Latest / Get Savvy...Demystifying Healthcare / Episode 140: Are Your Teeth Making You Sick? The Hidden Mouth–Body Connection

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Episode 140: Are Your Teeth Making You Sick? The Hidden Mouth–Body Connection · Get Savvy...Demystifying Healthcare

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_03: Nothing hurts.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_03: I'm fine.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_03: I don't need a dentist.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_03: There's no reason to go.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_03: This is why people go for years and years without seeing a dentist.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_03: In the meantime, they got a pus factory right under their nose, dumping pus into the bloodstream 24 hours a day, seven days a week with absolutely no pain.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_03: You don't they don't even know what's going on.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_03: So what I'm trying to do is help people understand that just because it doesn't hurt doesn't mean it's healthy.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_03: We need to take care of this.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_03: We need to remove the infection.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: If healthcare has ever left you feeling frustrated, overwhelmed, or stuck, this show is for you.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to GetStabby, the Mystified Healthcare weekly podcast, where we take complicated healthcare topics and make them simple.
• 0:46
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• 0:58
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• 1:08
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• 1:13
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• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: And now on with the show.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: Hello everyone and welcome to the show.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Are your teeth making you sick?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: The answer is right under your nose.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: What if the biggest threat to your heart, brain, blood sugar, or pregnancy health is hiding in your mouth and you do not even feel it?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: In this episode, we're going to pull back the curtain on silent dental infections and why connecting dental health to medical health may be one of the most important health conversations your family has this year.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: To help us get into this topic, I have Dr.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Chuck Reinerson on the show.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Chuck is a dental health whistleblower who has spent more than 40 years watching A Dangerous Truth get ignored.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_02: Millions of Americans are living with active dental infections they cannot feel and do not know they have.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: And those infections can quietly push people toward heart disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, autoimmune problems, and pregnancy complications.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: Dr.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_02: Chuck is determined to help people finally connect the dots between their dental health and their medical health and what families can do right now to prevent the emotional, financial, and relational strain that major medical events bring.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the show, Dr.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_02: Chuck.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much, Sandy.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_03: Great to be here.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: I am so excited to have you on.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: As we said, this is a topic we don't talk about very much in the the world of dental health and medical health and making that connection.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: So again, so thrilled to have you on.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: So why don't we get started and have you tell us your story and how it has led you on the journey you are on today?
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it goes way back to the 1960s when I was a Boy Scout and I got my first aid merit badge.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_03: And one of the things I learned in there is that you had to really clean a wound out really good, or the bacteria could get in the bloodstream and make that person sick or even kill them.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: So as a Boy Scout, I knew that wasn't it it was not good to leave infection going on in there.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_03: As I went into dental school, we went to the dental instructors and said, What about infections in the mouth?
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_03: Aren't they going to get in the bloodstream?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_03: Now, this is back in the 1970s.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_03: And at that time, we were told, oh no, there's an oral barrier, just like there's a blood-brain barrier, just like there's a placental barrier.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_03: So like, okay, well, okay, that there's a barrier.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_03: We never saw it.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_03: We dissected the body, we never saw it, but we were told there's a barrier there.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_03: In about 2012, the American Academy of World Systemic Health did a big conference up in Cleveland Clinic, and I saw the DVDs up there, and they had cardiologists and other physicians.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_03: They were showing the links.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Sandy, if you have an infection in your arm, can that bacteria get in your bloodstream?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_03: How about your leg?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: I would think yes.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_03: How about your mouth?
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_02: I would think yes, but a lot of people may think no.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_02: I I mean I I kind of quite you so you heard me pause on that.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: So Yeah, yeah.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: What if there's no pain?
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: Ninety percent of dental infections have absolutely no pain, so people don't know that it's going on.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_03: Gum disease, the bacteria in gum disease have already been proven to be causative.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: This is a huge word in the medical industry, uh causative for cardiovascular disease.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_03: Okay?
