the The fact that if we treat it well we can promote remineralization.

How do you do that while keeping your saliva healthy? How do you do that by supporting the right bacteria inside your mouth and making sure you kill off the bacteria you don't want? or at least limit those bacteria and today we're going to talk about how to do that and by virtue of doing all the things that support the health of your teeth, you will also support the health of your gums. Well, those gums are essential because they form that barrier. that if it gets too big if those pockets those gaps get too big and you're not taking care of the bacteria in your mouth when you're not getting rid of the bad bacteria those bacteria make their way into the deeper gaps near the roots of the tooth sometimes they get into the tooth, we'll talk about that and they can get to the bone and then they can cause serious problems.

This is what is called periodontal disease and periodontal disease isassociated with all kinds of really bad things, including Alzheimer's. This is not just a wellness culture, scientific leap towards Alzheimer's, there is literally evidence that the specific bacteria that cause gum recession can cross the blood-brain barrier if they reach the general circulation and potentially cause Plax and Tangles, some of the distinctive characteristics. of neuronal degeneration in Alzheimer's disease is well, probably not the only cause of Alzheimer's disease, but potentially one of the main causes. This is a new theory, but a lot of people are starting to pay attention to it and it is also very clear that bacteria turn it into These deeper holes near the roots and within the bone can end up with problems related to heart health and certainly with the metabolic health.

Well, again, the goal today is not to scare you, it's not to spend too much time on all the terrible things that can happen, but rather to emphasize the positive, which is that if you do the right things at the right times, especially if you do regularly, you can really improve the health of your total oral cavity, your teeth, your breath and everything. the other things that people care about, aesthetics and interpersonal interactions, will also flourish. I would like to take a quick moment and thank one of our sponsors, and that is ag1 ag1 is a probiotic vitamin and mineral drink that also contains adaptogens.

I started taking ag1 way. Back in 2012 the reason I started taking it and the reason I still take it every day is that it ensures I meet all my vitamin and mineral quotas and ensures I get enough prebiotics and probiotics to support gut health. Now gut health is something that over the past 10 years we realized is not only important for the health of our gut but also for our immune system and for the production of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators, such as dopamine and serotonin. ; In other words, gut health is essential for proper brain function. Now, of course, I strive for it.

I consume healthy Whole Foods for most of my nutritional intake every day, but there are a number of things in ag1, including specific micronutrients that are difficult to get from Whole Foods or at least in sufficient quantities for ag1 to allow me to get the vitamins and minerals. that I need probiotics, prebiotics, adaptogens and critical micronutrients, so whenever someone asks me if they should just take one supplement, what that supplement should be, I tell them ag1 because ag1 supports many different systems within the body that are involved in health mental and physical health. and performance to try ag1, go drink a1.com huberman and you will get a year's supply of vitamin D3 K2 and five free travel packs of ag1 again, that's drink a1.com huberman, okay, let's talk about how cavities form because I think this is the main question that people ask when they ask or think about oral health, as I mentioned before, cavities are literally holes, they are fenestrations, as the nerds call them, nerds like me call them little fenestrations, little holes in the enamel that they do achieve it.

Up to the dentin layer of the tooth will most likely need to be drilled and filled and presumably built up well, but your goal. I think our goal is to try to keep our teeth in a state of remineralization while maintaining the pH, which is relative. acid-alkaline balance of the mouth so that saliva supports remineralization now let's think about how a cavity actually forms it turns out that no specific food, not even sugar, causes cavities cavities are not caused by sugar cavities are caused by bacteria that are They feed on sugar and that is not just a small twist in the mechanism, that is a critical point, there are no specific foods, not even pure sugar, not even a hard candy like a delicious Jolly Rancher.

I liked those when I was a kid, they get stuck in your teeth. that causes cavities no, it is the bacteria that feed on sugar that then produce acid that sinks and degrades which demineralizes the tooth in this very focal area that we call cavities okay, if that is not surprising enough, understand This, the bacteria that cause cavities by eating sugar and releasing this acid, although there are several of them, the main one is called streptococcus mutans or what I will call streptococcus mutans for short streptococcus mutans is not something you are born with, it is actually a transmissible bacteria, that's right.

They communicate it to each other through sharing glasses, sharing bottles, kissing on the mouth, etc. Now I'm not here to tell you not to do any of those things. However, I'm certainly not here to tell you that and certainly in the research. In this episode I learned that there is a specific category of people, usually they are dentists or married to a dentist, who have chosen, believe it or not, to never kiss their children near or on the mouth to help their children not Streptococus mutans because almost all adults carry it, not everything, but it is transmissible like an STI or like a flu or like a flu, or it is transmitted between individuals, we are not born with it now, that is a whole U area, let's call it biosocial ethics, decision making.

I think most people won't worry too much or at least take action because, let's face it, most people aren't going to change their general behavior of kissing or using bottles or cups to avoid contracting mutans strep. The world has mutans strep or will get mutans strep and it lives in the mouth. Okay, it just resides there. Mutans strep is there and it's hungry. What's sugar hungry? When sugar is present, you eat it. Produces acid. The acid causes cavities. state of remineralization to demineralization or by the way, this is really important if your mouth is already in a state that is more demineralization, so to speak, then it will take advantage of that and cause cavities much faster, so keep in mind that acidity is bad for your mouth, does that mean you should never consume a lemon or by the way, yes, I am guilty of everyone chewing on a lemon slice for a while or drinking lemon water or carbonated drinks, soda, tea or anything that has a sour taste, in the same way, you should completely avoid eating any type of sugar because mutan strep loves sugar.

It turns out that mutan strep also likes sugars in the form of complex carbohydrate sugars, so if you eat pasta, rice or oatmeal and a little bread from time to time While I am an omnivore, I eat meat, fish, eggs and also starches, vegetables and fruits. I am omnivorous like most people. Then the mutans strep has the opportunity to eat the sugars that come from those other carbohydrates. that means that if you had a diet with no carbohydrates, no sugars, no starches, etc., it would reduce the opportunity for mutans strep to consume sugar and release acid, maybe maybe, however, most people will not do that and mutans strep is a very smart choice, maybe even. evil bacteria and if you're on a no-carb, no-sugar diet, there's some evidence that mutans strep will find ways to feed on other components of food to create this acid and then create cavities in your teeth, so the key is to understand here. is that cavities do not form from food, nor from sugars per se, but from streptococcus mutans and other bacteria that eat those sugars and create acid, hence the critical need to keep the mouth as alkaline as possible, which does not It means you can never drink a little lemon. water, coffee or tea, this is the key point that everyone needs to remember because it fits wonderfully with how often you should brush and floss and when you should specifically brush and floss.

The key point is the degree to which your mouth is in a demonic state or a remin state and the degree to which cavities have the opportunity to form depends on the amount of time that your mouth is net acidic or net. alkaline the amount of time you're in demineralization mode or remineralization mode, okay? So, it's the amount of time that no one can avoid having an acid mouth from time to time or eating sugar or a food that mut mutans strep can feed on and produce acid. The key is to try to reduce the amount of strep. mutans and reducing the amount of acid in the mouth, that is the best way to reduce cavities and even reverse cavities that have begun to form.

Now I'm going to talk to you about fluoride in a moment because I know there are a lot of questions about fluoride. but in order for you to understand what I'm saying about fluoride and make the best decision about fluoride in both your drinking water and your toothpaste, etc., you need to understand the remineralization process just a little, a little, a little bit of chemistry. . Here's a little bit of structural biology and this will be fun, I promise, even if you don't know anything about biology, structural biology, or chemistry, you're going to like this part and it's very simple, those minerals that form the crystals inside the enamel and Some of the deeper layers of your tooth or teeth, rather, those crystals form through a specific type of bond and those bonds are very strong.

Think of them as Lego chains, but these aren't just conventional Lego chains. These are Lego chains that when glued together are two pieces. They come together, things are difficult to separate, they are not indestructible, but they are difficult to separate and they are also special because, unlike a series of Legos, like a single series of Legos, these bonds that are formed during the remineralization of the teeth are interdigitated. each other or rather they are at angles to each other that make those links especially strong. Any architect or someone who understands structural biology will understand that links can be weak or strong depending on whether they are linear or not, whether they are crossed or not. whether or not, and there's a lot of interesting stuff lately about angle forces that architects will understand and construction workers will understand on a very intuitive and concrete level, no pun intended, and so on, but think of it as a link .

It is only as strong as the number of different points at which it can resist shear and pressure, so the way these remineralization bonds form is by adding specific minerals at specific angles and the natural mineral that is responsible of most of these bonds in enamel and teeth are called hydroxy appetite, what a great name if you're talking about oral health, because we use our mouth for so many things, you can think of a short or long list of those things, there are many You know them depending on who you are and what you like to do with your mouth, but the point is that we do, in fact, eat with our mouths.

