83: The Hidden Link Between Oral Health, Hormones & Your Overall Well-Being with Dr. Leedia Riman

In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with Dr. Leedia Riman, a trailblazing dentist revolutionizing women’s oral health. Together, they explore the surprising connections between oral health, hormones, and overall wellness—from the impact of pregnancy, menopause, and birth control on dental health to the essential role of vitamin D and K2 in strong teeth and bones.

Dr. Leedia shares her eye-opening experiences in Saudi Arabia, her journey toward holistic dentistry, and why traditional dental education is failing women. If you’ve ever wondered how nutrition, hormonal changes, or even fertility affect your oral health, this episode is a must-listen!

In This Episode, You Will Learn:

✔️ Hormonal shifts (pregnancy, menopause, birth control) directly impact oral health
✔️ Vitamin D & K2 are essential for strong teeth and proper calcium absorption
✔️ Oral health is a reflection of overall health—it even affects fertility!
✔️ Many wisdom tooth extractions are unnecessary and profit-driven
✔️ Bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) can improve post-menopausal oral health
✔️ Antidepressants & birth control can negatively affect gum health and dry mouth
✔️ Flossing + breathing through your nose = better oral & whole-body health

Listen now to discover why your teeth are more than just teeth—they’re a window into your total health! 

Follow Dr. Leedia at @drleedia

#OralHealth #WomensHealth #HolisticDentistry #HormonalHealth #FunctionalMedicine #DentalHealth #VitaminD #KeepingAbreastPodcast #DrJennSimmons #FertilityHealth #MenopauseSupport #WellnessJourney

To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working privately with RHMD, visit:
https://jennsimmons.simplero.com/page/377266?kuid=327aca17-5135-44cf-9210-c0b77a56e26d&kref=vOKy0sAiorrK

To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

To purchase the auria breast cancer screening test go here https://auria.care/ and use the code DRJENN20 for 20% Off.

Connect with Dr. Jenn:
Website: https://www.realhealthmd.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons

