January 27, 2024 • 19 mins
Did you know that the secret to overall wellness might just be lurking in your mouth? Prepare to be enlightened as Dr. Alex and Jeremy take you through the interconnected world of oral health and systemic well-being on our latest Word of Mouth episode. Discover how a simple case of bleeding gums may be a red flag for gum disease, potentially opening the floodgates for bacteria to voyage through your bloodstream and affect your heart, brain, and beyond. We dissect the complex relationship between lifestyle choices, genetics, and the health of your mouth, offering you a fresh perspective on why managing that teeming colony of bacteria is as vital as any other health routine.
Brush up on your dental knowledge as Dr. Alex shares his expertise on spotting the early warnings of gum disease and the transformative power of a robust oral hygiene regimen. It's not just about brushing—the foods you eat and the way you wield your floss play starring roles in the drama of dental health. But that's not all; say hello to Proclaim, the groundbreaking tool that's set to revamp your water picking experience, ensuring each corner of your mouth gets the star treatment. And if you're the type to forget charging your gadgets, we've got a practical tip to keep your power brush juiced up and ready, making it a cinch to flash those pearly whites. So join us and give your oral care the upgrade it deserves!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jeremy (00:06):
Hello, hello everyone.
Welcome back to word of mouth,where we're getting into it.
We're getting into exploringthe connection between your oral
health and your overallwell-being.
I'm your co-host, jeremy Wolf.
I'm joined by none other thanyour host, dr Alex Semide.
So, dr Alex, always a pleasure.
It's good to see you again.
I know it's been a while.
Dr. Alex (00:26):
Well, likewise, brother, it's good to be back,
good to be back in the saddleand share some tips with folks.
Huh.
Jeremy (00:36):
Absolutely, and I think the topic we're getting into
today is an interesting one andI know you wanted to share a
little bit about kind of gumdisease and how that pertains to
your overall health and kind ofget into that a little bit.
So why don't you set the stageand then we shall proceed from
there?
Dr. Alex (00:57):
Cool, yeah, absolutely .
So I'm going to start it offwith a question for you.
Jeremy (01:01):
Oh, another question You're going to make me think
this morning All right, let's go.
Dr. Alex (01:05):
Yeah, why not?
So when you ever brushed,flossed anything and seen some,
some pink in the sink, like alittle bit of bleeding, of
course, okay.
So what do you think ishappening when you see bleeding
on like blood on your toothbrushor a little bit of blood in the
sink or something like that?
Jeremy (01:24):
Well, for me it primarily comes when I don't
floss frequently enough and then, and then after not flossing
for three or four days shame onme.
I know I should be doing itdaily.
At least happens to the best ofus.
You know I get in there and youknow that I guess it gets
irritated and the gums aresensitive and bleeds a little
bit.
Dr. Alex (01:45):
Okay, so you're on the right track.
Okay so, gum disease,gingivitis, periodontal disease
all of that is, it's aninfection of the gums, right,
it's a chronic, slow progressinginfection of the gums, and what
that infection leads to isinflammation, right, and the
primary thing that we see withinflammation is more blood flow.
(02:09):
Right, Like there's.
There's more blood coming tothe area because the body needs
to fight this infection.
So things get red, things getswollen because your body is
trying to fight this thing offand bring in nutrients and rush
away debris.
Does that make sense?
Indeed, so when we brush orfloss and we see bleeding,
what's happening is some ofthose blood vessels or the skin
(02:32):
is actually breaking andallowing some blood to exit out.
Now, why is this of particularlike interest to us?
Then we just talked about, like, this is an infection that's
causing this, right?
So if now, like you have alittle capillary or a blood
vessel that breaks and you seeblood coming out, now infection
(02:54):
can rush in.
And if it rushes into yourblood vessels now, it gets
distributed throughout yourwhole body.
Right, it entered your body'shighway system, so it goes from
your mouth to other vital organs, to goes to your heart, it goes
to your brain, it goes to your,your pancreas, it just kind of
disseminates throughout the body.
(03:14):
So the more uncontrolled we'llsay that that infection in the
mouth is, the more, the heavierthe bacterial burden or the
bacterial load that's enteringyour bloodstream is going to be,
and the more frequently it'sgoing to happen.
Jeremy (03:31):
So it's interesting, I never have even thought about
that.
Dr. Alex (03:35):
I thought about it that way, right.
Jeremy (03:36):
Well, yeah, man, I just thought that it's just irritated
because I haven't been doing itand you know it seems to go
away the more I floss.