Appetite is part of eating, so remember the hydroxy bonds in appetite and they are very strong, but they are non-indestructible acid can actually break those bonds. Well, that's the mineralization process. Now fluoride is a substance that is not a vitamin, is not a mineral, is not an essential nutrient, but in the last century it was discovered that it can actually replace some of the hydroxyapatite bonds. in the teeth and actually making those bonds super strong, super physiologically strong. Now we'll talk a little bit about the safety considerations with fluoride because there are some safety considerations, but it was decided in Mass in the United States and Europe that adding fluoride to drinking water and to many toothpastes or powders would be helpful because it creates these bonds. super physiologically strong minerals within the teeth and, in fact, it does.

Fluoride gets between those Lego pieces and makes them stronger and that's why Fluoride is added to drinking water, but it's very important to emphasize this, but today there is a very polarized debate about fluoride because some people believe that Fluoride can disrupt the thyroid. Health could be detrimental to brain health, no doubt, if fluoride levels are too high in drinking water or any substance can be very dangerous, it can be a poison, but of course the dose makes the poison correct. Fluoride itself may not be poisonous at very low levels, but two sides have really formed and I will just illustrate them. two fields under what is happening right now in the state of California there is a major lawsuit against the government because people want fluoride removed from drinking water because of the long list of bad things that too much.

I want to highlight that excess fluoride can do harm to body and brain health, especially in children, but also in adults at the same time, which means that right now there is also a significant demand, this one in Buffalo, New York, from parents mostly they are suing the city of Buffalo saying maybe there wasn't enough. Even zero fluoride in drinking water over a period of time and as a result your children's teeth or oral health, or both, are depleted and they are suing for damages. Well, this is a really polarized field. Now I did a full episode of The Hubman.

Podcastlaboratory on water and talked about fluoride levels, what levels the CDC considers safe, what levels are considered unsafe. I talked about some of the theories about how fluoride could alter thyroid function and some considerations around that. please check the timestamp on that episode. I link to that timestamp in the title of this episode, but the important point here is that if you're concerned about fluoride in your drinking water, the simple answer is to simply filter the water that comes out of your tap if you're concerned about fluoride, then I guess You'll probably want to avoid toothpastes that contain fluoride.

In fact, there are some. I'll provide links to some of them in the show notes titles for this episode. There is a variety. of these fluoride-free toothpastes that have started to build up, but keep in mind that when you introduce fluoride into the mineral bonds of your teeth, it makes them really very strong, but all the dentists I spoke to emphasize this point, the bonds That The form is not the natural bonds now, the fact that they are not the natural bonds does not necessarily mean that they are not good for us or that they are bad for us, but the bonds that are formed when viewed under what is called microscopy electronics. they look different, they look wavy, they are not smooth joints and they increase resistance to different forces including cavities or acid that would create cavities, to be specific they make the teeth structurally stronger so they are resistant to chipping , etc., but there is a growing concern about excess fluoride, which, by the way, if you drink a lot of tap water you will be exposed to more fluoride than if you drink less tap water, that makes sense, but people don't really talk about this when you talk about of the amount you are Inés in general and that is something that is much more difficult to control again in the water episode.

I talk about ways to eliminate or reduce fluoride in drinking water if that concerns you, but if you want to know why there is fluoride in drinking water, it's because the government realized, well, yes, we want to reduce tooth decay. The simplest and cheapest method to achieve this is to put fluoride in your drinking water. Now you also know why there is fluoride in a lot of toothpaste, but given the concerns about thyroid health, there are now potential concerns about brain health. You also know why many people, including some dentists I spoke to, aren't big fans of fluoride for both kids and adults, so you just have to make the decision for yourself.

I'm not here to tell you what to do, you just have to do it. Decide if you are pro neutral or against fluoride in your drinking water and, if so, are you going to filter? Are you going to completely avoid drinking water, maybe even cook with T water and so on, but now you know why fluoride? is in drinking water and fluoride is in toothpaste, if you are someone who is concerned about fluoride in one or both sources then what you really want to think about and what most of us should probably be thinking about anyway it's in trying to increase the remineralization state of our teeth and mouth so that we don't create the opportunity for any other health hazards and I will say this as well, that there is some data, not a lot, but some data that fluoride It might not be so good for our oral health. microbiome and, as we will soon learn, the oral microbiome is essential to our oral and general health.

I would like to take a quick break and thank our sponsor. insid tracker insid tracker is a personalized nutrition platform that analyzes data from your blood and DNA. to help you better understand your body and help you achieve your health goals. I have long believed in the need for regular blood testing for the simple reason that many of the factors that affect your immediate and long-term health can only be tested. However, from a quality blood test, a major problem with many blood tests is that you get information about metabolic factors, lipids and hormones, etc., but you don't know what to do with that information with the internal tracker that they do it. very easy because they have a customized platform that allows you to see the levels of all those things, metabolic factors, lipids, hormones, etc., but it gives you specific directives that you can follow that relate to nutritional behavior modifications, supplements, etc. , which can help you achieve those numbers. the ranges that are optimal for you, if you want to try Inside Tracker, you can go to Inside Tracker.com Huberman to get 20% off any of the Inside Tracker plans again, that's on Inside Tracker.com Huberman, so in a moment we'll get into what to do the behavioral to-dos and some of the other to-dos to try to keep your mouth at the best possible remineralization Indicate the best pH for tooth health for tooth health gums to prevent periodontal disease perhaps even to reverse some aspects of dental and periodontal disease because you can actually do that by changing your mouth to the correct pH if you put it in that remineralization mode.

Okay, though, before we get into everything, I think it's very important to discuss what needs to be done. Not that every dentist and periodontist I spoke to agreed with the Quick List, as I'll call it bad for your teeth, bad for your mouth, and therefore bad for your brain and body. It's not surprising that maybe alcohol is something that, by the way, I did a whole episode on alcohol is one of our most popular episodes. I'm not here to tell you to never drink if you're a non-alcoholic adult, but the limit seems to be two alcohol-based drinks per week.

Beyond which you get into trouble. and yes, zero is better than any other, but when we say that alcohol is not good for oral health or dental health, what we are talking about is the alteration that alcohol creates in the microbiome and the way in which It alters the pH of the saliva and places the mouth and teeth in a state of demineralization that is very clear, it also kills certain cells in the mouth. Some people, I remember this in college, were like, “Oh, you know, if you have a scratch in your mouth.” in the back of your throat you're getting sick you know you should drink and that's what they said you should drink it's going to kill that thing well guess what it does the exact opposite it kills a lot of things you want like the cells in and around you the mucous layer of your mouth that will actually provide immune support and kill those bacteria or viruses that make you sick, etc., so alcohol is bad.

I'm not saying you shouldn't drink at all if you are an alcohol-free adult, you have to decide for yourself, but understand that if you drink alcohol you should pay special attention to your oral health and dental care practices, especially on days around that consumption. of alcohol and if you are someone who does not want to drink alcohol now you have another reason not to drink alcohol the second thing on the no fly list or on the list of not being good for us for the sake of oral health are stimulants, now Of course, things like meth, which one are you?

I know it severely dilutes addictive drugs for all sorts of reasons, they kill dopaminergic neurons and other brain neurons, they are highly addictive etc. but also stimulants like Adderal Viance etc. Those stimulants, basically any drug that increases epinephrine and norepinephrine, so-called adrenaline and norepinephrine are the other names for these are going to have a negative effect on oral health, does that mean you should stop those medications if you've had them? prescribed? No, it means you should do other things to try to compensate for the negative consequences of stimulants, so why would you? Stimulants cause such alteration in oral health.

Well, there are actually two reasons: there is a chemical reason and there is a mechanical reason. The chemical reason is that stimulants change the pH of saliva, making the mouth more acidic, which makes mutans strep and other bacteria more able to create. cavities to the teeth take your mouth and your teeth out of that state of remineralization or I have been referring to that way to that demineralization demon way demon way that is a way of remembering that it is bad demon way demon way it is not good maybe in a video game Demon mode is good Demon mode is not good for the mouth Demon mode is demineralization mode, so there is a chemical reason why stimulants alter oral health and cause alterations in the health of teeth and degradation of tooth enamel and the deeper layers of the teeth, and this. is deeply evident in meth, but the other reason, which was shared with me by a doctor at the University of California, San Francisco, who interacts by virtue of his profession with many meth addicts who have terrible teeth, is that stimulants encourage mouth breathing observe a methamphetamine addict or observe someone who takes a high dose of a stimulant and tends to breathe through the mouth due to changes in the function of the autonomic nervous system, tends to breathe through the mouth, so it is the drying of the mouth that also changes the mouth. from that remineralization mode to demineralization mode, so if you take prescription stimulants, I hope it's not meth or drugs, but if you take prescription stimulants and, by the way, things like Wellbutrin modafanil, they qualify as stimulants even though the modal is a bit of a special case, any medication that increases norepinephrine, epinephrine, any stimulant and yes in fact coffee, we will also talk about coffee and tea will make your saliva more acidic and will make your oral health potentially less good, mouth breathing is bad for oral health, bad for your teeth. bad bad there's just no question about it so I call today's discussion oral health, but that includes oral airway health and I've talked before on this podcast about the fact that if you can breathe through your nose, breathe through your nose please as long as you don't talk while you're not eating try breathing through your nose if you exercise and you exercise a lot like you're running really hard breathe through your mouth well I don't think there's any evidence that staying in nasal breathing mode all the time while exercising is better for performance;

In fact, on the contrary, there are times when it is necessary to breathe through the mouth and there are sports in which it is necessary to exhale through the mouth, specifically in certain martial arts, for example, so don't say never do it. Breathe through your mouth, but as much as possible try to keep the oral cavity moist and closed. Well, this is essential, which is why stimulants dry out the mouth and increase the acidity of the saliva. That's bad. Smoking cigarettes and yes, also cannabis and yes, vaping also does this. It's so funny whenever I talk about smoking being bad people like, well, what about cannabis?

