Full Transcript Gum Disease and Whole-Body Health 0:00 Did you know that your bleeding gums might be silently causing disease in your brain, in your joints, in your body in general? 0:11 Stick with me because what you learn in this video may just save your health. 0:16 Now the connection between gum disease and overall health isn't new. 0:20 Actually research studies connecting these things together have been around for decades. 0:25 This is the most researched thing inside of dentistry and even general mainstream dentists are quick to acknowledge the connection between gum health and 0:36 overall health. 0:36 In fact, for years, the American Heart Association has recommended that people who have a joint replacement done or a heart valve replacement, 0:46 that they actually have antibiotics before treatment if you're going to have dental work done. 0:51 Why? 0:52 because they know that the bacteria that live in your mouth particularly love hearts, they love joints, and they love brains. 1:01 This is not new information, but what is new is what we do about it. 1:08 I have seen so many patients who have bleeding gums and they think, this is just normal, right? 1:13 A little pink in the sink is kind of the joke that this is normal. 1:17 It's not normal. 1:18 If you were to just brush against your hand and it started to bleed, would you be concerned? 1:23 Of course you would because we know that this skin tissue is stable. 1:29 It doesn't bleed when it's healthy. 1:31 The same thing goes for your gums.
Signs of Gum Disease to Watch For 1:33 Your gums don't bleed when they're healthy. 1:36 So some of the signs and symptoms to look for are bleeding gums. 1:39 That's the first one that everybody sees quite quickly. 1:42 redness, swelling, tenderness, those are other things you might not notice just you know right off the bat but you might think this is a little redder 1:51 than normal. 1:52 Bad breath is another one as is gum recession. 1:57 All of these things are signs that you need to pay attention to because that infection that's living here isn't staying there. 2:06 There are scores of research articles. 2:09 I'm talking hundreds of research articles that are showing that the infection in the mouth, bacteria flourishing in the mouth, 2:16 leads to Alzheimer's disease, leads to diabetes, leads to kidney disease, to lung infection. 2:23 We already talked about hearts. 2:25 It can lead to all sorts of heart conditions, cardiovascular disease. 2:29 It can also lead to low birth weight babies. 2:33 Bleeding gums in pregnancy isn't normal either. 2:36 All of these things show up every single day in my practice. 2:40 I'll always remember one patient, his name was James. 2:43 He came because his wife was really concerned about his bad breath, but also he was starting to get literally loose teeth.
How Gum Infection Affects Teeth and Health 2:51 His teeth were moving, I call it, you know, shaking in the breeze a little bit. 2:55 So we looked in his mouth, And I remember feeling a little discouraged and disappointed when I looked in his mouth because I knew I was going to have to 3:03 tell him he was going to lose some teeth. 3:05 He kind of saw it coming. 3:06 He knew that this might happen. 3:08 So we looked and we decided which of these teeth were savable and which weren't. 3:12 He had rapidly advancing gum disease. 3:16 Why does gum disease lead to losing teeth? 3:18 Well, gum disease creates infection locally around the teeth. 3:22 now the bone doesn't like that infection so what it does is it shrinks away if enough bone shrinks away there's no bone holding the tooth anymore and you 3:31 literally can lose a perfectly good tooth with no problem because there's simply no foundation to hold it in place anymore well that's the situation james 3:38 was in but not only that the other reason his wife sent him in is because he had crazy high high blood pressure. 3:45 Now James had no other risk factors. 3:48 He wasn't overweight. 3:49 He ate a good diet. 3:51 He exercised regularly. 3:53 He did all the things that every doctor tells you to do. 3:56 But this gum disease was leading to his high blood pressure and his other problems with his heart. 4:02 He also was sleeping terribly, was hardly sleeping an hour at nighttime. 4:07 And he just looked haggard. 4:09 His skin was kind of grayish. 4:11 His eyes were bloodshot. 4:13 He felt absolutely miserable. 4:15 He really told us, he said, I feel 20 years older than I am. 4:19 So when we told him, you're going to lose, I remember correctly, I think it was six teeth, you're going to lose six teeth, 4:25 he was sad. 4:26 He was disappointed in himself that he hadn't gotten on top of this sooner, but he was glad if it meant he was going to feel better. 4:33 That's not the case for everyone. 4:34 You don't have to lose teeth if we can get on this early, if we can stop the advancing disease. 4:41 So we removed the teeth. 4:42 We treated all of the rest of the gums. 4:45 We cleaned up all of the infection. 4:47 We cleaned off all the tartar that was leading to some of this infection. 4:50 And I remember seeing him, it was about three months down the road because my hygienists were doing a lot of the treatment. 4:56 They were seeing him, cleaning things up, encouraging him. 4:59 I saw him three months down the road. 5:02 I almost didn't recognize him. 5:03 He looked younger. 5:05 He had a spring in his step. 5:07 His eyes weren't bloodshot anymore.