But so what are the primarycauses of this?
The underlying causes and Iguess how to like life,
lifestyle factors as a wholecontribute to its development.
Dr. Alex (03:56):
Yeah, absolutely so.
You know it's a multifactorialprocess, right, yeah, it's a
good word, right Meaning justthere's a bunch of different
things, a bunch of differentfactors that come into play.
Right, genetics, that's one ofthem.
Right, genetics kind of setsthe tone for basically
(04:18):
everything that happens in ourbody and it's not to say, like
there hasn't been like aperiodontal disease gene
isolated, that if you, jeremyWolf, have this gene, you're
going to have periodontaldisease.
Jeremy (04:30):
But it does seem I'm sorry to cut you off it does
seem to have a major impact.
For instance, my wife, she justher teeth are beautiful, her
gums are beautiful, she hasn'tdone anything special.
She's never had any cavitieswhen she was younger, and myself
Not so much.
I've had problems all along theway from a very early age and
(04:51):
Similar with my children.
Right, yeah, it seems likethere is a large genetic
component to that.
Dr. Alex (04:57):
There is a genetic component.
I I sometimes hesitate a littlebit to throw that out there,
simply because sometimes we canuse the genetic thing as kind of
a crutch right.
But Whereas there is thatgenetic component, a lot of this
is factors that we can controland with periodontal disease,
(05:19):
the immense majority of cases,there are some outliers out
there that have, you know,systemic diseases that lead to
it and things like that.
But you know, 99 times out of100, a lot of this has to do
with our ability to control thatinfection in the mouth, right
to control plaque.
The reason we brush and flossin the morning is to scrape off
(05:39):
plaque, which are nothing butyou know, colonies of bacteria
and germs that populate themouth.
Okay, and I Always I likesharing this with folks because
it's when I learned it.
I was, I Was, I couldn'tbelieve it, right, and I this
(06:00):
actually just came across myradar a few months ago.
But were you aware that thebacterial concentration of the
plaque in your teeth is Equal tothe bacterial concentration in
your colon?
Jeremy (06:15):
Somehow I knew you were gonna say something like that,
and no, I was not aware, andthank you for bringing that to
my attention.
Dr. Alex (06:22):
Yeah, you're welcome, jeremy will.
So I mean, it's crazy, right,like the amount of bacteria
contained in your plaque isEqual to the amount of Bacteria
and you know down kind of kindof makes sense to some degree,
because if you're put, if you'reeating all sorts of foods, and
what?
Jeremy (06:42):
now You're not taking care of your mouth and and
you're gonna get bacteria thereand it's same.
Dr. Alex (06:47):
Yes, I mean, there are millions of bacteria even in
the cleanest mouths, right,there's a lot of bacteria.
But it's, it's up to us, withour at-home care or, you know,
our supportive therapy at home,to control that bacteria so that
it doesn't snowball, so that itdoesn't get out of control.
Jeremy (07:05):
Interesting question for you.
On a side, on a tangent, I knowyou're obviously not a vet, but
I've heard that dogs mouths arecleaner Than humans mouths, or
have less bacteria.
Seems wild to me.
Is that?
Is there any truth in that?
Or is that just a something Iheard somewhere along the line
and there's something that weuse to justify letting our dogs
(07:25):
lick our face?
Dr. Alex (07:28):
Yeah, I yeah, I'm not sure about that.
I probably, yeah, and I've.
I've had dogs, loved my dogs,and you know they lick their own
butts a lot, and then they wantto lick your face right after.
I'd say, wait, you know, holdoff can't be good.
And 15 minutes?
Um yeah, I'm not sure.
(07:50):
I've heard, I've heard, I'veheard the whole like our mouths
are dirtier than toilets too.
You ever heard that one?
Jeremy (07:57):
Toilets are cleaner than our mouths.
I'm still laughing it, hold off.
I'd say hold off about 10 to 15minutes, you know?
Dr. Alex (08:02):
yeah, let it let the IGA in the mouth kind of break
down some of that, some of those, but bugs.
Jeremy (08:09):
Oh man, that's too funny .
So what?
What are some, I Guess, likeearly signs or symptoms of gum
disease that one might detectthat could get them to start
realizing they might have a bitof a problem?
Dr. Alex (08:27):
Yeah, so you know, like we said earlier, pink in
the sink, right.
If you see any bleeding, that'snot normal, right?
The gum tissue around yourteeth is really a lot like the
tissue in the palm of your hand.
