December 3, 2023 • 25 mins
What if the secret to better health was hidden right under our noses, or more specifically, in our jaws? Prepare to be amazed as Dr. Alex Semidey and I, Jeremy Wolf, unravel the shocking connections between our shrinking jaws and overall health. We explore how modern lifestyle changes and dietary shifts contribute to weaker jaw muscles, leading to a host of dental issues ranging from crowded teeth to impacted wisdom teeth. We also shed light on the far-reaching consequences for children's development, including problems with breathing and tongue placement. Chewing gum, surprising as it may seem, could provide a simple yet effective solution.
But that's not all. We delve deeper to expose the grim health risks associated with mouth breathing. Could this overlooked habit actually trigger a vicious cycle of sickness, allergies, and even sleep apnea? We affirm the vital importance of nasal breathing, nature's built-in bacteria filter, and dissect the implications of mouth breathing on facial development in children. Early formation of proper habits could be the key to preventing these issues. With a call for more collaboration between dental and sleep professionals, we hope to address these interconnected problems head-on. Finally, we touch on the curious case of the 'shrinking jaw bone epidemic' and shed light on myofunctional therapy's role in combatting sleep disorders. So, ready to make every breath count and improve your overall well-being? Tune into this enlightening episode of Word of Mouth.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jeremy (00:00):
Welcome to Word of Mouth , where we explore the
fascinating connection betweenyour oral health and your
overall well-being.
Here's your host, dr AlexSemide.
Hello everyone and welcome backto episode number two.
Episode number two right numberof dose of Word of Mouth.
(00:23):
I'm your co-host, jeremy Wolf,and I'm joined by your host, dr
Alex Semide, and, as we alludedto on the first episode, we are
going to get into a.
I like to think it's a prettyfascinating topic, something
that to say it wasn't on myradar would be an understatement
.
It's something that I'd nevereven conceived of, and it's this
(00:44):
idea of shrinking jaw, theshrinking jaw in human beings.
That is it, and I'm curiouslike and how actually that
relates to your overall health,right, and so I'm trying to like
what is it?
What was the impetus that ledresearchers in the first place
(01:07):
to start investigating thisrelationship between the
shrinking human jaw and how thatrelates to your overall health?
Because that's kind ofcounterintuitive.
Let's start there.
Dr. Alex (01:18):
So let me ask you this out of 100 people that you know
how many of them have, likenaturally, perfectly straight
teeth?
Jeremy (01:34):
That's a great question.
I'm trying to think ofeverybody that I encounter.
But you mean naturally straightteeth, but you don't know for
most of them, because they mayhave had orthodontics.
Are you talking about now orRight?
Dr. Alex (01:45):
So no, they're like in their lifetime, like people who
just never had braces, neverhad Invisalign yeah my wife,
perfectly naturally straight,perfect teeth.
That's awesome, right, yeah, heis in the minority.
Okay, like crowding and what wecall occlusal issues or
malocclusion Occlusion is theterm for how your teeth fit
(02:06):
together top to bottom, andissues with that distribution of
the bite, right, things likeunder bites, over bites,
crowding, are really, reallycommon.
Like, most people are affectedby malocclusion to some extent,
and what's super interesting isthat 150 years ago, no one had
(02:31):
crowded teeth.
Interesting, 150 years ago, noone had impacted wisdom teeth
and now, basically, that's allyou see is people that have to
have their wisdom teeth takenout because they don't have
enough room in their jaw bonefor them.
So, man, like, evolutionarily,that doesn't even make sense,
(02:51):
right, like, why do we growthese things that we don't
really have enough room for?
So the issue is that the jawbone has been shrinking over
time and it's been shrinkingpretty fast.
It started about 150 years ago.
Jeremy (03:05):
That is a really rapid progression, very, very fast as
your jaw size.
You would think that would takethousands of years to start
shifting.
Dr. Alex (03:13):
You would think so.
Right, like generations andgenerations and evolution, right
, and all of that.
But it is a relatively recentphenomenon and it tells us, like
we know a couple of things,right, like everyone always
wonders okay, is it a geneticthing?
Right, are we evolving toreduce our jaw sizes?
(03:35):
Right, you know, like, let'skind of fast forward on that
track.
You ever seen everybody knowsthe alien head, right?
Big old brain, big eyes andtiny little like lower half of
the face.
Like, is that what we'reevolving to?
I hope not.
Yeah, me too.
But we see that the jaw bonehas been shrinking and it is not
(04:02):
a genetic thing.
Right, there aren't likegenetics you can't do anything
about.
Jeremy (04:08):
This would be more akin to gum disease or things like
that, not the actual shifting ofthe jaw per se right, more
about like 100%.
Dr. Alex (04:19):
Okay, yeah, so what is causing this shrinking of the
jaw bone is, in large part, ourdiet.
We used to use our teeth andour jaw muscles a lot more
earlier on in life than we donow After the period of
(04:39):
industrialization, where ourfood supplies changed a lot in
general our foods got muchsofter and in getting softer, we
stopped developing the lowerhalf of the face the way we used
to 150 years ago.
So think about this right Likebecause we're not using the
(05:01):
muscles and forcing them to workat a really early age, as we're
weaning kids off of beingbreastfed, we're stunting the
development of the face and it'sleading to all of these issues
where the jawbones are literallyshrinking, crowding our teeth
out, leading to other issueswith the mouth that contribute
(05:23):
to more and more issues with thedevelopment of the face.