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_03: So you've got look at the number of people in the United States that have periodontal disease.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_03: According to the CDC, if you're over 30 years old, about half of the population has gum disease.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_03: If you're over 65, it's closer to 70% that have gum disease.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: They already have the bacteria that has been proven to be causative for cardiovascular disease.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: When was the last time your physician asked you about your mouth?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I just had a wellness exam and yeah, you're right.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think they they I got asked that question.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm not blaming the physicians.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_03: They're not trained to.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_03: They're trained the dentist has the mouth, you've got the rest of the body.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: But the trouble is there's the bloodstream that connects everything.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: So if you have an infection in the mouth, it doesn't stay in the mouth.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: The diseases that they've shown are are caused or worsened from dental bacteria include cardiovascular disease, which is heart attacks, strokes, heart valve replacements, stents, bypass, sons of tons of medication.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_03: Then diabetic complications, pregnancy complications.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_03: They're finding oral bacteria in the brains of Alzheimer's patients.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um rheumatoid arthritis is affected, but it's an inflammatory response.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_03: So when you have inflammation in the mouth or anywhere in the body, your body is responding with inflammation, which again affects cardiovascular disease.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_03: So we're all connected to try and leave the mouth out is uh a lot of times I think if we just remove the source of the bacteria causing the infection, the body is amazing at healing itself.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_03: But you have to eliminate the source and not just treat the symptom.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: I had a patient come in, she was a new patient.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_03: The only medication she was on was for blood pressure.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_03: She went to her physician, they took her blood pressure, it was high, so they gave her some medication.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_03: Her blood pressure came down.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: Everything is healthy, right?
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_03: Well, she hadn't seen a dentist for years.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_03: She came in for a new patient exam.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_03: And when we did the new patient exam, her lower left, second molar, huge abscess, all around it, absolutely no pain.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_03: She didn't know what was going on.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_03: We showed her the x-ray and she's like, How can I have that much bone loss and it doesn't hurt?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: And so that's the problem.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_03: There's no pain.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_03: We put on antibiotics, removed that tooth, and in three weeks she came back and said, Guess what?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_03: I don't need my blood pressure medication anymore.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_03: Can a dental infection raise your blood pressure?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: An infection anywhere in your body can raise your blood pressure.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_03: Your body is fighting that impression, that that infection.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_03: But what are the side effects of the blood pressure medication?
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_03: It gives you a dry mouth.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: Well, if you have a dry mouth, now you don't have the saliva to dilute the acid that's being produced from the bacteria in your mouth.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_03: So your cavity rate goes up and your gum disease rate goes up because you're treating the symptom instead of even looking for the source.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: Let me ask you a basic question on that.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: So let's say that you go in, you mention the abscess, and you think about, or you most of us have probably gone in for dental cleaning and you get that those pockets and you get that bacteria.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: Tell me what happens.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Does the bacteria travel to other organs or uh through the bloodstream that causes those uh but diabetes, high blood pressure, heart issues.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: What happens with that?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_03: That's a great question.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things I like to ask people is what causes cavities?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_03: And most people don't have the right answer.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: Most people think it's sugar.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_03: It's not.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: When you and I eat eat food, we have byproducts.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: We poop and we pee.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_03: When bacteria eats food, it has byproducts.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_03: Lactic acid.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_03: When bacteria sticks to the side of your teeth, we give it a name.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_03: We call that plaque.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_03: Well, that bacteria eats the same foods that we do.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_03: Now, sugar is worse, carbohydrates are worse, but the bacteria eats that.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_03: And for the little kids, I don't call them bacteria, I call them sugar bugs.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_03: And the sugar bugs go poop all over your teeth, and that poop is so bad it eats holes in your teeth, which is really what's happening.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_03: Think about that for just a second.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_03: We've got bacteria dumping acid on the hardest substance in the human body, tooth enamel, and it's dissolving the enamel away.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_03: Then it's dissolving the dentin away underneath.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_03: What do you think this bacteria does when it grabs onto a heart valve, when it grabs onto some other parts of the body?