Jamesu2019s Recovery After Gum Treatment 5:09 He really literally looked like a new person. 5:13 And all that had changed was this infection was gone. 5:16 But as I talked to him, I said, well, what's changed for you from a health standpoint? 5:20 And he said, I've had to cut my high blood pressure medication in half because my heart is responding and doing the things it's supposed to now. 5:28 And his goal was to completely get rid of it within another three months time. 5:31 So these are the kinds of effects that we see when we treat gum disease. 5:37 It's life changing. 5:39 So what can you do at home to treat this? 5:42 Well, we need to first start with what is gum disease even? 5:46 What is causing this? 5:48 Well, gum disease is a bacterial infection. 5:51 So along those lines, is it transmissible? 5:54 Can you actually get this from someone? 5:56 The answer is yes. 5:58 Gum disease is a transmissible infection. 6:00 If you are kissing someone who has it, if you are sharing a spoon or a, you know, a cup or anything with someone that has gum disease, 6:08 you can actually be infected because there are particular bacteria and some other things. 6:13 There's spirochetes, there's a bunch of other crazy bugs that live in the mouth when it's infected. 6:18 and when it's actively infected. 6:20 We all have bacteria in our mouth all the time. 6:23 A lot of them there for good reasons, but there are some that are very destructive. 6:27 So those are the ones that you can pass on. 6:29 So if you also have a significant other that you might be sharing some things with, make sure that they also don't have gum disease, 6:36 otherwise it may infect you. 6:38 So what are you going to do? 6:39 Well, we need to control that bacteria. 6:41 How are you going to do that? 6:42 The first thing you do is you don't want to damage the gums or make them even less resistant to bacterial insult or invasion. 6:51 A lot of traditional oral care products will do that. 6:54 Alcohol is very drying and damaging to the tissues, and most mouth rinses that are on the market are alcohol-based. 7:02 Those that aren't alcohol-based have strong disinfectants in them, which kill all bacteria, good and bad. 7:10 We don't want this. 7:11 So I really recommend a mouthwash that includes a natural disinfectant. 7:16 We have a great one that does exactly that. 7:19 Our mouthwash also contains prebiotics. 7:23 Why would we want a prebiotic? 7:24 Because we want to encourage good bacterial growth and discourage bad bacterial growth.
How Gum Disease Spreads and Why It Matters 7:30 The next thing you're going to want to do is from a tooth care, toothpaste standpoint. 7:35 You're not going to use anything with triclosan. 7:38 Why? 7:38 What is triclosan? 7:39 It's a broad spectrum antimicrobial. 7:42 Basically, it's what they're going to use like a hand sanitizer, those kinds of things. 7:45 Again, killing off everything good and bad. 7:48 The good is the problem. 7:49 You don't want to use anything that has a high abrasive component of any variety. 7:54 You don't want to use something that has a detergent called sodium lauryl sulfate. 7:58 These are very irritating to the gum tissue. 8:01 So those things are not necessary. 8:05 You need to use a product where when you read the ingredient label, you actually know what every single thing is. 8:10 And it's something that you would readily put in your mouth. 8:13 So check out our tooth care products, whether it's tooth powder, toothpaste, mouthwash. 8:18 This is the reason I developed them, because I couldn't find ones that I liked. 8:22 What do you do from a nutritional standpoint? 8:25 So you want to encourage good gum health. 8:28 Three really important considerations here. 8:30 Number one is vitamin C. 8:32 This is actually the very best thing to do for better gum health is vitamin C. 8:36 In all forms, this is an interesting story. 8:39 There were sailors that would sail across the Atlantic Ocean. 8:42 They were all having loose teeth and bleeding gums. 8:44 Gum disease, right? 8:46 What were they deficient in? 8:47 Vitamin C, because they were on these long voyages. 8:50 They started bringing pickled limes, lime juice, different things on board, and it cured this problem. 8:57 So you need a lot of vitamin C. 8:58 You also need a lot of vitamin D3 and K2. 9:01 We like those together. 9:03 Those are going to be very beneficial for tissue health along with minerals. 9:07 So now we've talked about What do we want to do from just a health standpoint?