Jeremy (05:27):
So wait, you're not sitting here today advocating
for increased gum chewingamongst youth.
Are you Because that seems likethat would give you a good
workout?
It is Maybe some sugar-free gum.
Dr. Alex (05:38):
It is actually one of the treatments that are
recommended.
Having kids starting to chewgum?
Jeremy (05:44):
Yeah, I was just telling my daughter to stop chewing so
much gum.
She's getting complaints in theschool from teachers that she's
chewing too much gum.
Dr. Alex (05:51):
Well, I'll wait, yeah, it's yes.
Like anything that forces us touse these structures that we
have for tens and hundreds ofthousands of years been using in
a certain way and has helpedour physiology develop properly,
we're stunting that growth,right, and like anything else
(06:13):
that goes unused, it atrophiesand we're now starting to open
our eyes because the impact thatthis has on our development as
kids Right, like kids, so wedon't wean them off of the
breast milk into hard foodsRight, they continue to chew
(06:33):
soft foods that really don'trequire those muscles to work at
all and things don't developwell.
So they start being.
They start having those issueswith how the teeth come in.
Right, the jaw bones don'tdevelop, things are crowded.
They don't have enough spacefor their tongue in the mouth
(06:54):
because the jaw is crowded.
Right, they end up not beingable to breathe through their
nose because, as the palatedoesn't expand, your nasal
passages are also constricted.
So now you can't breathe inthrough your nose so you leave
your jaw you know slack jaw soyou can breathe in through your
(07:16):
mouth.
Right, interesting, the tongueis.
Everyone's kind of heard of apalatal expander, right, anyone
who needed back in ourgeneration when you needed
headgear, right for your bracesand stuff like that.
A lot of people had thispalatal expander where they turn
a key to like literally expandthe upper jaw bone.
(07:37):
The tongue is the naturalpalatal expander.
Jeremy (07:43):
Okay.
Dr. Alex (07:44):
Your tongue.
When we're asleep, when we arenot speaking or chewing, our
mouths should be closed and ourtongue should be resting up
against the palate.
And the tongue, believe it ornot, is the strongest muscle in
your body and that strong,gentle, constant pressure is
actually forcing your palate toexpand.
The tongue is the strongestmuscle in your body.
Jeremy (08:07):
Right, right, yeah, really yeah.
I guess pound for pound, right.
Dr. Alex (08:13):
Yeah, yeah, it's like the Walter Wray Champ.
Jeremy (08:18):
That's the way.
Hey, eating is important, soyou've got to have strong,
strong operation up here, right,you know?
Dr. Alex (08:23):
and it just the strength of the tongue and the
proper positioning of the tongueis essential to let the
skeleton right, the jaw bone,develop properly.
So we get into this viciouscycle of mouth breathing right
because our nasal passages aretoo small.
(08:44):
So because you mouth breathe,you get sick more often, you get
more allergies, you get morecongestion, which means you
mouth breathe even more right.
A lot of people don't know this, but when you breathe through
your nose, your nose is actuallykilling bacteria that would
otherwise get into your system.
When you breathe in throughyour mouth, that bacteria gets
(09:04):
into your system and can makeyou sick.
So your nose is like a naturalHEPA filter for your body.
Jeremy (09:11):
The nose the nose Natural HEPA filter.
Dr. Alex (09:14):
Yeah.
Jeremy (09:15):
And all of this stuff ultimately leads to things like
sleep apnea, right?
Yes, exactly.
Dr. Alex (09:21):
So you can see how all of this sort of like spirals
out of control, right?
No, kids mouth breathing, theirpalate doesn't develop, they
have a restricted airway.
Now they're getting olderthey're snoring, sleep apnea and
not to mention the other issuesthat come from like systemic
issues that come from impropersleep, that come from sleep
(09:44):
apnea.
It's linked to all sorts ofchronic comorbidities the
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, general inflammation.
It is a fascinatingrelationship and something that,
if we educate more providers tolook for these things early, we
(10:09):
can intercept them when we canstill be extremely effective at
changing their course for lifeLike this can have an incredibly
profound impact on so manypeople's lives.
Just diagnosing the fact thatthis kid can't breathe.
Well, my wife's a pediatricianand, as this whole jaw shrinking
(10:34):
, early childhood facialdevelopment, sleep thing came
onto my radar, which was prettyrecent, because it's not
something that is discussed muchin dentistry or medicine at
large, right, it's one of theselike nascent fields that there's
(10:54):
a lot of research going on, butit hasn't tripled down to the
mainstream, right.
So you said it earlier, itwasn't on your radar.
It's not on a lot of doctors'radars either right, yeah, I'm
just.
Jeremy (11:08):
I'm sitting here wishing we did this podcast six, seven
years ago and maybe my daughterwouldn't be having the issue
she's having right now withcrowding in her mouth and teeth
not coming out right.
And here I thought this was all.
Oh, it's just genetics, it'sjust you know.
But all this stuff I think,like with anything else, right,
it goes back to forming properhabits from a very early age
(11:32):
through proper education,forming routines and getting
into the daily habits of doingthese things, so that it doesn't
become such a difficult chorelater on, because forming new
habits is more difficult theolder you get.
So if you can go back as aparent when your kids are very,
very young and instill these youknow values into them, right?