Transcript

0:01

So you do the good girl thing and you go to Saudi Arabia and you start practicing dentistry there. What did you find? pure and utter destruction. so because I spoke the language, I'm a female, American educated, so that's what they wanted. I fit the recipe. I was seeing all the women and then, and it was, was, there wasn't a, I think very, very, very, I can count the number of healthy mouths I saw in my two hands amongst the hundreds of patients that I saw. So I'm like, my God, what's going on? Like it's, it's, it's. This is very interesting. Anyways, I started going through some psychological issues. didn't want to live in Saudi anymore. I was young and vibrant and single and I wanted to like, you know, come back to the States. And I loved that. Like my time in Saudi, my childhood in Saudi was incredible, just to say that. I had the best childhood in the world. So I come back with one bag against my mother's will. God bless her. She didn't talk to me for like a year. And I was like, I'll only come back if I'm hired by Aramco, which is the, I don't know if you're familiar with Aramco, it's an oil company, the biggest oil company in the world, like one of the biggest oil company in the world. And the reason for that is because my program director at UCLA, he was actually working there. He's this wonderful, wonderful dentist from Utah. He was my program director at UCLA. I met up with him when I was in Saudi. And I became friends with his wife and his family. And I was just like, okay, I know somebody there. And Aramco is a beautiful oasis in the desert. And it's a wonderful company to work for. But I knew they weren't going to hire me because I was too young. They need a minimum of like five to 10 years of experience. So I told my mom, I'll come back to Saudi if Aramco hires me, knowing they're not going to hire me. Like that's what I thought. So I land one week later, Aramco reaches out to me and they're like, we want to invite you to an interview. I'm like, what? Like I only have like a year and a half experience. what is this? Long story short, six months later, I went back to Saudi to Aramco. They offered me a wonderful offer. They treated me so well. And two months in, I was booked for six months out. Like my schedule was packed. And I was seeing all the expats, all the Americans and the British expats and all the women. So was 50-50 my schedule. And then again, so like destruction, pure and utter, like lots of destruction. was like, gosh, there's something, there's something more than to just what I learned at UCLA. God bless my education. I love it. I'm so grateful for it, but that's when my re-education started. I'm like, why are their teeth breaking down and what's happening? So there's a nutritional component for sure. There's a, there's a micronutrient component like Everybody was severely, even though I was living in Saudi Arabia, everybody was severely deficient in vitamin D, like severe deficiencies. Nutrition, you know, like, and lots of pregnancies. They have a lot of children there. Like my patients on average, each one had like three to six children, some 14 children, some 10 children. Like I would be seeing bedouins that lived in tents. It was a very like, it was. you know, not for nothing, it depletes you. It depletes you. They were in depletion. So I'm sitting here fixing and I'm like, okay, I can fix these, but I don't want to fix this because this is so preventable. And I worked and I worked and I worked there for a couple of years, two years and a half. And then I resigned. don't know, something came to me. I needed to leave once again. Everybody thought I was nuts because I had the most amazing job in the world. And I was like, I need to go. I need to go and I come back. And so that's when like all the bells started ringing in my heads. still hadn't connected the dots. Okay. So I would be talking to them about nutrition and vitamin D levels, but it wasn't in the way. Like I didn't really understand why vitamin D is so important for your dental health. You know, I didn't, I just knew it was important, but I didn't know why. So come January, 2014, I send it, send in my resignation. I am back in the States in April, April 18, 2014. And what? Really? Awesome. And then we opened up our practice here in Beverly Hills with my brothers. So my brothers and I, all three of us are dentists. And we started like getting to work and we were seeing patients again. Two months later, I meet my now husband. He starts making all these dental appointments. And then two years later we're married and I'm pregnant and I get really sick while I was pregnant and I lose a front tooth right here. I was born missing this tooth. So I have an implant here, but it got so infected, very infected. had to remove the crown and I was walking around with no front tooth to let it heal. Cause that turns out that it can impact your pregnancy. So oral infection can impact your pregnancy. So obviously once I found that out and this is me, I'm a dentist and I didn't know that back then, right? So I had to go through this, like, so I had hyper emesis gravidarum. I was vomiting seven to 14 times every single day for about eight months. And I was getting dental cleanings every three to six weeks, depending on how I was feeling. And that's, that's how I'm able to not have any cavities right now. Like I was very, like my brother took really, really good care of me and I really tried my best to do what I could at home. But after Julia was born, I went into like inward and I was like, what's happening? Like, what is this? Like, can this only be me? Like, I feel awful. I feel