It's tissue that's designed totake a beating, right, Like you
eat chips, like our ancestorswere gnawing on, you know,
(08:51):
mastodon bones and stuff likethat.
Like that tissue developed towithstand a lot of abuse.
So if a little toothbrush iscausing it to bleed, that's red
flag number one.
All right.
Things like recession, right,Are oftentimes indicative of
some issues going on too Likeit's like recession in the gum,
(09:14):
where you see more and more.
Jeremy (09:15):
Cause I have one tooth in my mouth where it's been like
this forever, where it's justlike the gum goes all the way up
.
Dr. Alex (09:23):
Yeah, I've got a couple of those too.
Right, that's not necessarilyindicative of gum disease, right
.
That can happen because maybeyour gums are too thin or you
had braces that moved teeth intoa position where they're not,
you know, optimal.
There's a bunch of reasons, butit could be indicative of some
inflammation and some of thatgum disease processes happening
(09:50):
and inflammation, right Like Ifeel like we don't frequently
really look in our mouths, right, like, take a look, pull your
cheek back, take a look at yourgums.
Do they look pale and pink?
Okay, that's a pretty good sign, right.
Do they look puffy and red?
And then that's an indicationthat there's some inflammation
(10:10):
happening.
Right, and you may want to getthat checked out.
Jeremy (10:14):
Preventative measures, aside from the obvious brushing
your teeth twice daily, flossingwhat are some things you could
do outside that?
I would imagine that nutritionplays a big part in this type of
thing as well.
What are some suggestions youcan give to listeners on how to?
Because it's one of thosethings, alex, where, like
(10:36):
everybody knows that it'simportant to take care of your
teeth and your body andeverything, but we get lazy.
In the moment it's just likeyou know.
I tell my kids make sure youbrush your teeth before you go
to sleep tonight, and then I'mlaying in bed.
I forgot to brush my teeth andI'm laying there like, do I
really want to get out of bed tobrush my teeth?
I'm like, no, I don't want tobe a hypocrite, get your butt
out of bed, go brush your teeth.
But we all get lazy, right.
But then you look years downthe road and you start looking
(10:57):
at all these problems thatyou're having.
You're like man, I should havedone better.
It's like what are some thingsthat we can incorporate in our
daily lives to create likehabits, aside from the obvious
brushing and flossing, so thatwe don't have these problems
later on and that we don't endup with.
You know, a mouth that'smissing, teeth and-.
Dr. Alex (11:17):
That's gonna cost you a lot of time and money.
Jeremy (11:18):
Yeah right, like my grandfather with the false teeth
and I know they have implantsfor that nowadays but I remember
him eating and the teethfalling out in the food.
We don't want to see that.
That's no good.
Dr. Alex (11:29):
Yeah, that's no good, nobody wants to deal with that.
Yeah, man, I mean, preventionis key, right, like in dentistry
, I always tell folks that 99%of issues are preventable.
Right, like, if we andprevention is usually old,
saying ounce of prevention,pound of cure, and we all want a
(11:50):
six pack.
But who gets down and does thecrunches?
You know, Definitely,developing those habits the
earlier in life, the better.
Brushing twice a day for thefull two minutes, right, that's
another thing.
We kind of sometimes just wantto check the box off, brush my
teeth, but you're in there andyou quick scrub and boom out the
(12:10):
door, you go.
Jeremy (12:11):
And Never, never, never me, I'm always in there.
Dr. Alex (12:14):
I know you're a very diligent, but yeah, the flossing
.
We don't need to floss multipletimes a day.
Even flossing every other dayright To start establishing
those good habits is a goodplace to start.
Jeremy (12:34):
Is there too much flossing, like I?
Dr. Alex (12:36):
know people have the.
Jeremy (12:37):
I'd imagine you could irritate right With those little
dental picks If you're sittingthere all day long getting in
and out.
I'd imagine that would havesome of the predictions.
Dr. Alex (12:44):
So, like everything in life, is technique sensitive
too right.
It's not about just doingthings, it's about doing them
right.
So, actually, part of everysingle a new patient exam in the
office, the patients will get aseries of videos with proper at
home care tips and tricks.
(13:05):
So you can go on YouTube andfind a slew of videos on how to
brush properly, how to flossproperly, how to use a water
pick properly, and I'll tell you, those three are huge right.
If you establish and use thoseand do that well every single
day, you're gonna be doingyourself a lot of good.
(13:28):
I'm gonna do a little quick plughere for something that I'm
super excited about.