(11:52):
You know they're gonna, likeyou said, right, a lot of people
will avoid having the need fororthodontics and things like
that later on when they reachthose teen years.
Dr. Alex (12:01):
You know, a good example that I think a lot of
people, a lot of parents, willrelate to is the pacifier use.
Jeremy (12:11):
Yeah.
So what's up with that?
Is that horrible?
Is that not horrible?
Cause I've heard that it'sreally really bad to use it all
the time because it will helpshape the the mouth incorrectly.
100%, it makes sense, and sowould you advocate not using
that at all, or just on alimited basis?
I mean, what's so advocatingfor?
Dr. Alex (12:33):
not using it at all would make me an extreme hippo
Streamist, cause my daughter,isabel, who is 18 months old, is
still using her pacifier andwe're meeting her off of it, all
right and.
But I saw it with my son too,right, like it started to change
the shape of their teeth andthe shape of their palate.
(12:54):
Right, and just think aboutwhat's happening.
Right, if you have a pacifierin your mouth, you're kind of
like sucking on that nipple inyour mouth.
Your cheeks are pressing inwardright, your tongue is kind of
like pressing forward and you'reyou're sucking on this thing
and it starts creating like thisV shaped palette and and
crowding and, you know,rotations of teeth in the front.
(13:19):
As soon as we started removingthe pacifier with Jordy, with my
son, who's now five, all ofthat started going back in place
right, and their, their upperjaw, his upper jaw kind of
rounded out all of thoserotations and, kind of buck
teeth settled back in, becausenow the upper lip is just gonna
(13:39):
be pressing back on those teethand we're not gonna be pressing
in anymore with the cheeks andthe tongue again, like we were
talking about.
It'll just start to expand thepalette and put everything in
its proper place.
So for some kids they have, youknow, some, some malformation,
a tongue tie, weak tonguemuscles, things like that.
(14:02):
There are all sorts ofexercises, very simple exercises
that we can teach kids andadults to teach the tongue where
to go, teach the tongue whereit should be, to help execute
some of this developmental stuffthat we need to see happen very
(14:23):
, very interesting stuff.
Jeremy (14:25):
It is really, really fascinating.
I'm curious, from, like, adental health standpoint, right,
how should individuals andother healthcare professionals
approach these types of concernsand collaborate together, cause
(14:46):
, like you said earlier, thatthere's not a lot of
cross-disciplinary working onthese issues?
Right, you know, you do whatyou do from the dental side,
like, how do we get moredentists, together with people
that deal with sleep apnea, tohave more conversations around
this kind of stuff to helpbridge the gap between these
different disciplines that are,by nature, heavily
(15:06):
interconnected?
Dr. Alex (15:07):
Yeah, no for sure.
You know it's tough with.
I think this is a good.
These conversations areimportant to have.
These conversations areimportant to have in public.
You know there's a lot of.
You know, sometimes there's thisidealistic notion of how
(15:29):
medicine works.
You know, from people that areoutside of the industry, right,
where everyone is just rallyingtogether around the big round
table and figuring out the bestway to go about things, it
doesn't exactly work that way.
You know there's a lot oftribalism and everyone thinks
they know best.
And you know, as a dentist, asa dentist, physicians are
(15:52):
sometimes like oh, dentist, whatdo you know?
You know about the human bodyand health?
So there's a little bit of thattoo, right.
So we need to kind of breakdown some of those barriers and
really just have conversations.
I think, the more pediatriciansI was saying earlier, my wife's
a pediatrician and she's beenkind of good reference point for
(16:16):
these things for me with herperspective and what she sees in
practice.
And you know, in talking to herabout all of this, she shared
with me the connection betweensleep disorders with kids and
things like ADHD.
You know, when kids are beingworked up for ADHD, one of the
(16:38):
first things they start lookingat is how are these kids
sleeping?
Sleeping patterns, yeah, yeah,because it's so important for
the way that we, our brains andour bodies develop in life.
So, going back to how we canincrease awareness, I think
(16:59):
these conversations areimportant.
I think the more dentists andpediatricians are aware of these
things and are screening andare bringing these sorts of
things into the generalawareness of people, I think
that's how more and moreconversations start to be had
and people start educatingthemselves more on these things
and that's how, sometimes,fringe science becomes
(17:25):
mainstream science.
Jeremy (17:28):
Yeah, maybe one day we can get your wife to join us on
an episode to talk a little bitabout what she does on the
pediatric side, and, obviously,other guests in different
disciplines to talk more aboutthese issues, because it is
incredibly important to havecollaboration.
Interdiscipline,interdiscipline say the word for
me.
Interdiscipline, disciplinaryDiscipline yeah, cat got my
(17:52):
tongue.
Dr. Alex (17:52):
I really think about it too, that one activates my
speech impediment.
Jeremy (17:58):
So I wanted to also ask there's a term that I came
across and doing a littleresearch on this that I wasn't
entirely clear on.
I thought maybe you couldelaborate on it.
It's this idea of myofunctionaltherapy.
Yeah, so what is I mean?
Can you provide maybe a briefsummary of what myofunctional
therapy entails and kind of howit addresses the issues that
(18:21):
we've been talking about?
Dr. Alex (18:22):
Yeah, so myofunctional therapy are basically tongue
exercises, right it's a workoutfor your tongue and you end up
doing a lot of funny lookingthings right.