like my breath is different. I feel very congested. I feel depleted. And I didn't know the right words to describe it. I just feel awful. Like I had bad breath. I'm a dentist. I didn't have a front tooth comfortable. I wasn't comfortable with my smile. I wasn't feeling good. So I go on Facebook, Mommy's in LA, which is like one of the craziest, meanest mommy groups in the world. They're like nuts. there's some, you get a lot of good info there. And I like literally put out a heartfelt message. I was like, is this only me? I just had my baby. I had a really rough pregnancy with regards to oral health. My gums are infected. Like has anyone gone through any oral issues? during their pregnancies or soon after. Within an hour, I get like, in one hour or like 30 minutes, I get like 150 responses. And this was in the middle of the night. it was, I'm like, what? So I started researching and digging into all, that I started reading articles and research. So 65 % of women during their pregnancies undergo some sort of dental issue, whether it's reversible or irreversible. So I was like, why? Why do we go through that? It's not like we don't go through enough crap and it was 65%. Yes. Yes, yes. Some are irreversible like many of my work, but a lot are not. Yeah. I have never heard that statistic before. I'm blown away right now. Do the gynecologist know about this? That's why I'm going to be building bridges, baby. So I talked to my gynecologist and she was like, yeah, Lydia, patients complain about it all the time. So there are pregnancy tumors and those are benign pyogenic granulomas. There is pregnancy rhinitis that causes mouth breathing. There's so many things that have to do with pregnancy. that happens when the hormones are going crazy that really impact the acidity level, the quality of your saliva, the quantity of your saliva, your ability to mouth breathe, your ability to properly clean your mouth, your fatigue, your energy. There's so much to it. Like there is so much more than, so that was like an aha moment in my life. I'm like, okay, I'm done. I'm having the aha moment. Okay. So I'm like, well, I should send you the picture of me with like no front tooth so that it like makes it full circle. But then it also shifts. Yeah, I'm happy to offer. I'm an open book. Yes. But but and then it changes in your microbiome. It's just there's so much to it. And it's not So there's an old myth that say for every pregnancy you lose a tooth. That's like a, have you heard of that? It's an old myth. Yes. dying. I cannot believe this whole conversation. I did not expect this. I did not see it coming. I'm like, woo, blown away. OK, for every pregnancy you lose a tooth, I don't even know what to do with this information. like false, you don't lose a tooth, but that stems from a little bit of truth in that you are extremely compromised when you're pregnant. You need to take extra care of yourself on so many levels and facets. And not only does it start during pregnancy, it's before pregnancy. So for those trying to conceive and we live in a world where IVF is so prevalent. All my friends have like frozen their eggs because we're getting married later or we're getting pregnant later. So there's a lot of external hormones that are synthetic and unnatural being injected. The birth control, think people are waking up to birth control, but all that really impacts your mouth. And to bring it just in a nutshell full circle, if your mouth isn't well and isn't healed and isn't feeling healthy, it's gonna impact everything in your life, not only physically, but emotionally as well. And I felt it that night when I like went on Facebook and I wrote that out. And that's what got me into the world of women's dental health and actually creating that world because no one's talking about it. And, but our mouth is part of our throat chakra, our lips, our tongue, our mucosa, our teeth, and your ability to speak and express part of that, I wholeheartedly believe is the health of your mouth. And that's why I take it really, really seriously for all the ladies I see. And that's why I do what I do online. But yeah. Okay, so I first want to start off by asking because, you know, women's dentistry is a big blue ocean. And there aren't a lot of people out there with a shingle saying this is women's dentistry. So how did you learn? How did you figure all of this out? I mean, you're charting a new path. I am, and it was that first pregnancy. And that's why I said that story with me, like going to Saudi, working there, getting a few like red flags and like how, what I was seeing like on, you know, and I never learned about any of this in my books at UCLA. They never spoke about estrogen and progesterone. They never spoke about, relaxin that you need during childbirth that can loosen your teeth. they never spoke about, microbiome. And, you know, they spoke about the general things that I'm sure you learned in medical school to become a medical doctor and me too. So when I came back and I had that really hard pregnancy, I was like, God is putting this in my path because he's like, he's sharing to me what my mission is. Like I discovered my mission and my passion. And I always say like, I'm just getting started because there's so much work to do in this field. And I would like to go back one day to. to like Saudi or Aramco and to give, to tell them what I learned since I've left there because it'll help so many. But it's not just women there, it's women everywhere. Like it's. you can do that after you develop a course and teach other people because you must, must, must do that. Why do you think, let's just like start