We are gonna be demoing thisnew device called Proclaim,
which everyone knows what awater pick is right, basically
like a little pressure washerfor your teeth and your gums and
you gotta have to like move itaround and makes a huge mess and
all that.
I've never used that before.
(13:49):
You've never used a water pick.
They're fun.
They're fun.
You should try one.
I'll get you one.
Can we get into it?
Yes, please.
So this device, this Proclaimdevice, uses a custom made
mouthpiece with 70 preciselyplaced jets that shoot water at
(14:10):
the same time into all the nooksand crannies of your mouth.
So the water picking processthat used to take, you know,
three, four minutes, can nowtake only seven seconds.
Jeremy (14:22):
So you just take this mouthpiece, bite into it.
Dr. Alex (14:25):
Bite into it, hit the on button and it's yep, and
seven seconds later that's it,you're done and you're doing?
Jeremy (14:34):
what exactly are you doing with this technology?
Is this brand new technology,or has this been around for a
while?
Dr. Alex (14:38):
Yeah, yeah.
So no, this is brand new stuff.
We're one of the first officesin Florida that are gonna carry
it and work with it.
I'm actually gonna be receivingmy demo mouthpiece in the next
week and I'm gonna be running alittle experiment on social
media.
I'm not going to brush my teethfor a week and just use this
(15:00):
device and I'm gonna have myhygienist track the amount of
plaque that builds up in mymouth just using this device
versus if I brushed regularly,and we're gonna do a little
comparison test in the officeusing both myself and Dr Tart.
So pretty excited about that.
Stay tuned.
Jeremy (15:19):
We'll give you more info on it.
I won't be hanging out with youthat week.
Dr. Alex (15:23):
Yeah, I told my wife about it.
She wasn't thrilled, but youknow, breath mints yeah.
Jeremy (15:28):
I guess.
Dr. Alex (15:29):
Hopefully it works well enough.
But yeah, man, it's all aboutdeveloping those positive habits
at home.
You asked about diet, right?
Diet is obviously important,right, as it pertains to the
mouth minimizing the amounts ofsugars we eat and that doesn't
just mean, you know, candy andtwizzlers and things like that.
(15:51):
It means anything that becomessugar in the mouth.
So all of your carbs bread,rice, pasta those count as
sugars when it comes to themouth, and that is the rocket
fuel for all of the plaque, allof the bacteria.
That's what they eat, okay, sobear that in mind.
Minimizing sugar intake,removing that plaque regularly
(16:14):
and thoroughly, it's gonna go along way.
Jeremy (16:20):
Good stuff, as always.
You are a big.
I'm just going to let you knowthat I'm still with me.
You glitched out for a secondthere.
What would be before, before wewrap up this segment, If you
could give our listeners one,just one piece, one piece of
(16:43):
advice for maintaining their gumhealth.
What would that be If you had?
Dr. Alex (16:55):
to pick one thing.
Can I do that?
Okay, that's fair.
So get a checkup, get yourregular checkups right the
sooner.
The sooner things are are seenand diagnosed, the easier it is
to fix and to make thecommitment to yourself right,
like, spend it's, it's fiveminutes a day.
(17:18):
Right, that you're going tospend caring for your, for your
self, right, and you're going tosave yourself a ton of time and
money and and and dental visitsdown the line and you're going
to have that awesome checkupvisit.
You're going to high five, yourdentist out the door and life's
(17:39):
going to be good, good stuff.
Jeremy (17:42):
One thing I wanted to mention.
I wanted to say this earlier.
When we're talking aboutbrushing of teeth, just a little
tip for anybody out there withsmaller children that I I
learned that helped me outimmensely.
When I was a kid, I learnedthat I had some wonderful apps
on the phone for kids brushingapps true, yeah, where you know
they'll.
It'll be a two minute timer andthey could, like you know,
(18:03):
fight monsters while they'rebrushing.
The faster they brush, thebetter they do.
I found a lot of utility inthat and that helped.
I'll add one more thing Powerbrushes right.
Dr. Alex (18:13):
Electric toothbrushes are far superior than manual
brushes, especially in the hardto reach areas right Up there.
Alright, yeah, a manual brushwill do just fine, but way in
the back, where you have, whereyou don't have a whole lot of
space.
Yeah, right, and that'sespecially especially for a kid,
right, especially for a kid.
(18:34):
You know, with an electricbrush you can just park it, move
it along slowly.
You know you teach them theroutine, this is where you start
, this is where you go next, andthey pick up on that routine
and they do it the same wayevery single time and they get
the results that they want everysingle time.