So this is not the sort ofthing.
Jeremy (18:34):
Care to give us an example?
Yeah, or maybe later.
Dr. Alex (18:40):
So you're really just sort of holding your tongue in
extreme positions for 10 to 15seconds at a time, right Like
you were crying.
A touch the tip of your tongueto the tip of your nose.
Jeremy (18:52):
I never, even thought about doing anything like that.
I wonder if you can incorporatesome of that in breath.
Dr. Alex (18:58):
Work deep breathing exercises because that's
obviously.
Jeremy (19:03):
That's a whole nother topic for a whole nother day.
Yeah, maybe, as we're trainingfor another 10K.
We will do myofunctional breathwork exercises.
Dr. Alex (19:13):
Reach out, man, just reach out.
Yeah, so the idea for themyofunctional therapy is to
strengthen the tongue, kind oftrain it to be where it should
be and help.
And it's great for kids andit's great for adults with sleep
apnea, right, like that is oneof those fundamental aspects of
(19:35):
any sleep disturbance treatment,right, and it's a lot like I
see that sort of thing as.
Like, if you have a bad back,you incorporate stretching into
your diet, right.
You incorporate doing crunchesand strengthening your abdominal
muscles into your routine,right.
(19:58):
It's not just about taking apill that kills the pain, it's
about actually working to fixthe underlying issues that are
causing the problem.
So it is an extremely usefuland functional aspect of
treating all of this and, again,something that's kind of like
(20:21):
under discussed and really under, dare I say, appreciated in
medicine and in dentistry, but Idefinitely think it provides a
very, very valuable service.
Jeremy (20:34):
Yeah for sure.
So before we wrap up here, Iwant you to pull out your
crystal ball.
Let's look into the future,right.
Obviously there's cutting edgescience, there's things on the
horizon and obviously a lot ofthis goes back to on the
preventative side.
But for folks that are alreadypast that stage and are dealing
(20:57):
with these problems, what liesbeyond the treatments for these
shrinking draw issues?
Orthodontics I know they havean Invisalign came heavy on the
scene.
Are there any future researchprojects, any future AI
technology that's coming outthat's helping to correct some
of this?
Like what do we have in storefor us in the future?
My friend.
Dr. Alex (21:16):
So really, as far as the amazing shrinking jaw bone
epidemic goes, a lot of this isreally what we're talking about,
right, like identifying,knowing that it's a thing.
Let's start weaning our kidsoff of the soft foods.
Let's start having our kidschew and use those chewing
muscles and incorporate themyofunctional therapies so that
(21:37):
we can help the youngergeneration start developing
better From a take a pill to fixit approach.
Jeremy (21:46):
That was gonna be my next question, right?
When are we gonna have thatmagical pill that fixes
everything?
Hey, I got news for you.
The magic pill does not exist.
Everything requires hard work.
Yeah, forming the right habit,but I'm pretty sure.
Dr. Alex (21:58):
I read something that Pfizer is close, yeah, but in
any case, like there's actuallythere's some really cool stuff
happening, I'm actually gonna betaking some CE coming up and
something that just veryrecently came on my radar of
using some targeted heattreatments to prevent the
development of wisdom teeth inthe first place, targeting heat
(22:22):
treatments to prevent thedevelopment of.
Yeah, yeah, so like your, teethgrow as like little little
flower buds in your jaw bone,right, and they develop like you
see your wisdom teeth startingto develop in little kids, right
, but they're just like thesetiny little seedlings that grow
into a tree and grows roots andthen pops up in your jaw bone,
(22:43):
right?
So the idea is that as soon asthose buds are starting to
develop, we target them andbasically like, stunt their
growth so they never come in.
So it's okay, human with tiny,shrinking jaw bone.
We're going to avoid theproblem that might happen in 10,
15, 20 years from now of havingan impacted wisdom tooth by
(23:08):
killing the seedling now.
Jeremy (23:10):
So just for some context , wisdom teeth exist because in
the past folks had larger jawsand needed the additional teeth
and they came in when the jawgot bigger and now that's
shrinking jaw bone.
Dr. Alex (23:21):
We were chewing raw meat off the bone, right Like we
needed some power to chew that,and that's why you were feeding
your baby too.
Right Now, my pantry's full oflike puffs.
Jeremy (23:34):
No, good, no, I want to start a campaign.
We're going to bring wisdomteeth back, brother.
Let's go Chewing gum.
We're all wisdom gone Chewinggum 12 to 18 hours a day, raw
red meat off the bone.
Let's get the wisdom teeth backin play, brother.
Dr. Alex (23:51):
It'll need some tweaking, but I think where you
might be honest something.
Jeremy (23:56):
Anything else you want to share before we wrap up.
Dr. Alex (24:01):
No, I think absolutely .
One aspect of this podcast iswe always welcome questions.
So if there are questionsrelated to the podcast or any
other topics that folks findinteresting always happy to get
those we will read them, we willaddress them Absolutely.
Jeremy (24:22):
We will, of course, link in the description below to all
of your contact information andobviously post your comments,
leave a like, subscribe, getinvolved.
Let's spread the good word, myfriend.
Let's spread the gospel.
Dr. Alex (24:36):
Let's do it.
Jeremy (24:37):
All right, dr Semide, alex Semide.
Always a pleasure, mr Wolfe,I'm looking forward to our
upcoming 10K.
