National Dental Hygiene Month

Oral health and the body, you actually sent us some graphics. So let me know if what you're seeing on your screen is correct, Heather, because this was really interesting. One thing that stood out to me in your presentation is this idea that our mouth isn't separate from the rest of our body. There are connections between our oral health and our overall health. What can you tell us? I think we tend to disassociate our mouth with the rest of our body. But if you have disease or infection in your mouth you have systemic disease there are no fences in our body so that bacteria those toxins that if you are not removing get into your bloodstream and they can cause heart attacks strokes diabetes pancreatic cancer Alzheimer's dementia all from the bacteria that's going on inside of our mouth so it is super important that we um you know obviously prevent things from happening that we have good oral oral health but also that we see you know maybe there are some things that we're doing say breathing through the mouth or having that low tongue posture that you know we've talked about previously that can be an underlying root root cause yeah and i mean that actually surprised me heather you say something as simple as breathing through our mouths which we should definitely do can actually affect our teeth can you elaborate a little more on that well there is really nothing about our mouth that should be filtering, right? Our lungs are not designed to filter the air. So when we breathe through our mouth, it can take up to 65 days for our lungs to filter the air that our nose can do in 15 minutes. And then we don't get any nitric oxide, which is super important for your cardiovascular system. So, you know, long-term what that's doing is that that's putting your body in a state of fight or flight instead of rest and digest. And that can lead to things like high blood pressure, ADD, IBS, autoimmune issues, all because, you know, your body isn't designed to be breathing through the mouth. It needs to be breathing through the nose. That way your nose can filter the air. It humidifies everything. It helps your mouth stay pH balanced and it helps your nervous system calm down. And you specialize in something called orofacial myofunctional therapy, which I can imagine not many people have heard of so can you explain a little a bit more about what that is and what you've been doing sure um it is basically physical therapy for the tongue the lips the face and the throat and we focus on four things there we call them the four pillars of myofunctional therapy and that is nasal breathing 100 of the time a lip seal 100 of the time proper tongue posture and That is where the whole tongue, not just the tip of the tongue, is up on the roof of the mouth and a proper swallow. So those are the four things that we work on. And I can do this virtually. I use a simple toolkit that I send out, but we need to get those muscles to function properly so your teeth and support system are working together. There's so many times that people will say, you know, I do brush and floss and why is it I'm still getting cavities? But if your mouth's breathing, you're drying everything out, that's creating that perfect acidic scenario where that saliva is dropping below a 5.5 and the bacteria and everything is just a perfect storm for cavities and gum disease. So we want to make sure we're breathing through our nose. And sometimes we need help with this because the tongue can be too tight on the floor of the mouth. And this is where we need the therapy, right? because therapy can help stretch that tissue. But there are some sometimes where myofunctional therapy is only going to get you so far. If it's too tight to the floor of the mouth, a procedure called a tongue tie release may be needed, but then you would definitely need to be evaluated by an airway focused dentist. But people don't put the relationship between the tongue and the mouth, but it's one piece of tissue from your tongue all the way down to your feet. So if it's too tight, it's going to cause maybe some neck tension, forward head posture, open mouth breathing. So things that we don't even associate even with receding gums can be an issue of mouth breathing. So we work with people trying to help them overcome these issues. And I know that some of those people can be our littlest people. Can you talk about kids for a moment and what parents need to pay attention to if their kids are doing stuff like this? Absolutely. If your child's mouth is hanging open during the day or their mouth is open while they're sleeping, you know, snoring or noisy breathing, grinding. If your child is grinding their teeth at night, that is a huge red flag that your child has an airway issue that needs to be addressed. So those are the things that you definitely want to look for. I think we have, I know I was taught in hygiene school, children will just outgrow it. That child that has an airway issue as a child is going to end up as an adult on a CPAP machine. So we want to try and address these things while they're still growing and developing because it can affect their facial growth and development and even cause ADD. So that's a definite issue. And I want a couple more topics because this is so interesting, Heather. I want to ask about snoring, throwing my husband under the bus. you think it's just something annoying that they're doing, but there could be underlying issues. He actually just had to do a sleep apnea test, but could snoring actually signal bigger health issues orally or elsewhere? Absolutely. If you're snoring and it's happening every single night, if it's so loud and you're waking up gasping for breath, despite eight hours of sleep you're still tired that's definitely a sign that you know you need a sleep study so I'm glad that your husband is doing that um but you know unfortunately um there's like 80 million Americans that have undiagnosed sleep apnea and that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to get on a CPAP machine because we can do a lot with myofunctional therapy and stretching those um muscles strengthening toning everything it's exercise um so there are things that you can do. I don't want people to avoid getting a sleep study because they think they automatically are going to need to get a CPAP machine. You do have options. So it's really important that you get evaluated to see where you lie in that. Absolutely. And I want to talk about, I know I admitted that I just needed a root canal, a crown. It was a whole mess. And it's like, I feel like I brush my teeth regularly. I'm flossing. But I mean, could things like dry mouth or caffeine, could that be related to people getting cavities and still doing everything right, so to speak? Absolutely. I mean, I'm a coffee drinker. I got mine right here. But sipping on those acids definitely affects your saliva because it's keeping your saliva in that lower acidic range. And that's the opportunity for decay to to get in there and with teeth unfortunately things don't ever hurt until it's too late so like when people have gum disease you're never gonna feel uh the bone deteriorating until the teeth are loose and ready to fall out in um cavities you're never gonna feel the cavity when it's in the enamel because enamel has no feeling so there's these you know misconceptions i would say that people think oh well nothing is bothering me everything feels okay but that's why prevention is so important. We want to prevent these things from happening, that way they are not an issue. So Heather, the really cool thing about our show is people can scan the QR code and ask questions while we talk. So we do have a viewer question from George in Tampa, Jorge. Any products to stay away from when it comes to taking care of your mouth? That is an excellent question. Thank you so much for asking that, Jorge. Yes, you want to totally stay away from alcohol-based products because what the alcohol does, most of your commercial products have a pH of about 4.2, which is why I created my own line to make something that I felt comfortable telling my patients about and my clients. So pH is so important. So you want to stay away from things that are acidic uh alcohol based i don't particularly care for the chemicals that they put in a lot of our commercial products because you know your mouth is the most vascular part of your whole body so whatever you stick into your mouth gets into your bloodstream that's why true health starts right here so try to use natural products i have natural skincare natural oral care on my website i'm very passionate about teaching people that they have alternatives to you know the the things that we're used to seeing on the shelf, be a label reader, but anything that has alcohol in there, for sure, stay away from. Yeah, I appreciate all of this advice and insight, Heather. Really quickly, we do need to wrap this up, but how can people find you if they have more questions, if they are interested in the type of therapy that you're offering, how can they contact you? I do have a direct website for my functional therapy. It's myologywellness.com, and that is spelled M-Y-O-L-O-G-I-E, wellness.com, or my main website that I was just mentioning, Simply Pure Co. That's simplypureco.com. You can find me under services. I also have books on Amazon, Dentistry Made Easy. So feel free to reach out to me, ask me any questions. I'm happy to help. I love it. Well, thank you so much for reaching out to us with this. This has been so informative, so helpful, especially after all the drama that I just went through. So heather the hygienist uh hopefully we'll be talking to you again soon have a great day and thank you you as well