So power brush, make sure thatwhatever it is that you get sits
(18:55):
on a charger so that it'salways, you know, fully gassed
up and ready to go when you'reready to use it.
Jeremy (19:01):
When you're ready to take it for a spin.
That's oh, I like that.
Yeah, good stuff and alright.
Well, everyone thanks fortuning in.
Got some valuable insights andwisdom out of this one and we
will look forward to seeing youon the next episode of Ward of
Mouth.
Keep smiling, folks.
I don't want to take care.
(19:22):
Thank you, remember a healthysmile.
Hello, hello everyone.
Welcome back to word of mouth,where we're getting into it.
We're getting into exploringthe connection between your oral
health and your overallwell-being.
I'm your co-host, jeremy Wolf.
I'm joined by none other thanyour host, dr Alex Semide.
So, dr Alex, always a pleasure.
It's good to see you again.
I know it's been a while.
Dr. Alex (00:26):
Well, likewise, brother, it's good to be back,
good to be back in the saddleand share some tips with folks.
Huh.
Jeremy (00:36):
Absolutely, and I think the topic we're getting into
today is an interesting one andI know you wanted to share a
little bit about kind of gumdisease and how that pertains to
your overall health and kind ofget into that a little bit.
So why don't you set the stageand then we shall proceed from
there?
Dr. Alex (00:57):
Cool, yeah, absolutely .
So I'm going to start it offwith a question for you.
Jeremy (01:01):
Oh, another question You're going to make me think
this morning All right, let's go.
Dr. Alex (01:05):
Yeah, why not?
So when you ever brushed,flossed anything and seen some,
some pink in the sink, like alittle bit of bleeding, of
course, okay.
So what do you think ishappening when you see bleeding
on like blood on your toothbrushor a little bit of blood in the
sink or something like that?
Jeremy (01:24):
Well, for me it primarily comes when I don't
floss frequently enough and then, and then after not flossing
for three or four days shame onme.
I know I should be doing itdaily.
At least happens to the best ofus.
You know I get in there and youknow that I guess it gets
irritated and the gums aresensitive and bleeds a little
bit.
Dr. Alex (01:45):
Okay, so you're on the right track.
Okay so, gum disease,gingivitis, periodontal disease
all of that is, it's aninfection of the gums, right,
it's a chronic, slow progressinginfection of the gums, and what
that infection leads to isinflammation, right, and the
primary thing that we see withinflammation is more blood flow.
(02:09):
Right, Like there's.
There's more blood coming tothe area because the body needs
to fight this infection.
So things get red, things getswollen because your body is
trying to fight this thing offand bring in nutrients and rush
away debris.
Does that make sense?
Indeed, so when we brush orfloss and we see bleeding,
what's happening is some ofthose blood vessels or the skin
(02:32):
is actually breaking andallowing some blood to exit out.
Now, why is this of particularlike interest to us?
Then we just talked about, like, this is an infection that's
causing this, right?
So if now, like you have alittle capillary or a blood
vessel that breaks and you seeblood coming out, now infection
(02:54):
can rush in.
And if it rushes into yourblood vessels now, it gets
distributed throughout yourwhole body.
Right, it entered your body'shighway system, so it goes from
your mouth to other vital organs, to goes to your heart, it goes
to your brain, it goes to your,your pancreas, it just kind of
disseminates throughout the body.
(03:14):
So the more uncontrolled we'llsay that that infection in the
mouth is, the more, the heavierthe bacterial burden or the
bacterial load that's enteringyour bloodstream is going to be,
and the more frequently it'sgoing to happen.
Jeremy (03:31):
So it's interesting, I never have even thought about
that.
Dr. Alex (03:35):
I thought about it that way, right.
Jeremy (03:36):
Well, yeah, man, I just thought that it's just irritated
because I haven't been doing itand you know it seems to go
away the more I floss.
But so what are the primarycauses of this?
The underlying causes and Iguess how to like life,
lifestyle factors as a wholecontribute to its development.
Dr. Alex (03:56):
Yeah, absolutely so.
You know it's a multifactorialprocess, right, yeah, it's a
good word, right Meaning justthere's a bunch of different
things, a bunch of differentfactors that come into play.
Right, genetics, that's one ofthem.
Right, genetics kind of setsthe tone for basically
(04:18):
everything that happens in ourbody and it's not to say, like
there hasn't been like aperiodontal disease gene
isolated, that if you, jeremyWolf, have this gene, you're
going to have periodontaldisease.