It's going to be magical.
Dr. Alex (24:49):
I'm going to beat you All right brother, All right man
.
Jeremy (24:53):
Take care, have a great day If we don't speak before the
holidays.
Have a wonderful holiday withyou and your family and
everybody listening.
Take care, have a wonderful dayand we will catch you on the
next episode.
Dr. Alex (25:03):
Happy holidays, keep smiling.
Jeremy (25:05):
Keep smiling.
Bye, Thank you for joining uson Word of Mouth.
Remember a healthy smile is areflection of your well-being.
Until next time, keep smilingand caring for your dental
health.
We'll be back soon with moredental.
Welcome to Word of Mouth , where we explore the
fascinating connection betweenyour oral health and your
overall well-being.
Here's your host, dr AlexSemide.
Hello everyone and welcome backto episode number two.
Episode number two right numberof dose of Word of Mouth.
(00:23):
I'm your co-host, jeremy Wolf,and I'm joined by your host, dr
Alex Semide, and, as we alludedto on the first episode, we are
going to get into a.
I like to think it's a prettyfascinating topic, something
that to say it wasn't on myradar would be an understatement
.
It's something that I'd nevereven conceived of, and it's this
(00:44):
idea of shrinking jaw, theshrinking jaw in human beings.
That is it, and I'm curiouslike and how actually that
relates to your overall health,right, and so I'm trying to like
what is it?
What was the impetus that ledresearchers in the first place
(01:07):
to start investigating thisrelationship between the
shrinking human jaw and how thatrelates to your overall health?
Because that's kind ofcounterintuitive.
Let's start there.
Dr. Alex (01:18):
So let me ask you this out of 100 people that you know
how many of them have, likenaturally, perfectly straight
teeth?
Jeremy (01:34):
That's a great question.
I'm trying to think ofeverybody that I encounter.
But you mean naturally straightteeth, but you don't know for
most of them, because they mayhave had orthodontics.
Are you talking about now orRight?
Dr. Alex (01:45):
So no, they're like in their lifetime, like people who
just never had braces, neverhad Invisalign yeah my wife,
perfectly naturally straight,perfect teeth.
That's awesome, right, yeah, heis in the minority.
Okay, like crowding and what wecall occlusal issues or
malocclusion Occlusion is theterm for how your teeth fit
(02:06):
together top to bottom, andissues with that distribution of
the bite, right, things likeunder bites, over bites,
crowding, are really, reallycommon.
Like, most people are affectedby malocclusion to some extent,
and what's super interesting isthat 150 years ago, no one had
(02:31):
crowded teeth.
Interesting, 150 years ago, noone had impacted wisdom teeth
and now, basically, that's allyou see is people that have to
have their wisdom teeth takenout because they don't have
enough room in their jaw bonefor them.
So, man, like, evolutionarily,that doesn't even make sense,
(02:51):
right, like, why do we growthese things that we don't
really have enough room for?
So the issue is that the jawbone has been shrinking over
time and it's been shrinkingpretty fast.
It started about 150 years ago.
Jeremy (03:05):
That is a really rapid progression, very, very fast as
your jaw size.
You would think that would takethousands of years to start
shifting.
Dr. Alex (03:13):
You would think so.
Right, like generations andgenerations and evolution, right
, and all of that.
But it is a relatively recentphenomenon and it tells us, like
we know a couple of things,right, like everyone always
wonders okay, is it a geneticthing?
Right, are we evolving toreduce our jaw sizes?
(03:35):
Right, you know, like, let'skind of fast forward on that
track.
You ever seen everybody knowsthe alien head, right?
Big old brain, big eyes andtiny little like lower half of
the face.
Like, is that what we'reevolving to?
I hope not.
Yeah, me too.
But we see that the jaw bonehas been shrinking and it is not
(04:02):
a genetic thing.
Right, there aren't likegenetics you can't do anything
about.
Jeremy (04:08):
This would be more akin to gum disease or things like
that, not the actual shifting ofthe jaw per se right, more
about like 100%.
Dr. Alex (04:19):
Okay, yeah, so what is causing this shrinking of the
jaw bone is, in large part, ourdiet.
We used to use our teeth andour jaw muscles a lot more
earlier on in life than we donow After the period of
(04:39):
industrialization, where ourfood supplies changed a lot in
general our foods got muchsofter and in getting softer, we
stopped developing the lowerhalf of the face the way we used
to 150 years ago.
So think about this right Likebecause we're not using the
(05:01):
muscles and forcing them to workat a really early age, as we're
weaning kids off of beingbreastfed, we're stunting the
development of the face and it'sleading to all of these issues
where the jawbones are literallyshrinking, crowding our teeth
out, leading to other issueswith the mouth that contribute
(05:23):
to more and more issues with thedevelopment of the face.
Jeremy (05:27):
So wait, you're not sitting here today advocating
for increased gum chewingamongst youth.
Are you Because that seems likethat would give you a good
workout?
It is Maybe some sugar-free gum.
Dr. Alex (05:38):
It is actually one of the treatments that are
recommended.
Having kids starting to chewgum?
Jeremy (05:44):
Yeah, I was just telling my daughter to stop chewing so
much gum.
She's getting complaints in theschool from teachers that she's
chewing too much gum.
Dr. Alex (05:51):
Well, I'll wait, yeah, it's yes.