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_03: This is this is nasty stuff.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_03: We don't think about those things because there's no pain.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_03: Again, 90% of dental infections have absolutely no pain.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_03: So people think they're o that everything is fine.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_03: What do you think the number one reason is that people do not see a dentist?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I wearing my my former health insurance broker hat, I would probably tell you cost, and lovingly I do say this is people sometimes dread going to the dentist just because of the the tools and the poking and the prodding.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm it's not the most comfortable visit, but it's also insurance doesn't cover it.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: And the third thing I would say is no pain out of sight, out of mind.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_03: Well, your your third answer is actually the number one answer.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: Nothing hurts.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_03: I'm fine.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_03: I don't need a dentist.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_03: There's no reason to go.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_03: This is why people go for years and years without seeing a dentist.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_03: In the meantime, they got a pus factory right under their nose, dumping pus into the bloodstream 24 hours a day, seven days a week with absolutely no pain.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_03: You don't, they don't even know what's going on.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_03: So what I'm trying to do is help people understand that just because it doesn't hurt doesn't mean it's healthy.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_03: We need to take care of this.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_03: We need to remove the infection.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: You know, it it is they have a whole list of diseases that are caused or worsened from dental infections.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_03: But what I've noticed on my my private patients is that there are things not on the list that are improved.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_03: For instance, I had one patient that were having difficulty with the bleeding when they unhooked her from dialysis.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_03: She felt horrible.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: She'd been on dialysis for a few years, had no energy.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: When I saw her for the first time, she didn't have a toothache for years either.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: So she'd been seeing a physician on a regular basis for years.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_03: Finally, she had a toothache.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_03: Sandy, when I saw her, you didn't have to have a degree by your name to look at her mouth and say, Oh my gosh, that is a disaster.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, teeth, horrible teeth.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_03: We ended up putting on our antibiotics, removed all the bad teeth, which we were only able to save two.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_03: That's how bad they were.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_03: In three weeks, they weren't having any problem when they just disconnected her from the dialysis.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_03: Her medications were working better, she had energy in her steps.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: She was an artist, she hadn't wanted to draw for the last three years.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: But now, just just by cleaning up her mouth, the treatment was antibiotics and removing bad teeth.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_03: Just by doing that, it changed her life dramatically.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, there's there's lots of different stories that we see.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_03: I'm volunteering now at a um uh a dental clinic.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_03: The Catholic Church does a dental clinic, and I'm asking the people before we take the teeth out, how do you feel?
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_03: And then three or four weeks after that, how do you feel now?
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_03: Every one of them comes back and says, Man, I feel better now than I have in years.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_03: So this is just a a completely overlooked section in our health care, in my opinion.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I have to ask the obvious question, because what you're saying sounds like, dare I say this, but silent killer, because we do know that diabetes or high blood pressure or heart disease can can result in negative consequences.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_02: But I guess I can't get it out of my mind is what you what you're saying makes sense, but why isn't there more being done between a dental provider, medical provider, you know, or you think even of insurance companies that are always trying to be, you know, keep subscribers healthy.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_02: Why isn't there a better connection of this to keep people healthy and avoid these illnesses?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: It baffles me that that there's not more being done.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_03: It bothers me too, Sandy.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um now I've retired from my practice, but when I was in practice, I would send faxes to the to the patient's um physician telling them about their oral condition uh so that they would know that they've got periodontal disease, they've got tooth abscess, they've got whatever's going on.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_03: I would fax that over to the physicians and later on I asked them, what did you do with that information?
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_03: They said, uh, we put it in the circular file.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_03: They just threw it away, they didn't use it.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_03: Um when you look at the risk factors today for uh heart attacks, for instance, or um, let's see, where are they?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_03: Risk is that for heart disease.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: High blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, smoking, diabetes, overweight and obesity, unhealthy diet, physical inactivity, excessive alcohol use.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: Those are the risk factors that the American Heart Association gives.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_03: Not one mention of oral health.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_03: Okay?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_03: Nobody talks about the mouth.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: What can a consumer do?