Well, I didn't do an episode about cannabis. Cannabis has certain medical uses that are very interesting and there is good evidence for that, but for many people cannabis is not a good idea. you can watch that episode to decide for yourself and then people ask what's wrong with vaping, vaping isn't as bad as smoking, right, that's what they say, where they kind of ask, they say, they hope, they want to fantasize and the The truth is that vaping is terrible for your mouth. for your health it is also as bad as smoking, probably not, but it is bad for many other reasons that outweigh any gains you would get from vaping instead of smoking, so you should know that if you are a smoker or vaper or if you vape, instead of So, you'll want to pay special attention to some of the other protocols discussed and that we will discuss in the future to try to support your oral health and, therefore, that of your entire body.

Well, we have stimulant alcohol to smoke. Frankly, vaping SL and by extension dipping tobacco, is not good for oral health or tooth health, in fact they can be cancerous to gum tissue, it is well established and they can also cause degradation of the gum tissue and even some of the underlying bone if you tend to do it on the same side all the time or often then that's not good. We already discussed that sugar is not good for oral health. Does that mean you can never eat sugar? No, of course, don't indulge in the sweets you enjoy from time to time. while you're enjoying a nice cupcake, you know, do whatever you want, if you're someone who never eats that good stuff, but then you understand that any carbohydrate and starch provides a sugar that strep mutans can eat and creates acid and demineralizes your teeth, it creates cavities which is so avoid too much sugar and if you eat sugar try to rinse your mouth afterwards and ideally you would brush your teeth and maybe even floss afterwards.

Well, I know those people who run after every meal, even in the middle of the day,They run to the bathroom. and brush your teeth and floss and that's great but most people don't do it so swishing with water and rinsing your mouth again with plain water maybe with a little salt will be beneficial. We'll talk about mouthwashes later. To give you a little window into where we're headed, most mouthwashes are terrible for your oral health, especially alcohol-based or antiseptic mouthwashes, except under certain prescribed conditions or otherwise, okay, so if you eat sugar and, frankly, after eating anything.

It is a good idea to try to remove as much of that food product from your mouth as possible. You may not think you still have food in your mouth and teeth, but trying to figure out, swish some water, maybe spit it out, maybe swallow it, that's up to you. You are a spit or a gulp, it's none of my business, I don't want to, don't tell me, don't put it in the comments, just decide for yourself, but sugar and other food products that reside in the mouth for long periods of time are not good and have a similar acidity. foods that are acidic, so certain things like citrus fruits that I love.

I love oranges. I now have an orange tree in my backyard and I love it. I love oranges and grapefruits. I just love the shell. Even as the peel sometimes it is so delicious. No one is telling you not to eat acidic foods or to avoid acidic drinks like lemon water or carbonated lemon water. Some people are really extreme and decide to use a straw when they drink that stuff. In fact, the dentist I spoke to said yes, could you? Ask people, please, if they are going to drink acidic drinks to try to use a straw, but then I said, well, you know, a lot of straws disrupt the environment, most people don't carry metal straws or you know, do they? and what about the turtles? this kind of thing and they said well this is the real truth, the real truth is that's the amount of time your mouth is exposed to that acid, so if you're going to drink it, drink it over the course of 10 15 maybe 20 30 minutes and then finish, rinse your mouth with some water and try to eliminate that acidity.

It's not about completely avoiding acidic foods or sugary foods or acidic drinks, it's again about limiting the amount of time the total amount of your mouth is acidic because of all this mutans strep and acid remen demon created by mutans streptococcus that can erode teeth and the fact that if your mouth stays acidic for long periods of time, it will give you the opportunity to do it faster. and deeper development of those cavities and keep this in mind again whenever we talk about demineralization, the formation of cavities, remember it's like a seesaw, it's either demon or reman, but not both, so whenever you demineralize your teeth is not remineralizing them either.

Okay, so really avoid alcohol, stimulants, smoking, vaping, sugar, mouth breathing, acidic foods, acidic drinks, but many of us, most of us, we can't avoid any sugar, any acidic food, the other things can be avoided, but some of us are prescribed these medications and we need them at some point. People like an alcoholic drink from time to time and it is perfectly fine for them or they have considered it perfectly fine for them, in that case try to rinse your mouth, try to keep your mouth as moist and basic as possible. or alkaline and not as acidic as possible to Translate this a little more to the real world if you are someone like me who loves tea.

I drink cold unsweetened beer and shake, that's my favorite source of caffeine. I also like a good double black espresso or coffee every once in a while, that's okay. drink that but you don't want to drink that kind of stuff all day and you don't want to drink it for hours and hours and if you're going to combine that stuff with some acidic foods or any kind of food that you know, try to prepare your meals, wrap them, rinse your mouth and move on to the next part of the day, and that actually becomes a really important point that came up when researching this episode and that if I were to highlight the face in bold I underline and highlight a particular protocol that I think most What people are not thinking about is that there are certain times in the 24-hour circadian period when the mouth produces the maximum amount of saliva and that the saliva has the opportunity to be the optimal pH which is the chemistry to encourage remineralization of teeth and that is during the day and especially in the middle of the day.

Now there are a couple of things that can alter that, for example eating anything. I don't care if you are a carnivore or vegan. Any omnivore, when you eat, you change the pH of your saliva and you are introducing those sugars that bacteria can feed on, so one thing became very clear to me when researching this episode, talking to experts, reading manuscripts and also reading some books really interesting. about remineralization opportunities for your teeth is that having a period of time of perhaps two four six hours or more where you don't eat anything or ingest anything that is acidic in terms of fluids can be very beneficial now that this is a upvote - called intermittent fasting, this is something I normally practice eating my first meal around 11:00am. m. every morning, sometimes earlier, sometimes I have a small breakfast at 9:00 if I'm really hungry, but I usually eat my first meal around 11:00 am. or at noon and then I eat my last bite around 8:00 p.m.

Not everyone likes to do intermittent fasting and I realize that for weight loss it's probably interchangeable with calorie restriction in general and there's a lot of debate about whether intermittent fasting will prolong lifespan or not, whether or not it's better for metabolic health than the simple. calorie restriction I don't want to get into that debate, frankly, it's a barbed wire debate that's been going on on this podcast and elsewhere before and I think this is ongoing. I think that's the best way to express that debate, but investigating this episode. It became very clear that we have an incredible opportunity during the day, especially in the morning and throughout the day, to create a lot of saliva with the right pH to promote the remineralization of the teeth, as long as there is not a lot of acidic food or liquids. in the mouth at that time, so at least in my opinion, this is an interesting opportunity to put intermittent fasting, which again or even intervals between meals, without snacking or drinking acidic drinks constantly during the day, as an opportunity to create that healthy milu during which teeth can remineralize and overall oral health can improve now, does that mean you should never eat or drink anything in the middle of the day?

No, I'm not saying that I'm saying that if you're going to do those things, try them. and clean them from your mouth as I described before. Now many of you will probably say "hey" for the middle of the night, I'm not going to eat or drink anything. For some of you, that might be the only time you don't eat or drink. Anything because you're asleep one would expect you to be asleep, but here's the interesting thing: every cellular tissue and organ in our body is on a 24-hour circadian clock. I think many of you have heard me say that in the context of visualization. morning sunlight and other protocols that, you know, they suggest on the Huberman Loud podcast, but here's the interesting and important point: in the middle of the night, you're not actually ingesting any food or liquid, presumably , but your saliva production is drastically reduced again, it is drastically reduced and as a consequence, if there is food or rather food opportunity for the mutans streptococcus and other bacteria to feed on and create a to erode the teeth, the saliva necessary to compensate that to combat that is just not present or at least not present at the same levels as it is during the day, so it's kind of a double protocol.

On the one hand, I'm saying you might consider trying to introduce periods of an hour or two or more during the day where you don't eat any food and if you're drinking something that's not acidic or if you're going to try to flush out that acid as much as possible, so PL water would be great, avoiding carbonated lemon water would be great, but if you like that stuff and I actually love that stuff. I love carbonated water with lemon. I love things like yamat. In fact, the yacht I like is unsweetened cobw, but it has a little bit of lemon and ginger.

Okay, it's pretty tart, but then I drink it pretty quickly or, if you're going to slurp it, rinse it off. wash it down with a little bit of water and don't do it all day and in fact I tend to drink caffeine early in the day and not so much during the day, maybe a little bit of mate in the afternoon sometimes it's okay so that's one aspect of maintenance o Encouraging the correct pH of saliva to remineralize teeth properly creates these windows of opportunity where there is a lot of saliva for long periods of time during the day, for as long as possible, and at the same time makes it compatible with your nutritional and hydration needs, of course.