Like anything that forces us touse these structures that we
have for tens and hundreds ofthousands of years been using in
a certain way and has helpedour physiology develop properly,
we're stunting that growth,right, and like anything else
(06:13):
that goes unused, it atrophiesand we're now starting to open
our eyes because the impact thatthis has on our development as
kids Right, like kids, so wedon't wean them off of the
breast milk into hard foodsRight, they continue to chew
(06:33):
soft foods that really don'trequire those muscles to work at
all and things don't developwell.
So they start being.
They start having those issueswith how the teeth come in.
Right, the jaw bones don'tdevelop, things are crowded.
They don't have enough spacefor their tongue in the mouth
(06:54):
because the jaw is crowded.
Right, they end up not beingable to breathe through their
nose because, as the palatedoesn't expand, your nasal
passages are also constricted.
So now you can't breathe inthrough your nose so you leave
your jaw you know slack jaw soyou can breathe in through your
(07:16):
mouth.
Right, interesting, the tongueis.
Everyone's kind of heard of apalatal expander, right, anyone
who needed back in ourgeneration when you needed
headgear, right for your bracesand stuff like that.
A lot of people had thispalatal expander where they turn
a key to like literally expandthe upper jaw bone.
(07:37):
The tongue is the naturalpalatal expander.
Jeremy (07:43):
Okay.
Dr. Alex (07:44):
Your tongue.
When we're asleep, when we arenot speaking or chewing, our
mouths should be closed and ourtongue should be resting up
against the palate.
And the tongue, believe it ornot, is the strongest muscle in
your body and that strong,gentle, constant pressure is
actually forcing your palate toexpand.
The tongue is the strongestmuscle in your body.
Jeremy (08:07):
Right, right, yeah, really yeah.
I guess pound for pound, right.
Dr. Alex (08:13):
Yeah, yeah, it's like the Walter Wray Champ.
Jeremy (08:18):
That's the way.
Hey, eating is important, soyou've got to have strong,
strong operation up here, right,you know?
Dr. Alex (08:23):
and it just the strength of the tongue and the
proper positioning of the tongueis essential to let the
skeleton right, the jaw bone,develop properly.
So we get into this viciouscycle of mouth breathing right
because our nasal passages aretoo small.
(08:44):
So because you mouth breathe,you get sick more often, you get
more allergies, you get morecongestion, which means you
mouth breathe even more right.
A lot of people don't know this, but when you breathe through
your nose, your nose is actuallykilling bacteria that would
otherwise get into your system.
When you breathe in throughyour mouth, that bacteria gets
(09:04):
into your system and can makeyou sick.
So your nose is like a naturalHEPA filter for your body.
Jeremy (09:11):
The nose the nose Natural HEPA filter.
Dr. Alex (09:14):
Yeah.
Jeremy (09:15):
And all of this stuff ultimately leads to things like
sleep apnea, right?
Yes, exactly.
Dr. Alex (09:21):
So you can see how all of this sort of like spirals
out of control, right?
No, kids mouth breathing, theirpalate doesn't develop, they
have a restricted airway.
Now they're getting olderthey're snoring, sleep apnea and
not to mention the other issuesthat come from like systemic
issues that come from impropersleep, that come from sleep
(09:44):
apnea.
It's linked to all sorts ofchronic comorbidities the
diabetes, cardiovascular disease, general inflammation.
It is a fascinatingrelationship and something that,
if we educate more providers tolook for these things early, we
(10:09):
can intercept them when we canstill be extremely effective at
changing their course for lifeLike this can have an incredibly
profound impact on so manypeople's lives.
Just diagnosing the fact thatthis kid can't breathe.
Well, my wife's a pediatricianand, as this whole jaw shrinking
(10:34):
, early childhood facialdevelopment, sleep thing came
onto my radar, which was prettyrecent, because it's not
something that is discussed muchin dentistry or medicine at
large, right, it's one of theselike nascent fields that there's
(10:54):
a lot of research going on, butit hasn't tripled down to the
mainstream, right.
So you said it earlier, itwasn't on your radar.
It's not on a lot of doctors'radars either right, yeah, I'm
just.
Jeremy (11:08):
I'm sitting here wishing we did this podcast six, seven
years ago and maybe my daughterwouldn't be having the issue
she's having right now withcrowding in her mouth and teeth
not coming out right.
And here I thought this was all.
Oh, it's just genetics, it'sjust you know.
But all this stuff I think,like with anything else, right,
it goes back to forming properhabits from a very early age
(11:32):
through proper education,forming routines and getting
into the daily habits of doingthese things, so that it doesn't
become such a difficult chorelater on, because forming new
habits is more difficult theolder you get.
So if you can go back as aparent when your kids are very,
very young and instill these youknow values into them, right?
(11:52):
You know they're gonna, likeyou said, right, a lot of people
will avoid having the need fororthodontics and things like
that later on when they reachthose teen years.
Dr. Alex (12:01):
You know, a good example that I think a lot of
people, a lot of parents, willrelate to is the pacifier use.
Jeremy (12:11):
Yeah.
So what's up with that?
Is that horrible?
Is that not horrible?
Cause I've heard that it'sreally really bad to use it all
the time because it will helpshape the the mouth incorrectly.
100%, it makes sense, and sowould you advocate not using
that at all, or just on alimited basis?
I mean, what's so advocatingfor?