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_02: Because I always say that it is a partnership in health.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: Given our traditional medical dental system, it takes a village.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: And so it really is me as a patient working proactively with my doctor to bring these concerns up and and to to be that partner in health.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: What can consumers do?
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_02: They're concerned about that dental health and medical health connection.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_03: First thing they can do is make sure they have a healthy mouth.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_03: Uh just because nothing hurts doesn't mean they have a healthy mouth.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_03: So get a thorough dental examination from a qualified dentist.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: And uh not all dentists are qualified.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_03: You have good dentists and other than good dentists, you have good automechanics and other than good automechanics.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_03: Same with physicians and and everything.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_03: So find a good dentist, get yourself a good dental exam just to rule out if you have any dental infections.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things you can do first is what you do at home for free.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_03: This is what I push as much as I can is the free stuff.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_03: People complain about the expensive dentistry, but they're not even doing the free stuff.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_03: Let's do the free stuff.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_03: It takes eight to ten minutes to thoroughly clean your teeth.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_03: You can't do it in thirty seconds.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_03: The average person spends thirty seconds or less brushing their teeth.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_03: Brushing does not clean their teeth.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_03: Brushing gets where a brush can reach, but we need to clean the bacteria off of the teeth, including in between the teeth.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_03: So one of the first things you can do right now is begin thoroughly cleaning your teeth.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: And how do you know if you did a good job?
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_03: Have you ever seen something called disclosing tablets, these little tiny, tiny pills you chew up?
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_03: They've been around for 60, 70 years, okay?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_03: So what you do is you clean your teeth as good as you can to where in your mind you've done a great job.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_03: Chew up one of those things, swish it around your mouth, rinse your mouth out, and look in the bathroom mirror.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_03: Wherever you have stain on your teeth is where you still have bacteria, it doesn't mean you didn't brush there, it means you didn't get it off.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: Now go back and clean the bacteria off.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_03: That's when you begin to learn what it takes to thoroughly clean your teeth, not just brush your teeth.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_03: And my suggestion is one time a day, one time a day spending eight to ten minutes doing a thorough job instead of two or three times a day doing a lick and a promise.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: You've got to be thorough in there.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_03: You got to do a good job.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_03: And there are three ways of cleaning in between your teeth.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people think of just by floss.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_03: Well, most people that floss don't do a good job.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: Most people are poppers when they just pop it in between them, pop it out.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_03: That's not cleaning.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_03: You have to literally hug that tooth to make sure you're getting the bacteria off.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_03: So floss is one way to make these interproximal brushes.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_03: They can't look like a toothpick with hair.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_03: They show in between your teeth and you can get the bacteria off that way.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: And the third way, which is what I prefer, is directed water irrigation.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: Now you can use a water pick, a shower breeze, or there are different ways of doing it.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_03: But the way you use that is you want to use those warmer waters that you can comfortably tolerate, put it all the way on high, you want to aim it directly in between your teeth and let that water jet shoot the gap for five full seconds.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_03: One Mississippi, two Mississippi, three Mississippi, four Mississippi, five Mississippi, then move one tooth forward.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_03: Same thing all the way around, top and bottom.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_03: If people can get good at doing that, they're gonna save a lot of problems.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_03: And what I recommend for families is to get the kids in there.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody clean their teeth as good as they they can.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody chews up one of these tablets, one of these disclosing tablets.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody gets to look in each other's mouth, and whoever has the least amount of stain gets a prize.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_03: I would much rather have your kids get a prize than have you spend the money at the dentist.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: Okay?
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_03: I'd rather have them get motivated at a younger age to know how to thoroughly take care of their teeth instead of just a lick in a promise.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_03: Because the parents are gonna not only save a lot of of money from the dental work, but they're gonna have healthier kids.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_03: Wouldn't that be nice?