Another aspect of this protocol is that at night, when you go to sleep, you need to know that you are not producing much saliva and that is the critical time to ensure that there is the least possible opportunity for mutans strep and other bacteria to feed on sugars or other food products and therefore create acid that creates cavities, so this is a very important protocol that all dental care and oral health professionals with those I spoke to supported and, in fact, advocate, which is whether there is a more critical solution. time of day or night to brush your teeth and floss your teeth and clean your teeth it's at night it's at night why do I say this with such whispered importance well, I think there are a lot of people out there, particularly people who fall into that second category that I mentioned at the beginning of today's episode that they wake up in the morning and brush their teeth, maybe even use mouthwash, maybe floss and do a bunch of things to try to keep their mouth clean and fresh. , especially if they're going to be interacting with other people during the day and to get rid of all that kind of stickiness and you know, mouth, you know, morning breath, that kind of thing, but at night they're finishing up dinner maybe having dessert, working a little and passing out without brushing or flossing or I'm just too lazy to brush or floss and by the way I'll raise my hand and say for many years I was in that category .

I know it's gross, but it was in that category. I had great motivation to floss or at least brush in the morning very little motivation to do it at night all the professionals said if you are going to brush and floss only once every 24 hours and that is not what recommend by the way, but if you were going to do it It's just one time, the critical moment, the most essential moment to brush your teeth, floss, clean your mouth and get the right shade of your mouth for the care of your teeth and oral health in general is at night, before you go to sleep, because you already know the fundamental mechanism for this argument because at night you are producing much less saliva and if there is some food product there that the bacteria can feed on the saliva, It is not there to combat it, because it is a constant battle between acidity and alkalinity, your saliva is trying to guard everything and mutans strep is trying to destroy your teeth and acid is the weaponry they use and what fuels that weaponry.

What gives them more ammunition to destroy your teeth is sugars and acidity, so if you were to brush your teeth and ideally do both just once every 24 hours, it would be at night, before you go to sleep, in fact , so much so that I would say that brushing and flossing your teeth at night is perhaps one of the most important things we can do for overall oral health care. We'll talk about what to do, what to use to brush and floss in a few minutes, but that's absolutely essential. I don't want that to translate into you only needing to brush or brush and floss once every 24 hours.

Every professional I spoke to and all the data points to the fact that doing it twice every 24 hours is best or maybe even three times every 24 hours, but let's be honest, most people won't brush their teeth or They will floss three times every 24 hours. Some will, but most won't, and now of course, I've been saying brushing and flossing, but I haven't talked about the incredibly vast landscape of brushing and flossing, so now let's get back to being young children just when we were taught to brush our teeth in a particular way. You know you're supposed to spend a certain amount of minutes set a timer you're supposed to floss a certain way every time we go to the dentist they tell us to floss a certain way isn't this?

What does the data really say? Modern dental and oral health professionals reallyThey suggest what we do when it comes to brushing and flossing, and fortunately, there's almost uniform consensus here. There is always that outlier, that person who says you have to do things a little differently or not. In fact, there is one. very prominent person in the dental health space who is not a fan of flossing, but is actually an outlier, the vast majority of dentists say the same thing, you need to brush, you need to floss, you need to do it twice a day or there is more and it needs to be done correctly so now let's talk about what it's really okay to brush and floss your teeth correctly so I'm not going to demonstrate how to brush your teeth but a very practical protocol that everyone told me dental professionals.

I talked about using a soft toothbrush now this one hurts or I guess it hurts less anyway it hurts my heart a little because I really enjoy using a medium or hard toothbrush and I really like scrubbing there especially on the back teeth. I just feel good I feel like I'm doing something good I get into the back of my teeth, the front of my teeth I know I really enjoy brushing my teeth, especially lately don't ask me why, but I do it, but to each their own of them said that very vigorous brushing with medium or hard bristles, as they are called, actually alters the interface between the teeth and the gums in ways that are not healthy for the gums and, in fact, causes the gums to stretch and Those gaps are filled as they are.

It is said to be much more likely to form and each of them said that if you brush your teeth regularly and especially if you brush and floss regularly, a soft toothbrush that moves in a circular motion in the front and back of your teeth for all of your teeth and that's gentle, you're not putting much pressure on it, it's going to be the best way to break down that layer of bofilm every time and promote better teeth and overall oral health, so I guess who are manufacturers that are making medium and hard toothbrushes, maybe give us some reason for that, you know, because the dental professionals that I talked to and talked to again with a good number of them said the same thing.

Notch soft toothbrush just better soft toothbrush better the same way if you use an electric toothbrush, which I do now, sometimes I switch it back and forth, but if you use an electric toothbrush, it's recommended Don't use too much pressure and really try to keep the tips of the bristles on the teeth and gums. yes, it was also suggested that people brush their gums. This is interesting for people who have dental sensitivity. One of the top suggestions from people in the dental and periodontal field, at least the ones I spoke to, was to lightly brush your gums to increase circulation of blood and other nutrients to the deeper portions of the tooth that actually extend down to the bone. , now there is a tremendous amount of blood flow to the gums, anyone who, you know, has cut their gum with a while while flossing or with a toothpick can detect bleeding very easily and that's not good, TRUE?

You don't want to create bleeding gums. By the way, we'll talk about bleeding gums while flossing in a moment, so don't rush it. however, I said jump the gun, don't jump the gum, by the way, if you are brushing your gums make sure you use a soft toothbrush, if you are using an electric toothbrush make sure you do it very gently on the gums and, because there is so much blood flow to the gums it encourages a lot of circulation to some of the deeper cavities of the tooth, as it turns out now I don't want to go back to the anatomy of the tooth in any detailed way, but of course , inside the tooth. you have again enamel, you have dentin, you have what is called the pulp or the center, there are many nerves that go into the center of the tooth, there are many other tissues and the bone around and layers, etc., and when you massage or if you lightly brush gums, you will encourage blood flow to the deeper components of the tooth, which are actually the living, active components of the tooth that require blood flow and nutrients, so this is a good thing, in fact, it probably is.

It's a good thing that most people, maybe we all should do it, but most people probably don't take the time to brush their gums, but if you have a little time, it can be beneficial, especially if you have sensitive teeth, the idea What's emerging now in the dental field is that it can help promote resilience or less sensitivity of teeth to things like heat and cold and maybe even pressure, so before we talk about flossing, I just want to re-emphasize that the reason to brush your teeth and the reason to brush your teeth lightly or without too much pressure is that if you brush and floss regularly, the main goal of brushing is to break up the biofilm layer. which provides a substrate for mutans streptococcus and other bacteria to accumulate on thicker layers of bacteria, the so-called plaque, which will eventually become Tarter.

Okay, if we really want to scare ourselves and motivate us to brush and floss our teeth, maybe we should describe what happens with mutans strep. forms these bacteria in the form of strands, so they are like little Celia, so they are attached to the tooth, it is the bofilm layer, like little strands of threads, but if enough amount accumulates and it becomes thicker and covered with moss, it is as you know, thicker it looks like a kind of sponge and that is the plaque and then, if enough quantity is formed and there is enough acidity in the mouth, then tart is formed, which is the hard and caked substance that requires the dentist to scrape it, you know and some people.

A lot of tartar forms, some people have less tartar buildup depending on how diligent they are in removing the bofilm with brushing. Now you can remove biofilm and plaque by brushing, but once tartar starts to form, that is, once it is applied in layers, it sometimes has a yellowish tint. If it gets stained then you really start to have problems because brushing and flossing doesn't remove tartar and that's why the dentist needs to come in and scrape it off, so it's ideal to be diligent about removing the bacteria while it's still on. that strand or plaque ideally forms inside this when it's still in strand form removing that bofilm if you've ever been to the dentist you might remember that they'll do this dental polishing you know they'll do that kind of gritty stuff on your teeth and you're wondering You know, this is to make my teeth whiter and may actually create a little more shine on your teeth, but it turns out that the main reason for doing it is to smooth the surfaces of your teeth after all. they do it on the back of the teeth too, if they are good dentists they do it on the back of the teeth too, why would they do it there?

It cannot be for cosmetic purposes. Well, they do it because the smooth surface makes it harder for those strands that have bofilm to stick together and form and certainly for denser plaque and layers of tartar to build up on top of them, which softens the teeth to that bacteria can't attach to them as easily, but it's the daily oral and dental health protocols that are really critical, we'll talk about dental visits and the frequency of dental visits, and what a dental visit is really about , it's always about cleaning or filling, etc., but in the meantime, brush and brush often enough.

So that bofilm does not accumulate for very long periods of time, removing or reducing the amount of plaque and tartar that accumulates will be your best strategy for improving the health of your teeth. Now, what about flossing? There is a bit of debate about flossing in the field of dentistry, some people say that if your gums bleed when you floss, you need to floss more; In fact, most dentists I spoke to said that, but they also emphasize that you need to floss correctly, you can't just pull the floss down. on the gum between the teeth, you want to slide down the side of the tooth, reach a little under the gum and use a circular motion and then lift between the two teeth, which, frankly, is much easier if your teeth don't They're very, very close together, right, some of us have teeth that are very close together and when you try to get it through the teeth it's more of an effort, okay, but really they all emphasize trying not to drop this pretty sharp dental floss and the I know here we could also be talking about toothpick flossing where there is a little arch with some floss in front of it, the ones you can buy, some people actually use toothpicks, they are an old method, Frankly, most dentists.