Jeremy (04:30):
But it does seem I'm sorry to cut you off it does
seem to have a major impact.
For instance, my wife, she justher teeth are beautiful, her
gums are beautiful, she hasn'tdone anything special.
She's never had any cavitieswhen she was younger, and myself
Not so much.
I've had problems all along theway from a very early age and
(04:51):
Similar with my children.
Right, yeah, it seems likethere is a large genetic
component to that.
Dr. Alex (04:57):
There is a genetic component.
I I sometimes hesitate a littlebit to throw that out there,
simply because sometimes we canuse the genetic thing as kind of
a crutch right.
But Whereas there is thatgenetic component, a lot of this
is factors that we can controland with periodontal disease,
(05:19):
the immense majority of cases,there are some outliers out
there that have, you know,systemic diseases that lead to
it and things like that.
But you know, 99 times out of100, a lot of this has to do
with our ability to control thatinfection in the mouth, right
to control plaque.
The reason we brush and flossin the morning is to scrape off
(05:39):
plaque, which are nothing butyou know, colonies of bacteria
and germs that populate themouth.
Okay, and I Always I likesharing this with folks because
it's when I learned it.
I was, I Was, I couldn'tbelieve it, right, and I this
(06:00):
actually just came across myradar a few months ago.
But were you aware that thebacterial concentration of the
plaque in your teeth is Equal tothe bacterial concentration in
your colon?
Jeremy (06:15):
Somehow I knew you were gonna say something like that,
and no, I was not aware, andthank you for bringing that to
my attention.
Dr. Alex (06:22):
Yeah, you're welcome, jeremy will.
So I mean, it's crazy, right,like the amount of bacteria
contained in your plaque isEqual to the amount of Bacteria
and you know down kind of kindof makes sense to some degree,
because if you're put, if you'reeating all sorts of foods, and
what?
Jeremy (06:42):
now You're not taking care of your mouth and and
you're gonna get bacteria thereand it's same.
Dr. Alex (06:47):
Yes, I mean, there are millions of bacteria even in
the cleanest mouths, right,there's a lot of bacteria.
But it's, it's up to us, withour at-home care or, you know,
our supportive therapy at home,to control that bacteria so that
it doesn't snowball, so that itdoesn't get out of control.
Jeremy (07:05):
Interesting question for you.
On a side, on a tangent, I knowyou're obviously not a vet, but
I've heard that dogs mouths arecleaner Than humans mouths, or
have less bacteria.
Seems wild to me.
Is that?
Is there any truth in that?
Or is that just a something Iheard somewhere along the line
and there's something that weuse to justify letting our dogs
(07:25):
lick our face?
Dr. Alex (07:28):
Yeah, I yeah, I'm not sure about that.
I probably, yeah, and I've.
I've had dogs, loved my dogs,and you know they lick their own
butts a lot, and then they wantto lick your face right after.
I'd say, wait, you know, holdoff can't be good.
And 15 minutes?
Um yeah, I'm not sure.
(07:50):
I've heard, I've heard, I'veheard the whole like our mouths
are dirtier than toilets too.
You ever heard that one?
Jeremy (07:57):
Toilets are cleaner than our mouths.
I'm still laughing it, hold off.
I'd say hold off about 10 to 15minutes, you know?
Dr. Alex (08:02):
yeah, let it let the IGA in the mouth kind of break
down some of that, some of those, but bugs.
Jeremy (08:09):
Oh man, that's too funny .
So what?
What are some, I Guess, likeearly signs or symptoms of gum
disease that one might detectthat could get them to start
realizing they might have a bitof a problem?
Dr. Alex (08:27):
Yeah, so you know, like we said earlier, pink in
the sink, right.
If you see any bleeding, that'snot normal, right?
The gum tissue around yourteeth is really a lot like the
tissue in the palm of your hand.
It's tissue that's designed totake a beating, right, Like you
eat chips, like our ancestorswere gnawing on, you know,
(08:51):
mastodon bones and stuff likethat.
Like that tissue developed towithstand a lot of abuse.
So if a little toothbrush iscausing it to bleed, that's red
flag number one.
All right.
Things like recession, right,Are oftentimes indicative of
some issues going on too Likeit's like recession in the gum,
(09:14):
where you see more and more.
Jeremy (09:15):
Cause I have one tooth in my mouth where it's been like
this forever, where it's justlike the gum goes all the way up
.
Dr. Alex (09:23):
Yeah, I've got a couple of those too.