at the beginning, why do you think most dentists are still in that archaic world of drill and fill and no connection between oral health and systemic health, despite the fact that there have been studies for, I mean, I remember studies in my residency, which was a long time ago and I'm not going to share when that was, but I remember studies in my residency talking about that there is a direct link between periodontal disease and heart disease. So, you know, we've been making this connection for a good long time, again, not going to share with you how long ago that was. If you really wanna know, you can look it up. You're very kind. So why, why is it still this way? mean, when the dentists that are in training now are still getting trained, drill, fill, fluoride. You know, Jen, in my heart, I'd like to believe that everybody is doing the best they can with the conscience that they have, right? And when I was in Saudi, I started, need to, we need to be listening and we need to start feeling more as practitioners. Unfortunately, When I was in dental school, you kind of get numb to just, you need the requirements, you need to pass your tests, you need to pass your board and you need to finish those requirements, which were like 10 root canals and five dentures and seven partials and five gold fillings and five gold crown out fillings, five gold crowns and you know, and you're so focused on that. Right. And you want to pass and you want to become the doctor and you know, you want to, and there's been just so, so when I, when I left and, and I had, I don't know, like almost half a million dollars in debt, there's a huge egotistical component that like, crap, I just spent all this money and I need to reeducate myself. Cause I had to reeducate myself fundamentally. I did, I did. So when, when, when, after that happened, A year later, my daughter got vaccine injured. So I was one of those people I was very trusting of, I haven't really spoken much openly about this, but I'm like just flowing right now. God is flowing. And he got, and she got injured when she was one. MMR and varicella, 27 days later, we were in the ICU. I had no idea why. I was doing what my doctor told me. Like, I trust you. If you're my doctor. I want to trust you. don't want to, I'm not here to do your job, Dr. Jen. I don't want anybody to do my job. Let's all do, you know, our own job and help each other. And I was, as I was walking through the ward, through the ICU ward, I saw a lot of really sick kids, like really sick kids. I'm like, God, I'm, very lucky that my daughter's good. They were pumping her little body because it was like, she almost suffocated on mucus that was like slime. So it was, that's when I woke up. That's when I'm like, my God, I'm never going back to the way that I was practicing. I just, I, cause we were taking insurances and we were playing the insurance game and I was very unhappy. I was like, I want to close the office. didn't care. Like my brother and I were like this ready to be like, he's like, I'd rather be an Uber driver. And I'm like, I'd rather be a barista at a coffee shop. Cause I love making coffee and tea for people. have like, I love making drinks for people. So I'm like, I probably make more money there. I got a check for $4.84 for something right now that I would charge $900 for and well worth it. So we were just very unhappy. So you're asking like, why aren't dentists waking up when you're a hamster on a wheel and you're so in that wheel, unless you have, I feel a big traumatic experience like I did, it's very hard to nudge you. Like have you ever spoken to a friend to try to get them to like, I don't know, stop fluoride? Like it took my husband a few years to stop Listerine. Like it was on order, like it was on repeat. We'll talk about mouthwash later and how horrible it is for you, especially things like Listerine and Scope. So I think I'm very optimistic and hopeful because on Instagram I'm getting like these hygiene students and I'm getting dental students that want to come and shadow and want to come visit the office. and are very intrigued with the way that we're practicing in the office. with, and with podcasts like yours and all the other health podcasts that are starting to have more dentists on more biological, integrative, holistic, whatever they want to be called. But it's, that's how we're going to start spreading the world. Cause now you're going to take this information to your practice and you're going to tell your girlfriend about it. Like tomorrow night, you know, you're going to share it. And I believe in that beautiful ripple effect. And that's what I want to focus on. I got a lot of crap from dentists when I first, so we do this root canal prevention procedure in the office. And we're able to save over 75 % of teeth from eating root canals. And the other 20, it's incredible, but I got so much crap. because, not surprising because you're dealing with the root cause of the problem rather than the band-aid, rather than addressing the symptom, right? Because when you do a root canal, you're just taking the patient's perception away. That's all you're doing. exactly. So there's, with regards to root canal, there's a time and place, like if you're in severe pain, if you have a necrotic tooth, your body already root canaled itself, and that's a huge source of infection for the body. So you need to take care of that necrotic tooth. And a lot of people message me, they're like, we have a tooth that's a little more gray. So if you have a tooth that's more gray or a little brownish, that's a different color than the rest of your teeth, Please have your