Those I spoke to don't want people to poke their mouths and gums with toothpicks, you can decide for yourself, but almost all but one felt that flossing is a great idea for the health of your teeth and that if Your gums bleed when you use it correctly, like me. I just described what proper flossing is that your best strategy is to floss at least twice a day between all your teeth and if you are not going to floss twice a day for any reason as a protest or lack of time at least once a day and when that time a day would be, it would be at night before going to sleep for the reasons we mentioned above and several dentists I spoke to said that using a water stick will be better than using floss more typical dental flossing method or use those toothpick-based methods of flossing because it is gentler on the teeth.

I haven't personally used a water stick, but I'm a little intrigued by the concept because it seems like it's a lot harder to damage your gums and teeth doing so and whatnot. It's at least as efficient as using standard dental floss, so for those of you who have disposable income and the interest in using a water pick, it seems like it could be a very good idea for the vast majority of us, like For me, just buying some traditional floss and flossing at least once a day at night and ideally also in the morning after brushing, that seems to be the most direct and lowest cost strategy.

I should just mention that the pediatric dentist I spoke to mentioned that flossing is actually removing food products from between the teeth and therefore children under six years old who typically have large spaces between their baby teeth and the permanent teeth have not yet emerged. In fact, that's what those gaps are all about, unless you're me and when you were a kid your teeth were too close together and all the permanent teeth came in behind those teeth. It was a really miserable experience for me. Most children have baby teeth spaced slightly apart to allow the permanent teeth to come in and erupt, as they are called. dramatic word I love reading this literature, you know, when the molars erupt it's like no, they just come through the gums, those spaces are really there for the permanent teeth to come through the gums, so they suggested that children who have those spaces between their teeth and the spaces are large, they do not need to floss between those teeth because it could cause some damage to the gums, rather they should concentrate on brushing.

Now let's talk about some protocols that involve changing the chemistry of your mouth, not just immediately after meals or during brushing or flossing, but actually 24 hours a day, and one of the key protocols I would like analyze is the use of an artificial sugar called Xylitol. Xylitol is a very low calorie sweetener. I can place it among the other low calorie sweeteners. caloric sweeteners like aspartame, sucrose, Stevia, etc., but what is unique about xylitol is that, just like standard sugar or any type of carbohydrate sugar, streptococcus mutans bacteria loves to eat xylitol, but when streptococcus mutans eats Xylitol does not mean that it cannot produce the acid that would normally demineralize teeth and create cavities, plus when Streptococcus mutans ingests xylitol, it kills Streptococus mutans.

So what this means is that if xylitol is present in the oral cavity after a meal, say in the minutes and hours after a meal, then any mutans streptococci found there will preferentially feed on xylitol, not others. sugars, and it won't be able to release acid, and because xylitol can inhibit growth and that's the proliferation of more mutans streptococci, we have a double. We have a situation where the mutans strep cannot release acid to demineralize the teeth and potentially cause cavities and the total amount of mutans strep that can grow can proliferate in what are called colonies, literally the bacteria colonize the teeth in that formation .

Well,then that can't happen, so xylitol is a very powerful tool to improve oral health in this way. Additionally, xylitol reduces inflammation of gum tissue and other soft tissues in the mouth, so xylitol provides a number of positive benefits, esp. when it is present in the mouth immediately after meals and for that reason there are several different dentists who have created xylitol products in the form of gum or in the form of mints specifically to be used after meals, so when chewing some of these xylitol mints or by chewing a xylitol-based gum immediately after a meal, you are taking substantial steps to improve your mouth chemistry and inhibit the growth of cavity-forming mutant streptococci.

Now you can also find literature on other proposed benefits of xylitol, like you know, improving the overall microbiome, like reducing inflammation in tissues other than the gums and inside the mouth, there is some evidence that it can support the gut microbiome because, Of course, the oral microbiome and the gut microbiome are contiguous and have different compartments. You might even be surprised to know that inside your mouth there are different niches, as they are called, for example, there are different microbiota that live in the gums, on the hard surface, on the soft surface, in the throat and then as descends into the intestine, etc. and it appears that xylitol has certain positive benefits for all of those different niches of the gut microbiome, but the literature on that is less substantiated than, for example, the literature showing that if xylitol is placed as a surrogate sugar substrate for mutans streptococcus , deactivates it. mutans streptococcus and can prevent cavity formation now, as far as I know, when consumed in mint or gum form.

I don't know of any specific side effects or negative effects of xylitol, as long as it is not consumed in excess, but as with all doses. matters, so if you're someone who wants to explore using xylitol gum or xylitol minutes after a meal, I wouldn't suggest going from consuming zero minutes of xylitol to consuming 50 a day or something like that or even 10 a day, you could start . slowly and only consume one or two after a meal, maybe only at breakfast, maybe only at dinner, something like that instead of chewing xylitol gum all day, etc., etc. I will only mention one other positive benefit of xylitol gum, which is if you use xylitol gum after, for example, the midday meal or meal of the day, it further increases saliva production, which, as we mentioned before, is a great thing because one of the best ways to support oral and dental health is to have a long stretch. of time in the middle of the day where you're producing a lot of healthy saliva in large quantities because, again, saliva is an incredible thing that supports the remineralization of teeth, so there are so many reasons to think about maybe considering use xotl or xotl gum. minutes, there are several different ones available.

I have zero again zero Z Financial relationship with any of those mint or gum companies. I will provide a link in the show notes titles to One Source, the company and products were developed by a dentist Dr. Ellie Phillips, who is quite prominent in the public health education space around dental health, some Some of his views are a bit controversial, such as his views on flossing. Other of your views, frankly, I find quite ahead of their time in the sense that you've been talking about a number of these things, like promoting the health of the oral microbiome and the potential value of gums with xylitol, etc. , over a period of time.

I think most of the information she posts is supported by other dentists and still suggests regular visits to the dentist, so um, you don't know anything renegade or heretical. uh, again, there are other sources of xotl gum and mints that you might consider. I'm simply putting a link to the one I use because I happen to use them and like them, so I'd like to use the discussion about xylitol as a segue into a discussion about toothpaste because there is a lot of controversy about which tooth spaces are best for us, maybe even bad and better for us.

I think it's fair to say based on what we all now know about xylitol that if you can find a toothpaste that contains xylitol as a sweetener, that can only be a good thing and in fact there are several of them, we'll talk about specific sources at one point, but I just put xylitol on the list, short or not so short, of things that would be great to have in a toothpaste for all the reasons you now understand. The real big question with toothpaste is: should I always use a toothpaste that has fluoride or avoid toothpastes that have fluoride and to answer that we have to go back to our previous discussion about fluoride, it really depends on whether Whether or not you are someone who thinks that fluoride is great because it creates these super physiologically strong bonds within our teeth, the crystalline structures. they are much stronger than when they are formed by hydroxy appetite or whether you are someone who is wary or not of fluoride, who is concerned about possible brain health problems or thyroid problems and you know, I think people really fall into one of the two fields or the camp, frankly, I don't know if I should worry I don't know if I should worry I personally grew up using fluid toothpaste we had the standard brand name type of fluoride toothpaste um in our bathroom I brushed my teeth with those During years, whether that negatively affected my health or not, I don't know, uh, get my blood tested, my thyroid hormones are normal, my brain works, at least you know reasonably well, but I realize that some people are very worried because of fluoride. and they just don't want it around their kids, so if you're someone who's going to be cautious about fluoride and you're looking for a toothpaste that doesn't contain fluoride, there are toothpastes of this type and the Most of them, if not all, contain it, the hydroxyl appetite, they contain the minerals that naturally form the bonds that create that extra enamel that can potentially fill cavities and by remineralizing the enamel and some of the deeper layers of the tooth, so if one is looking for toothpaste and wants to avoid fluoride, you'll want to find something that ideally has hydroxy appetite and something that has xylitol and will often also contain some type of mild abrasive.

Well, it's not a non-stinging abrasive substance, but a mild abrasive that can actually allow for breakage. From the bofilm we talked about above, I've provided links to a couple of sources for said toothpaste and also for these little toothpaste tablets that I've been using lately and sometimes alternate between the two. tablets that you chew and then brush your teeth immediately afterwards with your wet toothbrush. Both work pretty well again. I want to make it clear that the companies I have provided links to in the subheadings of the show notes are companies for which I have absolutely no financial relationship.

I know some of the people who started these companies. I actually discovered these companies because these people are dentists or periodontists or other people in the oral health field, but I also want to make it very clear that there was no exchange of promoting their products for information or otherwise, I just tried and I liked the products and it turns out I learned a few things about oral health. The care of these people is separate and apart from anything related to toothpaste or xylitol, etc., okay, so I want to be very clear that I think these are quality sources.