Right, that's not necessarilyindicative of gum disease, right
.
That can happen because maybeyour gums are too thin or you
had braces that moved teeth intoa position where they're not,
you know, optimal.
There's a bunch of reasons, butit could be indicative of some
inflammation and some of thatgum disease processes happening
(09:50):
and inflammation, right Like Ifeel like we don't frequently
really look in our mouths, right, like, take a look, pull your
cheek back, take a look at yourgums.
Do they look pale and pink?
Okay, that's a pretty good sign, right.
Do they look puffy and red?
And then that's an indicationthat there's some inflammation
(10:10):
happening.
Right, and you may want to getthat checked out.
Jeremy (10:14):
Preventative measures, aside from the obvious brushing
your teeth twice daily, flossingwhat are some things you could
do outside that?
I would imagine that nutritionplays a big part in this type of
thing as well.
What are some suggestions youcan give to listeners on how to?
Because it's one of thosethings, alex, where, like
(10:36):
everybody knows that it'simportant to take care of your
teeth and your body andeverything, but we get lazy.
In the moment it's just likeyou know.
I tell my kids make sure youbrush your teeth before you go
to sleep tonight, and then I'mlaying in bed.
I forgot to brush my teeth andI'm laying there like, do I
really want to get out of bed tobrush my teeth?
I'm like, no, I don't want tobe a hypocrite, get your butt
out of bed, go brush your teeth.
But we all get lazy, right.
But then you look years downthe road and you start looking
(10:57):
at all these problems thatyou're having.
You're like man, I should havedone better.
It's like what are some thingsthat we can incorporate in our
daily lives to create likehabits, aside from the obvious
brushing and flossing, so thatwe don't have these problems
later on and that we don't endup with.
You know, a mouth that'smissing, teeth and-.
Dr. Alex (11:17):
That's gonna cost you a lot of time and money.
Jeremy (11:18):
Yeah right, like my grandfather with the false teeth
and I know they have implantsfor that nowadays but I remember
him eating and the teethfalling out in the food.
We don't want to see that.
That's no good.
Dr. Alex (11:29):
Yeah, that's no good, nobody wants to deal with that.
Yeah, man, I mean, preventionis key, right, like in dentistry
, I always tell folks that 99%of issues are preventable.
Right, like, if we andprevention is usually old,
saying ounce of prevention,pound of cure, and we all want a
(11:50):
six pack.
But who gets down and does thecrunches?
You know, Definitely,developing those habits the
earlier in life, the better.
Brushing twice a day for thefull two minutes, right, that's
another thing.
We kind of sometimes just wantto check the box off, brush my
teeth, but you're in there andyou quick scrub and boom out the
(12:10):
door, you go.
Jeremy (12:11):
And Never, never, never me, I'm always in there.
Dr. Alex (12:14):
I know you're a very diligent, but yeah, the flossing
.
We don't need to floss multipletimes a day.
Even flossing every other dayright To start establishing
those good habits is a goodplace to start.
Jeremy (12:34):
Is there too much flossing, like I?
Dr. Alex (12:36):
know people have the.
Jeremy (12:37):
I'd imagine you could irritate right With those little
dental picks If you're sittingthere all day long getting in
and out.
I'd imagine that would havesome of the predictions.
Dr. Alex (12:44):
So, like everything in life, is technique sensitive
too right.
It's not about just doingthings, it's about doing them
right.
So, actually, part of everysingle a new patient exam in the
office, the patients will get aseries of videos with proper at
home care tips and tricks.
(13:05):
So you can go on YouTube andfind a slew of videos on how to
brush properly, how to flossproperly, how to use a water
pick properly, and I'll tell you, those three are huge right.
If you establish and use thoseand do that well every single
day, you're gonna be doingyourself a lot of good.
(13:28):
I'm gonna do a little quick plughere for something that I'm
super excited about.
We are gonna be demoing thisnew device called Proclaim,
which everyone knows what awater pick is right, basically
like a little pressure washerfor your teeth and your gums and
you gotta have to like move itaround and makes a huge mess and
all that.
I've never used that before.
(13:49):
You've never used a water pick.
They're fun.
They're fun.
You should try one.
I'll get you one.
Can we get into it?
Yes, please.
So this device, this Proclaimdevice, uses a custom made
mouthpiece with 70 preciselyplaced jets that shoot water at
(14:10):
the same time into all the nooksand crannies of your mouth.
So the water picking processthat used to take, you know,
three, four minutes, can nowtake only seven seconds.