At-Home Oral Care and Product Choices 9:14 How do we take care of our teeth? 9:15 How do we nourish the body correctly? 9:18 But the other thing I want you to think about is how can you feed yourself in order to keep your gums well? 9:25 So that vitamin D3K2 can come in certain foods. 9:29 Butter is one of my very favorites. 9:31 Grass-fed butter is very good, as are fatty fishes, things that have those naturally occurring compounds. 9:38 Vitamin C, where do we get that? 9:39 We get that from citrus fruits, from berries, from bell peppers. 9:44 These are all wonderful sources of natural vitamin C. 9:48 I actually prefer to get my vitamins from food if possible. 9:51 That is what I want you to load up on. 9:53 What do I not want you to drink or eat? 9:56 a lot of acidic beverages. 9:58 Acidic beverages are very, very hard on gum tissue as well as tooth tissue. 10:02 So what does that mean? 10:03 That means sodas. 10:04 That means energy drinks. 10:05 That means a lot of electrolytes actually and even lemon water. 10:10 These things are very acidic. 10:11 I want you to drink them and be done with them and switch to something that's more alkaline or neutral based. 10:16 So that would be water or an alkaline-based beverage. 10:18 We actually have an electrolyte that is alkaline-based for this reason. 10:22 So you're gonna feed your body foods that help those gums be healthy, also keep your mouth healthy, that don't distract or damage anything, 10:30 and you're gonna take care of your teeth in a way that the gums can actually hold onto the tooth, there's no bacterial overload or overgrowth, 10:39 and those gums are healthy again. 10:41 So what are you going to notice when this happens? 10:44 Pink, healthy gum tissue. 10:47 No bleeding in the sink after you brush. 10:49 Everything is resilient, meaning you're not getting swelling and gum recession and all those kinds of things.
Nutrition for Healthier Gums 10:55 Do you need to see the dentist to help with this? 10:57 Yes. 10:58 If you have gum disease, that's the first place you're gonna go. 11:00 They're going to do a full gum exam. 11:02 They're gonna measure every single gum. 11:04 Around every single tooth, we measure six numbers. 11:06 Make sure that's happening. 11:07 They're not doing a complete gum exam unless that's happening. 11:10 And we're going to measure progress. 11:13 So we're going to see you. 11:14 We're going to clean everything off. 11:15 We're going to treat it with ozone in our office because that's going to naturally kill bugs and balance things. 11:21 We're going to then see you again within 90 days. 11:24 Why? 11:25 Those bacteria come back in 90 days. 11:28 We have to get them off again until things stabilize. 11:31 From a health standpoint, what might you notice? 11:34 We see a decrease in high blood pressure issues and other heart conditions. 11:39 We see stabilization during pregnancy. 11:41 No bleeding gums anymore. 11:43 Hormones are a little bit more balanced. 11:45 We see all of these things that we talked about, Alzheimer's and joint pain. 11:50 We just see less of it because the body is in better condition, is in better health overall. 11:56 The gums are so important to pay attention to. 11:59 Not only is it an indicator of things going on here, but they are an indicator of things going on elsewhere. 12:05 Your dentist should be the first stop when you have health concerns, and absolutely the first stop if you have bleeding gums. 12:12 If you want to know more about everything that I've discussed on here, please make sure you subscribe, check out our website Living Well with Dr. 12:19 Michelle, also our practice Total Care Dental in American Fork, Utah. 12:22 We would love to help your mouth, your gums, and all of you stay well.
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