Dr. Alex (12:33):
not using it at all would make me an extreme hippo
Streamist, cause my daughter,isabel, who is 18 months old, is
still using her pacifier andwe're meeting her off of it, all
right and.
But I saw it with my son too,right, like it started to change
the shape of their teeth andthe shape of their palate.
(12:54):
Right, and just think aboutwhat's happening.
Right, if you have a pacifierin your mouth, you're kind of
like sucking on that nipple inyour mouth.
Your cheeks are pressing inwardright, your tongue is kind of
like pressing forward and you'reyou're sucking on this thing
and it starts creating like thisV shaped palette and and
crowding and, you know,rotations of teeth in the front.
(13:19):
As soon as we started removingthe pacifier with Jordy, with my
son, who's now five, all ofthat started going back in place
right, and their, their upperjaw, his upper jaw kind of
rounded out all of thoserotations and, kind of buck
teeth settled back in, becausenow the upper lip is just gonna
(13:39):
be pressing back on those teethand we're not gonna be pressing
in anymore with the cheeks andthe tongue again, like we were
talking about.
It'll just start to expand thepalette and put everything in
its proper place.
So for some kids they have, youknow, some, some malformation,
a tongue tie, weak tonguemuscles, things like that.
(14:02):
There are all sorts ofexercises, very simple exercises
that we can teach kids andadults to teach the tongue where
to go, teach the tongue whereit should be, to help execute
some of this developmental stuffthat we need to see happen very
(14:23):
, very interesting stuff.
Jeremy (14:25):
It is really, really fascinating.
I'm curious, from, like, adental health standpoint, right,
how should individuals andother healthcare professionals
approach these types of concernsand collaborate together, cause
(14:46):
, like you said earlier, thatthere's not a lot of
cross-disciplinary working onthese issues?
Right, you know, you do whatyou do from the dental side,
like, how do we get moredentists, together with people
that deal with sleep apnea, tohave more conversations around
this kind of stuff to helpbridge the gap between these
different disciplines that are,by nature, heavily
(15:06):
interconnected?
Dr. Alex (15:07):
Yeah, no for sure.
You know it's tough with.
I think this is a good.
These conversations areimportant to have.
These conversations areimportant to have in public.
You know there's a lot of.
You know, sometimes there's thisidealistic notion of how
(15:29):
medicine works.
You know, from people that areoutside of the industry, right,
where everyone is just rallyingtogether around the big round
table and figuring out the bestway to go about things, it
doesn't exactly work that way.
You know there's a lot oftribalism and everyone thinks
they know best.
And you know, as a dentist, asa dentist, physicians are
(15:52):
sometimes like oh, dentist, whatdo you know?
You know about the human bodyand health?
So there's a little bit of thattoo, right.
So we need to kind of breakdown some of those barriers and
really just have conversations.
I think, the more pediatriciansI was saying earlier, my wife's
a pediatrician and she's beenkind of good reference point for
(16:16):
these things for me with herperspective and what she sees in
practice.
And you know, in talking to herabout all of this, she shared
with me the connection betweensleep disorders with kids and
things like ADHD.
You know, when kids are beingworked up for ADHD, one of the
(16:38):
first things they start lookingat is how are these kids
sleeping?
Sleeping patterns, yeah, yeah,because it's so important for
the way that we, our brains andour bodies develop in life.
So, going back to how we canincrease awareness, I think
(16:59):
these conversations areimportant.
I think the more dentists andpediatricians are aware of these
things and are screening andare bringing these sorts of
things into the generalawareness of people, I think
that's how more and moreconversations start to be had
and people start educatingthemselves more on these things
and that's how, sometimes,fringe science becomes
(17:25):
mainstream science.
Jeremy (17:28):
Yeah, maybe one day we can get your wife to join us on
an episode to talk a little bitabout what she does on the
pediatric side, and, obviously,other guests in different
disciplines to talk more aboutthese issues, because it is
incredibly important to havecollaboration.
Interdiscipline,interdiscipline say the word for
me.
Interdiscipline, disciplinaryDiscipline yeah, cat got my
(17:52):
tongue.
Dr. Alex (17:52):
I really think about it too, that one activates my
speech impediment.
Jeremy (17:58):
So I wanted to also ask there's a term that I came
across and doing a littleresearch on this that I wasn't
entirely clear on.
I thought maybe you couldelaborate on it.
It's this idea of myofunctionaltherapy.
Yeah, so what is I mean?
Can you provide maybe a briefsummary of what myofunctional
therapy entails and kind of howit addresses the issues that
(18:21):
we've been talking about?
Dr. Alex (18:22):
Yeah, so myofunctional therapy are basically tongue
exercises, right it's a workoutfor your tongue and you end up
doing a lot of funny lookingthings right.
So this is not the sort ofthing.
Jeremy (18:34):
Care to give us an example?
Yeah, or maybe later.
Dr. Alex (18:40):
So you're really just sort of holding your tongue in
extreme positions for 10 to 15seconds at a time, right Like
you were crying.
A touch the tip of your tongueto the tip of your nose.
Jeremy (18:52):
I never, even thought about doing anything like that.
I wonder if you can incorporatesome of that in breath.
Dr. Alex (18:58):
Work deep breathing exercises because that's
obviously.
Jeremy (19:03):
That's a whole nother topic for a whole nother day.
Yeah, maybe, as we're trainingfor another 10K.