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_03: Because they've shown when kids miss school because of a toothache, their grades suffer.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_03: When kids miss school because of a scheduled appointment, their grades do not suffer.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: So, you know, there's a lot of good reasons for starting this at a young age and bringing it through.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_02: You were talking, I went in my head for a moment to think of, you know, taking a shower in the morning.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: You go in, you shower, you wash your hair, your body, the whole thing, maybe 15, 20 minutes, whatever your routine is.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_02: But yet we do, and I'm just as guilty, you know, that a lick and a promise of your teeth, or it's such a second thought, if one at all.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: So uh taking that extra five minutes, it sounds like some good dental brushes.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: It sounds like the water pick is is a good affordable option as well.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_02: What are your thoughts on on back on the lick and promise?
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: Because I laugh, my husband's like, oh, I got that Listerine purple blue special, and I just do a couple of quick swishes and I'm good to go.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: And and so what are your thoughts on that as an option?
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_03: Well, they've identified over 700 different bacteria in our mouth.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_03: Those are healthy for us.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_03: We need those.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_03: They produce good things for us.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_03: One produces nitric acid, which is really good for our body.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: We need that.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_03: When you start using these antibacterial mouth rincials, you're killing the good ones.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: Okay, we don't want to kill the good ones.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_03: We want the good ones to live.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: There's only about 20 bad ones, so out of the 700, you're you know, most of them are good.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: Let's remove the bad bacteria from the teeth.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_03: That's my thing, is let's I don't want to kill the good ones, but let's remove the bad ones from the teeth.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: So I do not recommend.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: If you want to rinse them up with some warm salt water or something, fine, go ahead.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_03: And they just had had uh periodontal surgery, they might have you on a a uh uh a special mouth rinse for just for a couple of weeks.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_03: But uh to to stay on that for long term, uh there were a lot of things that we were told in dental school as we go, well, this is what we believed back then, but now we look at things a little different.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_03: So so uh things change over time.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: No, they do, and I I appreciate that.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_02: So, full confession, you know, too.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_02: I went through that periodontal surgery and I would not recommend it to anyone.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: It was one of the most painful things I had gone through.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: I wasn't the worst flosser, I think, but I, you know, I kind of laugh in comparison to my husband who hadn't seen a dentist in 30 years, and he didn't have to go through any periodontal procedure.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_02: So it's so interesting the differences that you have, but I am now a ninja flosser.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: And so, and it really, and I literally have three different kinds of dental picks.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: It my point in even mentioning that is, you know, I've made the mistake.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: And but it really honestly, you know, I get up in the morning, I'm sitting down at my vanity before I start doing my hair, whatever it is, a quick five minutes to really just take care of those teeth.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not a lot of time, especially kind of going back to what you talked about, again, the staggering statement of tens of millions of Americans walking around with hidden dental infections and those potential medical risks that can come from that, and or just be prevented.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: So, with the simple things that you mentioned.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_03: And even on the the great cardiologists that you've had on your program, because I've listened to them, nobody mentions the mouth.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_03: I'm not blaming them.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's just they're not trained that way.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Now wanted to ask you, we talked about this briefly, but as we're we're getting some great insight from you.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you and I had mentioned kind of initially, you know, AI is a big, big thing out there today.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: And we, you know, some people are like, Yeah, let's use it.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm ready to go.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: What are your thoughts on how people can use that um to also contribute to their um better dental health habits or inquiries?
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: Well, I the the first thing you have to do is grasp it mentally yourself and realize that this is not a joke.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_03: This is really going on.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: So so it's a it's a serious thing.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_03: Ask AI, what are the medical consequences of dental infections?
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: I asked AI that it gave me a huge list with references on that.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_03: So you can see that this is this is proven.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: This is not maybe.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it really does.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_03: But once you get this information, begin implementing it.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_03: Umledge is not power, it's potential power.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_03: It only becomes power when you put it to work.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_03: So if you know how to do something but don't do it, it doesn't do you any good.