These are toothpaste and toothpastes. I happen to use gum and mints, which I use largely as a result of researching this episode, but I pay full price for them. Certainly not. suggesting that anyone else has to use them, they only represent an option if you are looking for fluoride free toothpaste and a few other things to promote oral health and I am sure there are other sources and if you would like to refer the various viewers and listeners of this podcast to those sources because you strongly believe in those other sources, just put them in the comments section of YouTube.

Okay, let's talk about mouthwashes or mouthwashes in plural. At the beginning of today's episode I said, let's determine which category. of oral health that you are in, are you someone who pays a lot of attention to oral health? Do you brush and floss your teeth at least twice a day, use mouthwashes, teeth whiteners, maybe also or are you in category two or three, well here's the deal plus almost all not all but most mouthwashes, especially those containing alcohol, are terrible for your oral health, simply put, they deplete certain components of the mucosal lining of the mouth. mouth and alter the healthy components of the oral microbiome, so for those of you who rely on such mouthwashes I really encourage you to learn more about them, you are about to do it now, you are already doing it now and to really consider whether they are helping or harming your oral health now.

I'm not suggesting that you create a scenario where your breath makes other people dissolve into a puddle of tears or quickly walk away from you that's not what you want that's not what I want that's not what anyone wants, but I think it's important to realize that these alcohol-based mouthwashes are not good for us, furthermore, they are antiseptic mouthwashes, some of which contain alcohol, some of which do not, and are sometimes prescribed for bacterial overgrowth and infections. of the oral cavity, if your dentist, doctor or periodontist prescribes them. I'm not going to try to get in the way of that prescription between you and your healthcare professional, but it would be wise to ask them if these chlorhexidine-type mouthwashes, etc., are potentially bad for other components of your oral health or gut microbiota. in general, because in some cases it has been shown that they are not good for us, at the same time, we do not want an excessive proliferation of really harmful bacteria in the mouth, so we do not want infections to run wild.

However, most people use mouthwashes to freshen their breath and eliminate extra bacteria in their mouths that they might think they couldn't get from brushing or flossing. If you are someone who really wants to use a mouthwash, for that reason I encourage you to try to find a mouthwash that is not alcohol based and is not a strong antiseptic or if it is an antiseptic it is not alcohol based, it is Well, there are mouthwashes of this type, they are a little difficult to find. I'll provide a link to at least a couple of them in the show notes legends here.

I must say that I have not tried those mouthwashes, but they come from sources where they were developed by licensed mental health professionals, but this is always the case when someone sells something worth doing your diligence. Now that we're talking about toothpaste, mints, gums and mouthwashes, I think it's worth taking a step back and also asking ourselves if there are any zero or very low cost or even cost saving alternatives to all of this and the excellent answer is Yeah. There are actually a number of things you can do with basic over-the-counter products from the supermarket that all the dentists I spoke to said yes, that's a very good option, maybe it's not the best option available, but it's a very good option. and in many cases it is better than the typical commercially available toothpaste or mouthwash - for example, I imagine, based on everything I know now about tooth structure, that using something like baking soda to brush your teeth would scratch the bofilm and maybe even whiten your teeth. teeth a little bit, although as we talked about before, you're not actually whitening your teeth, you're actually just changing the reflectivity and some of the composition of that enamel, which is translucent so you can see the underlying components better.

I talked to several dentists and they told me that baking soda is actually pretty low on the abrasiveness rating scale. They have a specific rating scale for this that we don't have to go into, but it's actually considered pretty safe for your tooth enamel, especially. If you're brushing your teeth with a soft toothbrush and you don't like grinding the stuff against your teeth at maximum intensity or even close to maximum intensity, it turns out that baking soda and water is actually a toothpaste Pretty good if you don't. I'm going to go buy some toothpaste, so that's good news.

You may have heard that you can make a kind of mouthwash or mouthwash with baking soda water and a little hydrogen peroxide. I want to emphasize a little, but I'm also going to emphasize: I don't think this is a good idea at all. Why is it not a good idea? Well, first of all,When we were kids we used to take baking soda and hydrogen peroxide and put them together to simulate volcanoes, so, um. That tells you right there what kind of chemical reaction you're going to have, but other than that, it's pretty clear that hydrogen peroxide, unless there's a specific medical recommendation to do so, is not something you want to put in your oral cavity. .

It is something that I am very familiar with because when I was postto, this is in the period from 2005 to 2010, I started to have some pretty bad caners saurus. I don't know about you, but the Krur look horrible to me. I hate them when you eat they hurt when you swallow they hurt when you do anything they hurt a lot and someone gave me the recommendation to use a little baking soda dissolved in a little water and a little hydrogen peroxide to use as a mouthwash and of course, then I spit it out and did it and actually what happened to me is that I got ulcers almost a quarter size on the roof of my mouth and on the sides of my mouth they took those little cans saurs that were annoying and a little painful and turned them into full-blown ulcers.

I know this because when I stopped using it, they healed almost immediately and then when I talked to some dentists and periodontists, they said, "Oh, yes, yes, hydrogen peroxide is too abrasive for the oral cavity and the reason why." I mentioned this because I don't think I'm alone in saying that if you venture into some of the um, let's call it alternative oral health recommendations space, you might hear that things like hydrogen peroxide can be helpful for gargling. or swish if you start to feel a little tickle in your throat, maybe an infection, it turns out that it is a very bad idea now if there are doctors or oral health experts who strongly believe in using hydrogen peroxide rinses or gargling . with it to promote oral health for any reason, let me know in the subtitles of the show notes.

I don't want to go against any of those recommendations, but this is now considered an old school recommendation of creating your own mouthwash with a little baking soda. a little hydrogen peroxide and water doesn't seem like a good idea, not only in my experience, but every dental professional I spoke to said it seems like it's okay to create a high salt solution, so take a little of salt and put it in water to dissolve it. and then find the point where it doesn't dissolve at all because the sodium concentration is high enough and use it as, of course, not something to swallow but more like a dental rinse, put it in your mouth, shake it and then spit it out . and it will taste very salty and then take a drink of water, you know, just plain water, then shake it up and then spit it out, which actually provides a really nice medium for the production of healthy oral bacteria.

Let's assume it has almost zero cost. you need some low-salt water and a glass to put it in, but it's basically free of charge and if you think about it, that high-salt or high-salinity solution looks a lot like the type of brine and liquid that comes from these low salt solutions. sugar The probiotic foods that I suggested before and in other episodes that I suggested could be really healthy for the gut microbiota when swallowed, but again I want to be very clear: do not swallow liquids with a high concentration of salt, we are talking about a Swish. and then spit it out as a way to improve the overall health of the mouth to obtain the proper pH to promote the proliferation of healthy components of the microbiota.

Well, we've talked about some commercially available gums and mints that contain xylitol that we've talked about. some commercially available toothpastes, in fact some toothpastes you know almost fall into the Boutique category because they have all these things that dentists and periodontists know are great for oral health, but they can come at a certain cost , so I think it's important that we also talk about using baking soda with a soft toothbrush and a little bit of water and brushing your teeth gently as a great way to break up the bofilm and clean your teeth and a solution with high salt content like a crop and a spit, followed by you know. uh swish and spit with clean water, clean water, no salt, like a very low cost or zero cost Essen mouthwash.

Very different from the heavily scented alcohol-based antiseptic mouthwashes that are commercially available and which we know are basically not good for our oral microbiome plus I would like to point out that those alcohol-based mouthwashes that many people in the world use are also known to reduce the amount of nitric oxide produced in the oral cavity and that is very important for nitric production. rust in other parts of the body why is it so important? Well, nitric oxide promotes vasodilation not only within the blood vessels that line and feed the oral cavity, but also in the throat, in the nose, in the brain, also in the heart, so what are we talking about? here is a substance that in fact increases when, for example, we breathe through the nose, we know that it dramatically increases nitric oxide, we are talking about a substance that when the oral microbiome is preserved in its healthy state tends to increase in production and we are talking of a substance that is really good for the health of small capillary arteries and veins because it allows the passage of blood both for the supply of oxygen and other nutrients to the tissues and for the elimination of waste products from the tissues, therefore We don't want to do anything that reduces nitric oxide unless there is some specific medical condition that causes us to want to do it, so for most people increasing nitric oxide or keeping nitric oxide levels stable is the state we want to do. we want to look and these alcohol-based mouthwashes are known to deplete production. of nitric oxide, so there's yet another reason to avoid using these more typical alcohol-based over-the-counter mouthwashes.

By the way, this is not a mouthwash scare tactic. I'm sure if you use mouthwashes you're still producing some nitric oxide, but I think today many of you, hopefully, are interested in doing everything you can to improve your mental health, your physical health, and your performance, and if there are things they are doing that inhibit them in any way they potentially want. at least think about them, maybe remove them from your protocols, especially if they have a cost you can eliminate; In other words, you can save costs, so again, there are many reasons to move away from standard alcohol-based antiseptic mouthwashes, in addition to the improvements in your breathing which, by the way, can best be achieved by supporting the oral microbiome.