We will do myofunctional breathwork exercises.
Dr. Alex (19:13):
Reach out, man, just reach out.
Yeah, so the idea for themyofunctional therapy is to
strengthen the tongue, kind oftrain it to be where it should
be and help.
And it's great for kids andit's great for adults with sleep
apnea, right, like that is oneof those fundamental aspects of
(19:35):
any sleep disturbance treatment,right, and it's a lot like I
see that sort of thing as.
Like, if you have a bad back,you incorporate stretching into
your diet, right.
You incorporate doing crunchesand strengthening your abdominal
muscles into your routine,right.
(19:58):
It's not just about taking apill that kills the pain, it's
about actually working to fixthe underlying issues that are
causing the problem.
So it is an extremely usefuland functional aspect of
treating all of this and, again,something that's kind of like
(20:21):
under discussed and really under, dare I say, appreciated in
medicine and in dentistry, but Idefinitely think it provides a
very, very valuable service.
Jeremy (20:34):
Yeah for sure.
So before we wrap up here, Iwant you to pull out your
crystal ball.
Let's look into the future,right.
Obviously there's cutting edgescience, there's things on the
horizon and obviously a lot ofthis goes back to on the
preventative side.
But for folks that are alreadypast that stage and are dealing
(20:57):
with these problems, what liesbeyond the treatments for these
shrinking draw issues?
Orthodontics I know they havean Invisalign came heavy on the
scene.
Are there any future researchprojects, any future AI
technology that's coming outthat's helping to correct some
of this?
Like what do we have in storefor us in the future?
My friend.
Dr. Alex (21:16):
So really, as far as the amazing shrinking jaw bone
epidemic goes, a lot of this isreally what we're talking about,
right, like identifying,knowing that it's a thing.
Let's start weaning our kidsoff of the soft foods.
Let's start having our kidschew and use those chewing
muscles and incorporate themyofunctional therapies so that
(21:37):
we can help the youngergeneration start developing
better From a take a pill to fixit approach.
Jeremy (21:46):
That was gonna be my next question, right?
When are we gonna have thatmagical pill that fixes
everything?
Hey, I got news for you.
The magic pill does not exist.
Everything requires hard work.
Yeah, forming the right habit,but I'm pretty sure.
Dr. Alex (21:58):
I read something that Pfizer is close, yeah, but in
any case, like there's actuallythere's some really cool stuff
happening, I'm actually gonna betaking some CE coming up and
something that just veryrecently came on my radar of
using some targeted heattreatments to prevent the
development of wisdom teeth inthe first place, targeting heat
(22:22):
treatments to prevent thedevelopment of.
Yeah, yeah, so like your, teethgrow as like little little
flower buds in your jaw bone,right, and they develop like you
see your wisdom teeth startingto develop in little kids, right
, but they're just like thesetiny little seedlings that grow
into a tree and grows roots andthen pops up in your jaw bone,
(22:43):
right?
So the idea is that as soon asthose buds are starting to
develop, we target them andbasically like, stunt their
growth so they never come in.
So it's okay, human with tiny,shrinking jaw bone.
We're going to avoid theproblem that might happen in 10,
15, 20 years from now of havingan impacted wisdom tooth by
(23:08):
killing the seedling now.
Jeremy (23:10):
So just for some context , wisdom teeth exist because in
the past folks had larger jawsand needed the additional teeth
and they came in when the jawgot bigger and now that's
shrinking jaw bone.
Dr. Alex (23:21):
We were chewing raw meat off the bone, right Like we
needed some power to chew that,and that's why you were feeding
your baby too.
Right Now, my pantry's full oflike puffs.
Jeremy (23:34):
No, good, no, I want to start a campaign.
We're going to bring wisdomteeth back, brother.
Let's go Chewing gum.
We're all wisdom gone Chewinggum 12 to 18 hours a day, raw
red meat off the bone.
Let's get the wisdom teeth backin play, brother.
Dr. Alex (23:51):
It'll need some tweaking, but I think where you
might be honest something.
Jeremy (23:56):
Anything else you want to share before we wrap up.
Dr. Alex (24:01):
No, I think absolutely .
One aspect of this podcast iswe always welcome questions.
So if there are questionsrelated to the podcast or any
other topics that folks findinteresting always happy to get
those we will read them, we willaddress them Absolutely.
Jeremy (24:22):
We will, of course, link in the description below to all
of your contact information andobviously post your comments,
leave a like, subscribe, getinvolved.
Let's spread the good word, myfriend.
Let's spread the gospel.
Dr. Alex (24:36):
Let's do it.
Jeremy (24:37):
All right, dr Semide, alex Semide.
Always a pleasure, mr Wolfe,I'm looking forward to our
upcoming 10K.
It's going to be magical.
Dr. Alex (24:49):
I'm going to beat you All right brother, All right man
.
Jeremy (24:53):
Take care, have a great day If we don't speak before the
holidays.
Have a wonderful holiday withyou and your family and
everybody listening.
Take care, have a wonderful dayand we will catch you on the
next episode.
Dr. Alex (25:03):
Happy holidays, keep smiling.
Jeremy (25:05):
Keep smiling.
Bye, Thank you for joining uson Word of Mouth.
Remember a healthy smile is areflection of your well-being.
Until next time, keep smilingand caring for your dental
health.
We'll be back soon with moredental.
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