• 22:58
  SPEAKER_03: If you know how to clean your teeth but don't do it, it doesn't do you any good.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: Following through with your your personal home care, following through with a dentist to make sure you don't have any dental infections going on there, those are the personal things that you can do.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_03: One of the things I recommend everyone to do is next time you see your dentist or your physician, ask them, does my dental health have anything to do with my medical health?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_03: And be quiet and just listen to their answer.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_03: You're not going to try and convince them of anything, but just listen to their answer.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_03: My uh my brother had a brain tumor and down in Orlando at a major hospital down there, and when I was visiting him, there was an infectious disease doctor that was in there to examine him and make sure there wasn't any any problems with his surgery.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_03: So I asked him, I said, When you're finished with him, can I ask you a question?
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_03: He said, Sure.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_03: So we finished.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, When you're looking for the source of bacteria, do you ever consider the mouth?
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_03: He looked at me and said, Oh no, the mouth is totally insignificant.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_03: Blew me away.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_03: I've been looking in mouse for at that time it was like, you know, 38 years, seen thousands of huge infections that people had no idea was going on.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: We need we need to close this gap in in our health care.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_03: And this to me is one thing that I want to help people do is just include the mouth when you're looking at your health.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_03: The the Surgeon General in the year 2000 said, uh, you need a healthy mouth to have a healthy body.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_03: That was the conclusion of the Surgeon General in in 2000 as Oral Health in America.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_03: You need a healthy mouth to have a healthy body.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_03: That's all we're saying.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no, absolutely.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: And thank you for your thoughts on the AI perspective.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a big believer.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: We have to educate ourselves too so we can be proactive back to that partnership.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: And to your very point, ask the questions.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and where it went in my head too when you we talked about the mouth.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_02: I was talking to a guest on the show that was a mental health provider.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I love what this person said.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, you know, mental health is just as important as physical health health.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like you take your head off your body.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of one in the same.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I would say the same with your mouth.
• 25:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's a you can't separate any of it.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's a whole process, it's a whole body that works together.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_03: I tell physicians, if you think your mouth is not part of your body when you go to work on Monday, leave your mouth at home.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, tell us more about your book.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: You've written a book, Are Your Teeth Making You Sick?
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: The answer is right under your nose.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: So share with us a little bit about what people can expect in your book.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_03: Well, it's written for the general public.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_03: I tried getting into our local hospital some years ago, and they rejected it.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_03: They said, We don't want you coming in diagnosing things that we don't treat.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_03: I said, wait a minute.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_03: Every week I diagnose things I don't treat.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_03: I refer to that patient as someone who can treat it.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_03: Their answer, we don't want to be in the referral business.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_03: This is a hospital.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_03: Blew me away.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_03: So then I went to local physicians.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_03: I said, can you include the mouth when you're evaluating someone's health?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_03: Because that could be the source.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_03: They said, Chuck, we'd love to, but we don't have enough time.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_03: I said, What do you mean?
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_03: Today, about 70% of physicians work for corporation.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_03: The corporation sets the schedule.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_03: They've got 15 minutes per patient.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_03: They don't have time.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_03: So if the hospital doesn't want to refer out and the physicians don't have enough time, I decide I'm going to write a book.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_03: So I wrote it for the general public.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: It's it's easy to read.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and it's backed up with references in the back where there's many pages of references.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_03: But real simple, um different chapters, let's see.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_03: Why most physicians are in the dark about your mouth, how to fix the deadly gap.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_03: It's simple but not easy.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_03: What's your why?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: What causes cavities and gum disease?