Other ways we have discussed are really unclear. Advantage as to why one would use one and apparently there are a number of disadvantages. Earlier we talked briefly about sour canker sores, they are really uncomfortable, there are many theories as to why canker sores form and there are many products and theories. As for how to get rid of canker sores well, in fact, there are some ways that we can prevent the formation of canker sores and speed up their healing and that actually has to do with promoting the health of the gut microbiome, so there is a clear link. between the intestinal microbiome. and the oral microbiome in a way that can promote or reduce the formation of canker sores and, in fact, can help heal canker sores and, as far as I know, the best way to support a healthy gut microbiome, quote, is to consume at less than one to four low-alcohol servings. sugar fermented foods per day I mentioned what some of them are a little earlier.

I also did a whole episode on the gut microbiome. We've had expert guests on the microbiome, including Justin Sonenberg from Stanford School of Medicine, and for the sake of time I can simply briefly list the things that are known to promote a healthy gut microbiome and that would indirectly support the healing and prevention of canker sores. oral and those who consume one to four servings of low-sugar fermented foods per day, for example, consume enough prebiotic fiber, so they consume enough. fiber in the diet through fruits and vegetables or perhaps supplementing prebiotic or probiotic fiber and in some cases, if someone is really dysbiotic or if they have been taking antibiotics, they actually take a probiotic in pill or capsule form, but not It's something I recommend to people. drinking constantly and certainly not, I think by eating those low sugar fermented foods on a regular basis, trying to make sure you get enough sleep each night, this is the key, you probably should have mentioned this earlier in the episode, eh, but I know One of the people I have great respect for in the public health discussion around dental health is Dr.

Mark Bheen. He stops by and asks the dentist on Instagram. He's actually a retired dentist, but he's been deeply involved in kind of evaluating the consumer products space as it relates to dental and oral health for a number of years, um and Mark Beren, as well as discussing all the various topics. that we've talked about today, like xylitol and fluoride, yes, or fluoride, no, etc., has also been a big advocate for people to pay attention to the first pillar of mental health, physical health and performance, which is sleep, and they point out that when people sleep less than necessary each night, typically most people need 6 to 8 hours, some people need more.

People need slightly less, but at least 6 to 8 hours of quality sleep per night, which supports the health of the gut microbiome and oral microbiome and therefore indirectly supports the health of the entire brain and brain. body, so Dr. Burin and others have talked about this. but I really appreciate that you championed the importance of sleep, among other things, but certainly sleep as a way to support the oral microbiome, so we've talked quite a bit about teeth and gums, a little bit about the mucosal lining and the throat, a One thing I haven't talked about much is hanging out your tongue, your tongue is obviously a very important component of your mouth and as I mentioned earlier, different niches, different places inside the mouth have different microbiota living in them, both good like, quote, bad meanings that we would like to promote the proliferation of because they reduce bad breath and promote oral health and all those good things and, quote, bad bacteria because they make our breath smell bad and because they deteriorate the different tissues of mouth.

This tongue scraping topic is an interesting one and all of the licensed dental health professionals I spoke to while preparing for this episode agreed that yes, tongue scraping can be a good idea and every one of them cited the fact that various unhealthy bacteria can build up on the tongue throughout the day and night in the same way that a biofilm can build up on teeth, although through a different process, different bacteria and Tongue scraping or tongue brushing can be advantageous to eliminate that bacteria, what is interesting is that several of them pointed out that lightly brushing the tongue can be better than scraping it because they argue that especially when people use those steel tongue scrapers, few people They know how to use them with enough force. to eliminate the bacteria but not so much force so that they do not damage the tongue tissue and the tongue is a very fragile soft tissue, so the recommendation that was transmitted to me was to suggest brushing the tongue once or twice a day, but Here's an important point: Everyone suggested that you use a different toothbrush to brush your tongue than you would use to brush your teeth.

So if things weren't complicated enough with using a different toothbrush, why did they give two reasons? One is that they want to avoid the crossing. of bacteria between those two different tissues, especially if one brushes the tongue too hard, you don't want to introduce bacteria from the toothbrush onto the tongue, of course, you can rinse it in the meantime, but the ideal situation is to use a toothbrush separate for The Purpose of Brushing Your Tongue Now that you've opened up a whole exploration and discussion on toothbrush care, we could probably do a whole episode on toothbrush care, but we won't be enough to say that when you brush the bacteria from the teeth or the tongue and presumably the The toothbrush gets wet, if only from the saliva that's on it, then you rinse it and then even if you dry it with a clean towel, some kind of clean towel or something, you place it on the ground. a lot of bacteria are going to grow on that toothbrush, so this opened up a whole discussion about whether you should cover your toothbrush or let it air dry, should you use UV irradiation to sterilize your toothbrush and, frankly, it took us by surprise. toothbrush care rabbit hole until now at one point I just yelled like man, enough is enough.

I think one has to decidehow much bacteria are you willing to tolerate living on your toothbrush between tooth brushings, from scratch, where using a new toothbrush or a new toothbrush head every time you brush, that seems unreasonable or at least economically unreasonable to most people versus replacing it once a week versus once every two weeks there really isn't any specific recommendation I can make, all I can say is be aware that bacteria is growing on the toothbrush head. Try to avoid contact between the toothbrush head and any unsanitary surface. Try rinsing and drying the toothbrush head.

All of these things are recommendations that were passed down to me and make common sense now before this. In the episode I put out a call on social media for questions about oral health and one of the questions that hundreds of people answered was: what about fillings? What about metal fillings? What about sealants? They're safe? Well, most dentists will tell you that sealants are safe. Sure, they're now made of compounds not generally thought to cause major problems. To be honest, I didn't delve into the chemical composition of different sealants because it turns out that different dental offices use different sealants.

I'm sure if you looked hard enough you could find some really bad things about sealants. I'm sure you could also find some assurance that, in the concentrations and conditions in which they are introduced into your teeth, they are a better alternative to having deep cavities in your teeth. And that really gives me an opportunity to bring up something that I may have said before, but I want to re-emphasize that I've been talking about how you can remineralize your teeth and how that's critical if you want to maintain and strengthen your teeth and your mouth. health, but it is very clear that if cavities reach the dented layers of the tooth, in most cases there is no opportunity left to remineralize the teeth using the type of practices that we are talking about today and that, in fact, it is most likely those cavities need to be drilled and filled, well that's not always the case and this is one of the reasons why I highly recommend it if you've listened to this episode and if you're here at this point in the episode and you've listened to the episode where you talk to your dentist ask them if they tell you you have a cavity how deep these cavities are do you think there is an opportunity for me to remineralize the teeth if I do the following things and if they say look you have a cavity or cavities and they are just too deep into the tooth and you can't remineralize and fill them well, then you know you should trust them, they are the dental professional, if not you should look for a different dentist.

However, they may be surprised and, who knows, pleasantly surprised that you say, Hey, you know, I heard that you can actually remineralize teeth and if I have a cavity but it hasn't gotten through the enamel layer yet, you know if I'm really diligent. and you know, use some zotol and maybe some hydroxy appetite and avoid certain things and do certain things discussed in this episode that might remineralize and fill those cavities that I said of course there will be situations where you need to drill those cavities. and fillings, especially if they go into the deeper layers of the tooth and you don't want those cavities to persist and bacteria to proliferate in those deeper layers of the teeth and down to the bone, that's so bad for the reasons we talked about.

We talked before not only for your mouth and your teeth, but also for your general health and your brain health, including, for that reason and also because you know that the history of dentistry was such that at the beginning of the last century you knew if you had head pain. grinders. in a cavity, what did they do, they pulled out the teeth, they pulled out the teeth and then at some point this dental filling business became an industry standard for people to get metal fillings. Now, the types of metal fillings people had and have depend on when they got them.

There were fillings that, believe it or not, were lead fillings. This is not good. You don't want lead to get into your body for all kinds of reasons. It's terrible for brain health. That's why it is now illegal to contain it in paints and many household items. I don't want lead fillings, but some people had lead fillings or silver fillings or a combination of silver with lead and other things and a lot of metal fillings that were placed and sometimes still are placed depending on where you live in the world, the country and the type of medical care. and the costs at your disposal contain mercury.

I asked several dentists about this and I said, "Well, if someone has a metal filling that probably contains mercury, they need to have it removed, and all the dentists I talked to said, It depends, but generally the practice is to leave those fillings in." They also gave an important recommendation: if you have metal fillings that contain mercury or that you think might contain mercury, avoid disturbing those fillings by using things like Mastic Gum we haven't talked much about putty um He. used putty before not for long periods of time it's a very thick gum uh you know the original use of putty and the kind of origins of Mastic Gum is like some kind of substance that is chewed and is supposed to strengthen the jaw Etc. um I don't use it anymore.

I use it for a short time. It doesn't taste like much. Some people believe that there are certain anti-inflammatory benefits and other health benefits of Mastic Gum. detail to comment on any of that, but several dentists said well if you have metal fillings chewing Mastic Gum or if you know a lot. candy where you're actually chewing on that hard candy which, by the way, you're supposed to suck on the hard candy, at Jolly Ranch you're not supposed to chew it, but some people will and they just chew naturally. they may actually alter and release some of that mercury and that would be bad and also note that when mercury is contained in a metal filler it is not really bioactive in that way but if it is released then it can enter the bloodstream and potentially This causes other problems, so this is a bit of a controversial topic, to the point that in certain countries and I think in the EU someone checked me out on this, but I think that in the not too distant future metal fillings will no longer They will be used in the European Union perhaps.

