Oral Health Is Systemic Health--Nasal Breathing, Diet, Fluoride

Key Quotes

"Humans are obligate nasal breathers we were evolved and intended to breathe through our noses but we aren't doing this much anymore up to 85 some i've even said 90 of the population has some sort of dysregulated breathing mouth breathing you know it's on a continuum and so what are the issues with this well it can lead to cardiovascular issues hormonal imbalances immune health you might see weight gain mood disorders you're not getting proper oxygenation and sleep but also uh it can dry out your mouth and so you can get cavities and you can get gum disease and you can get tonsil stones and you can get halitosis or bad breath"

Dr. Staci Whitman explains that humans are naturally nasal breathers, and that mouth breathing, which affects a large portion of the population, can lead to a range of health problems. These include issues with cardiovascular health, hormones, immunity, weight, mood, and sleep, as well as oral health problems like dry mouth, cavities, and bad breath.

"The mouth has been separated from the body for so long dentistry's here medicine's here and dentistry tends to be the brunt of the joke meaning we're made fun of and movies and songs and everybody's afraid of the dentist and we're torturous and barbaric but our teeth and our mouths are incredibly important they're so important for our self esteem for you know sensuality for confidence for articulation expression mastication digestion if you've had dental pain you know it is absolutely debilitating"

Dr. Whitman highlights the historical disconnect between dentistry and general medicine, noting that dentistry is often trivialized. She emphasizes the profound importance of oral health, not just for physical well-being, but also for self-esteem, confidence, expression, and digestion, underscoring that dental pain can be debilitating.

"your mouth is the gut it's the same tube it's the entry way of your digestive system so all these functional medicine doctors who i commend and natural paths who are treating the gut for various ailments bravo but if you are not looking at your patient's mouth and seeing do they have gum disease do they have periodontal disease do they have untreated dental infections you will not be achieving optimized health"

Dr. Whitman asserts that the mouth and the gut are part of the same continuous system, making the mouth the gateway to the digestive tract. She argues that optimizing health is impossible if oral health issues like gum disease or untreated infections are ignored, even when treating the gut.

"we went from a hunter gatherer society to an agrarian society where we started farming and mass producing grains and rice etcetera and then the industrial revolution we started processing and refining and adding flour and adding sugar and now look at us with our ultra processed food world we lost our ability to chew as much or not our ability but we're just not chewing as much as we used to so ancestrally they estimate we chewed for four maybe five hours a day we were foraging nuts and seeds and roots and meat wasn't you know braised and now everything's ultra processed so go gurtz and chicken nuggets and frappuccinos and all these things we don't chew and so it's that that active mastication and chewing that forced the jaws and the bone to grow outward"

Dr. Whitman explains that a shift from ancestral diets requiring extensive chewing to modern, ultra-processed foods has led to reduced mastication. She posits that this lack of chewing has impacted jaw development, causing faces, airways, and jaws to shrink over time, contributing to breathing issues and crowded teeth.

"if i were to narrow it down to one thing is inflammation so when you when you when you breathe through your mouth you're going to have more systemic inflammation your body has to work harder you're less oxygenated so you get about 20 less oxygen this is very important in children think of brain development i mean so their brain is in getting less oxygen their hormones aren't optimized"

Dr. Whitman identifies inflammation as a primary consequence of mouth breathing, leading to systemic inflammation and reduced oxygenation. She highlights that this decreased oxygenation is particularly detrimental to children's brain development and can also disrupt hormonal balance.

"the problem with water fluoridation we can't dose it someone drinks this much water a cup a day someone drinks is an athlete and drinks a liter a day someone has kidney dysfunction shouldn't even have fluoride because they or they have calcium metabolism issues or they have iodine deficiency or there's actual patients that are fluoride sensitive or intolerant or there's genetic polymorphisms that impact detox pathways we don't even know about or pregnant women and fetuses or more vulnerable or infants who are drinking fluoridated water formula you know formula with water more vulnerable what are the cumulative effects this is the issue it's i no one's arguing one glass of water is going to cause this it's the cumulative effects day after day you know week after week month after year after year"

Dr. Whitman expresses concern about the inability to control individual doses of fluoride in public water systems. She argues that the cumulative effects of daily exposure are problematic, especially for vulnerable populations like infants, pregnant women, and individuals with specific health conditions, due to varying consumption levels and individual sensitivities.