Jeremy (14:22):
So you just take this mouthpiece, bite into it.
Dr. Alex (14:25):
Bite into it, hit the on button and it's yep, and
seven seconds later that's it,you're done and you're doing?
Jeremy (14:34):
what exactly are you doing with this technology?
Is this brand new technology,or has this been around for a
while?
Dr. Alex (14:38):
Yeah, yeah.
So no, this is brand new stuff.
We're one of the first officesin Florida that are gonna carry
it and work with it.
I'm actually gonna be receivingmy demo mouthpiece in the next
week and I'm gonna be running alittle experiment on social
media.
I'm not going to brush my teethfor a week and just use this
(15:00):
device and I'm gonna have myhygienist track the amount of
plaque that builds up in mymouth just using this device
versus if I brushed regularly,and we're gonna do a little
comparison test in the officeusing both myself and Dr Tart.
So pretty excited about that.
Stay tuned.
Jeremy (15:19):
We'll give you more info on it.
I won't be hanging out with youthat week.
Dr. Alex (15:23):
Yeah, I told my wife about it.
She wasn't thrilled, but youknow, breath mints yeah.
Jeremy (15:28):
I guess.
Dr. Alex (15:29):
Hopefully it works well enough.
But yeah, man, it's all aboutdeveloping those positive habits
at home.
You asked about diet, right?
Diet is obviously important,right, as it pertains to the
mouth minimizing the amounts ofsugars we eat and that doesn't
just mean, you know, candy andtwizzlers and things like that.
(15:51):
It means anything that becomessugar in the mouth.
So all of your carbs bread,rice, pasta those count as
sugars when it comes to themouth, and that is the rocket
fuel for all of the plaque, allof the bacteria.
That's what they eat, okay, sobear that in mind.
Minimizing sugar intake,removing that plaque regularly
(16:14):
and thoroughly, it's gonna go along way.
Jeremy (16:20):
Good stuff, as always.
You are a big.
I'm just going to let you knowthat I'm still with me.
You glitched out for a secondthere.
What would be before, before wewrap up this segment, If you
could give our listeners one,just one piece, one piece of
(16:43):
advice for maintaining their gumhealth.
What would that be If you had?
Dr. Alex (16:55):
to pick one thing.
Can I do that?
Okay, that's fair.
So get a checkup, get yourregular checkups right the
sooner.
The sooner things are are seenand diagnosed, the easier it is
to fix and to make thecommitment to yourself right,
like, spend it's, it's fiveminutes a day.
(17:18):
Right, that you're going tospend caring for your, for your
self, right, and you're going tosave yourself a ton of time and
money and and and dental visitsdown the line and you're going
to have that awesome checkupvisit.
You're going to high five, yourdentist out the door and life's
(17:39):
going to be good, good stuff.
Jeremy (17:42):
One thing I wanted to mention.
I wanted to say this earlier.
When we're talking aboutbrushing of teeth, just a little
tip for anybody out there withsmaller children that I I
learned that helped me outimmensely.
When I was a kid, I learnedthat I had some wonderful apps
on the phone for kids brushingapps true, yeah, where you know
they'll.
It'll be a two minute timer andthey could, like you know,
(18:03):
fight monsters while they'rebrushing.
The faster they brush, thebetter they do.
I found a lot of utility inthat and that helped.
I'll add one more thing Powerbrushes right.
Dr. Alex (18:13):
Electric toothbrushes are far superior than manual
brushes, especially in the hardto reach areas right Up there.
Alright, yeah, a manual brushwill do just fine, but way in
the back, where you have, whereyou don't have a whole lot of
space.
Yeah, right, and that'sespecially especially for a kid,
right, especially for a kid.
(18:34):
You know, with an electricbrush you can just park it, move
it along slowly.
You know you teach them theroutine, this is where you start
, this is where you go next, andthey pick up on that routine
and they do it the same wayevery single time and they get
the results that they want everysingle time.
So power brush, make sure thatwhatever it is that you get sits
(18:55):
on a charger so that it'salways, you know, fully gassed
up and ready to go when you'reready to use it.
Jeremy (19:01):
When you're ready to take it for a spin.
That's oh, I like that.
Yeah, good stuff and alright.
Well, everyone thanks fortuning in.
Got some valuable insights andwisdom out of this one and we
will look forward to seeing youon the next episode of Ward of
Mouth.
Keep smiling, folks.
I don't want to take care.
(19:22):
Thank you, remember a healthysmile.
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