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_03: How to thoroughly clean your teeth, new tricks.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_03: Kids, is there hope?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_03: How to find a good dentist, look before you leave.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_03: My dental exam, what's involved, and will it hurt?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: What are my options for dental treatment?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_03: Begin at home today.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: It's critical and it's free, and end the deadly gap, start the communication.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_03: So that's what we're trying to do on this is is have people connect to us and make it simple for people.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_03: And then once you connect the DOS, please share this message, this information with your family and friends.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because nobody your parents didn't tell you, your teachers didn't tell you, your physicians didn't tell you, and your dentist aren't telling you.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_03: Where's people people supposed to learn this?
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_03: That's why we're talking.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: And one thing I want to throw out there, because you mentioned dental cleaning.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: I know sometimes dental insurance and dental health can be expensive, but most dental cleanings, depending upon regional location, of course, can be under$200 to get done maybe twice a year.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times your dentist will work with you, you know, on that, or sometimes they have different dental plans that you can pay a moderate monthly fee.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: I have to mention that because I think some people feel like I can barely afford my health insurance premium.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_02: Dental is going to be a little bit harder.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not saying you do some people$175, whatever it is, is not a lot.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: But considering the things that you brought to our attention, it may be well worth those dollars.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: With that said, as we we draw to a close, I would love to hear your final thoughts that you would like to leave listeners with.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_03: I'd love for them to visit our website.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_03: It's called the Dental Medical Convergence.org.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_03: We have a lot of information on that site.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_03: Videos.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_03: I did a TED Talk, that's on there.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_03: There's a lot of other things, simple information for people to just grasp the concept.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_03: So that would be thing.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_03: Start getting your education.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the few minutes that you spend every day cleaning your teeth is a fraction of the amount of time you spend in a hospital with a heart attack, with the stroke.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_03: When you look at how many people go through that and don't know it, um I could I I could go through many different stories, but let's just say we need a healthy mouth to have a healthy body.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_03: So whatever it takes you to have that healthy mouth, in fact, you don't even need teeth to have a healthy mouth.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_03: But if you have teeth, you can't have infections.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_03: That's all we're saying.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_03: I've seen real healthy people that have complete dentures and other people that have a beautiful smile, horrible gum disease, and and they're sick.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_03: So uh do the free stuff at home.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_03: That's the biggest thing right there.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_03: Do the free stuff.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for your expertise, your mission to bring awareness to this.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that listeners will greatly benefit.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_02: We will make sure and link to uh uh dental medical convergence as well as your book so people can uh learn more.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: And again, thank you, Dr.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_02: Chuck, for your time, your expertise, and your words of wisdom.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_03: My pleasure.
• 29:24
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you for sharing this information.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: I enjoyed having Dr.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_02: Chuck on the show.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_02: I love this topic of treating the mouth as part of your overall health for all the reasons that Dr.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: Chuck mentioned.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: It really was an enlightening conversation, and I hope that you enjoyed it.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: And know that there are options out there to do so affordably.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: So make sure and check out those links in the show notes to Dr.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: Chuck's website and also his book, Are Your Teeth Making You Sick?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_02: In our next episode, many consumers and employers feel powerless over this unpredictability and ever increasing cost for healthcare.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: What are our options?
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_02: I am bringing on the show Dan Costrog to talk more about this topic.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: Dan is the CEO of Better Benefits USA, a nonprofit on a mission to close the healthcare gap on care, cost, and coverage for hardworking Americans.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: Dan is passionate about the structural incentives behind U.S.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_02: healthcare, including how brokers, insurers, and employers interact, and why many cost-saving efforts fail due to misaligned incentives.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_02: Dan's also going to talk about preventative care models, wellness programs, and tax-efficient benefit design to improve retention and employee health outcomes.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: Dan challenges the assumptions that better healthcare must cost more, showing companies how they can improve employee benefits without increasing spend.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: He urges leaders to question traditional healthcare incentives and whether they truly align with employers and employees.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: Such a great conversation.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_02: Don't miss it.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: Make sure and subscribe so you always get a notice when that episode comes out.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate you listening and sharing with others so they can benefit as well.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: Until next time, get savvy.