In other parts of the world, they are sometimes still used in the United States. There are a lot of things that are changing in this landscape around fluoride around metal fillings, etc., so it's a very dynamic landscape right now. I think it's enough to say that if you currently have metal fillings, try not to get them. disrupting them in a way that could release that mercury; However, if you have them and are really worried about them, talk to your dentist, ask what the various options are, see whether or not they can be replaced with something safer and if the process to replace them is really worth the trouble and again , let's go back to the broader point of whether or not you should get your cavities filled, whether or not you need that root canal, which was a very common question that a lot of people were saying, do we really need root canals?

Do we really need to drill cavities? You know my observation based on having spoken to several different professionals in this space who really pay a lot of attention to peer-reviewed research, old school practices, new practices, and where it's all going. that you know that, in fact, there are cases where people need root canals, there are many cavities that are too deep in the teeth, that remineralizing the teeth through the type of protocols that we are talking about today is not going to be enough , they really need to be drilled and filled and of course we hope that those dentists doing that the least necessary to maintain dental health.

I also hope that dentists talk to their patients about ways they can improve their oral health and in fact there are many cases reported online of people coming in for x-rays. and at an exam they will talk about all the cavities they have and then they go home and do a bunch of practices and they can remineralize your teeth and essentially reverse those cavities and I certainly don't doubt those stories, but it's just not always possible to remineralize our teeth and fill our cavities. If those cavity holes are too deep in the teeth, they need to be drilled and filled.

Now, that raises a final set of questions and points: What do we actually do? I need to go to the dentist twice a year, every six months, that's the general recommendation and it was difficult to ask the dentists because of course dentists are very incentivized to see their patients and I'm not someone who believes that everything is like that . It's an attempt to make money, but look, when it comes to money, things can get complicated now. What was really great is that the feedback I received from the dentists was very balanced. I mean, I have to say, the dentist community seems like a really wonderful community.

I don't know how you treat each other, but you were very kind, very generous with information to me and at the end of this episode, just before we wrap up, I'm going to recommend you to a couple of online oral health educators and dentists that I think are providing some really useful content consistently and I'll provide links to those in the subtitles of the show notes, but this is what the consensus was. This business of going to the dentist twice a year makes sense, it makes sense from the perspective of routine cleanings, quote-unquote. but they all recognized that those routine cleanings, while they can remove accumulated tartar, would be very, very difficult for people to reverse or remove at home and while they can identify cavities and tell you the extent to which a cavity has developed in the tooth , etc., all of those dentists agreed that those routine cleanings won't actually help remineralize teeth except to the extent that they remove existing plaque and tartar, which is why they all said they want to and that They really strive in their own practices to promote more daily oral health protocols of the kind we've talked about today, which I think are great.

I think, obviously, I believe in medical professionals providing routine care. I also believe in each and every one of us doing things for our health, not just oral health. but sleep Health mental health physical health Etc. to try to not only maintain but actually strengthen our brain and body against disease and also to reinforce our Vitality to feel really good focused energetically sleeping better Etc. so it was comforting to hear that they feel that way like Well, and on top of that, all the dentists I talked to said that you know to leave out things like reconstructive surgery of the mouth or periodontal surgery, which is often necessary if those depressions in the gums and gingivitis and Worse things have really begun. develop and proliferate, they all emphasize that visiting the dentist twice a year is not just about a cleaning, but also a check-up to evaluate how those daily practices are emerging, so it is like going to the doctor to check your BMI . your blood pressure, but also things like blood tests, things that we don't normally do at home unless we access them through particular sources, but they all emphasize that going to the dentist twice a year is not just about those cleanings, but also about establishing what the basic level of health is in the mouth and teeth and having it recorded and in a very detailed way so that one can routinely review it twice a year and find out if they could actually get away with maybe a cleaning one year because you're very diligent with your brushing, flossing, xylitol, uh, you don't breathe through your mouth and so on or maybe if you're not being very good with those protocols or and this is important if you have some of the genetic variants that create an excessive proliferation of certain bacteria that predispose you to gingivitis or that predispose you to excessive tartar accumulation.

This is the reality that some people have genetic variations that create a susceptibility to certain things, both bacteria and other conditions in the mouth that make it that way. that these people may need to go to the dentist not only twice a year but perhaps four or six times a year. In fact, there are some people who, whether due to lack of diligence with the protocol or genetic reasons, really need to go to the dentist. I go to the dentist every month for major cleanings, but fortunately, if we are diligent with these daily protocols, nightly protocols and we really do it, we are paying attention to the components that can create healthy saliva and remineralize the teeth and that can fill in any cavities that begin to form. and we are preventing the production of mutants and we are removing that bofilm on a regular basis, so we are going to avoid the need for so many routine cleanings and even if we still get thosetwo-year routine cleanings, you know?

For those who are lucky enough to have that covered by insurance or can afford it, all the better because, as I mentioned at the beginning of today's episode, oral health is not just about having white, clean, straight teeth and fresh breath, It's not just about that it's great to have all those things, but oral health is about all that and it's also about reducing cardiovascular disease, it's about reducing irritable bowel syndrome. Yeah, I know we haven't done an episode about this yet, but I get it. a lot of requests to do episodes about irritable bowel syndrome and other types of colitis, you know, the gut problems that people have and it's very clear that oral health and promoting oral health has been linked to promoting a positive gut health and perhaps even with the reduction and possibly elimination of some of the symptoms of irritable bowel disease because again the mouth and the intestine are contiguous with each other, they are related and many of the bacteria that can cause things like problems Intestinals enter the body not directly through the intestine but through the oral cavity due to the richness of blood flow to that region, so again today we have talked about many different protocols ranging from cost savings to zero cost. and the low cost, to be frank, higher-cost products and protocols, such as water collectors.

Etc., the point of today's discussion was essentially threefold, firstly, to really boil down in our minds the importance of oral health, not just the health of the teeth, but oral health in general, because of its relationship with brain and body health in general. so I place it right next to the other six pillars of MO sleep nutrition, movement, stress modulation, relationships and light as the seventh fundamental pillar that we must pay attention to daily to promote our mental health, physical health and performance. The second point is that there are many things that we are probably doing currently that we could do differently, either doing them more or perhaps less or eliminating them all together, such as considering whether these alcohol-based antiseptic mouthwashes are good for you or En my opinion, they are not, they are not bad for you, but it can decide for you how often you brush, whether or not you decide to use Xylitol Etc as a way to improve your oral health and of course in doing so. the strength of your teeth the shine of your teeth the freshness of your breath Etc., but through some means that I think most people weren't aware of, I certainly wasn't aware that we could remineralize our teeth at any time by changing the acidity the chemical in our mouth and that are very simple ways to save costs, zero cost and low cost to do it and then the third point is that today's discussion was by no means exhaustive, right, you may be exhausted, but of no way it was. exhaustive, which means we simply don't have time to delve into all these other promoted health practices, such as oil pulling, many people believe that if you take olive oil, you swish it around your mouth and spit it out.

Realize that this is good for your mouth and, in fact, for some dental health professionals. I must say that a licensed dental health professional said yes. I think there is some benefit to that. There's the whole story about vitamin D and whether or not we're getting enough vitamin D. impact our dental health so make sure your vitamin D levels are sufficient make sure you get some sunlight again this relates to some of the other six pillars. Am I suggesting everyone do oil listening? No, I don't think the peer-reviewed evidence on oil listening is enough to suggest that people do that, but as a practice, considering it's essentially close to zero cost, you know, take a little bit of olive oil, swish it around. around your mouth and spit it out for a couple of pennies, maybe, you know, if that's something that you think would benefit you a lot if you know of some great peer-reviewed research on that and you want to put a link to it in the comments on YouTube.

Great, send them my way. I'd love to review them, but my point is that a lot of different practices have been promoted, including oil listening and a bunch of other things that are starting to get pretty far into the esoteric, which doesn't necessarily mean they don't have merit, but today they really do. I tried. focus on the main ones, the ones that relate to what most people could and should do, such as brushing and flossing, rinsing, healing the oral microbiome, reducing the number of strep mutants, and the opportunity for Strep mutants create that acid that will deplete the tooth enamel and cause cavities trying to limit the amount of gum recession and periodontal disease and for all the reasons we talked about before to maintain a healthy mouth, including healthy teeth , healthy tongue, healthy gums, healthy palette and everything else is oh so important not only for your mouth, not only for speaking, smiling and looking the way you want, but also for your heart, also for your gut, also for what Believe it or not, your skin didn't have time to get into this, but it directly relates to skin health and brain health, so I highly suggest we all take a look at what we are currently doing for our health. oral and dental and consider which modifications are best for us if you are learning from Andor enjoying. this podcast, subscribe to our YouTube channel, which is a great free way to support us.

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Thank you once again for joining me in today's discussion on oral health and last but not least, thank you for your interest in science.