dentist check if that tooth is alive or not. It's very important. It's probably not alive. I'd say 90 % of the time it's not alive. And then you have to like make a decision. I'm all for full informed consent. I'm going to tell you the pros and cons of root canals. I'm going to tell you the pros and cons of keeping the, of keeping the tooth and extracting the tooth. And it's not one size fits all. your medical history is different than mine, your toxic load is different than mine. And we have to take into consideration all of that. So yeah, can tell it like, I don't want to ramble, but like that's it's it's it's it's yeah. Okay, so let's do some rapid fire questions because there is so much that I want to get through with you. I want to first know, you said you have three brothers that are dentists? Two brothers. Okay, why? Why are all three of you dentists? I need to, yes, I do. I'm fascinated by this. So, we grew up in Saudi and we're originally Lebanese. So my brother went to Lebanon for college right after he graduated high school and his grades started dropping like badly. And my parents being the wonderful, protective Middle Eastern parents they are, no, that does not fly. We're shipping us back to LA. So home base was LA, even though I'm a nomad, I don't know where home is, the world is my home. So we came back to LA, which I hated. I hated LA my first year here. So I was 16, Rashad was 20, and my younger brother was 12. There's four years between each one of us. And Rashad wanted to become an actor, my older brother. He's a very interesting, wonderful character. Maybe you'll meet him one day. But he wanted to become an actor, and my mom's like, over my dead body, like, you're not gonna become an Like you can become an actor and do that film stuff that like whatever after you create and like have a set career. I just want to make sure that you're well taken care of because I don't have a ton of riches to give you. You need to like take care of yourself. I get it. I'm a mother of three right now. I get it. I wouldn't do that if I were her, but I get it. I understand her. But there's also, you want your children to develop their own sense of self and pride and self-worth and even if your parents were very, very wealthy, when we help our children, we don't help our children. Right? And everyone has to blaze their own path. Yeah. think that Rashad has a deep passion for film and production and directing. Like, he's very talented. have been successful in that area anyway. Yeah. thing is he's doing that in dentistry. So he now teaches over 75,000 dentists worldwide how to do surgeries with his partner. And they do like online courses and they film courses and we. Exactly, exactly, exactly. So he's he's he he tries to he just he he believes in the power of beautiful media and he believes in the there's a lot of beautiful stories to be told and. He just loves that artistic aspect of it. So obviously he listened to my parents. So he's like, what can I do path of least resistance, something that involves art? Cause he's an artist. Long story short, he went to Cal State Northridge, who was sitting next to a girl who was studying for her DAT. And she was like going over the DAT with him. And he saw there's a perceptual ability to test there. So the part of the DAT, there's a, have to like be able to take something that's 2D and imagine it 3D. Okay. He's like, gosh, this is so interesting. And he was like, I want to take the DAT just because of like, he's like, and then there was a dental school up North who was three, that was three years, UOP, University of the Pacific, great dental school in San Francisco. So he took the DAT. He did very good on the DAT and he went to UOP, school of dentistry and He had a great time. He loved it. He loved working with teeth. He loved sculpting teeth and filling and he really enjoyed that. At that time, I knew I wanted to be in healthcare. I knew I wanted to be talking to people. I didn't want to be behind a computer. I wanted to be in healthcare. Like I loved health and fitness and I was a swimmer. so I... I volunteered in the ER, OBGYN, and when I was in college, there was a really cute dentist. I applied for a job there because my brother was in dental school. I'm like, let me see dentistry. And the cute dentist had his mom working on the front desk. So it was a very nice family practice. Within two weeks, I learned how to run the whole office, how to assist, how to do everything except billing, obviously. And I became his like all-star assistant. So was working full time with him almost. And I was going to UC Davis. was studying biochemistry at UC Davis. And it was a great, I made great money at the time. And I was like, I had never like made money before. Right. Like it was, and it just felt really good. And I really loved the ambiance I like, and I'd like tell my brother, he did this today. And you're like, what materials did he use? And then I'm like, gosh, I really like this. I really like the flexibility I can teach. I can work with my family. I'm like, maybe I'll work with my brother one day. it was just, and I can, I can help people. can help heal people. Boom. I take my DAT. I score really, really well. And I started teaching for Kaplan, other dental and medical students. And then I got into like UCLA, UOP and UCSF. Like I got into all my schools, but, and yeah. And then I went to dental school and then our little brother kind of followed along. He was like, okay, this is cool. And then he went to Florida. He ventured out to Florida and it was great because I spent a lot of time in Florida. Yes, she is. Is she extremely, extremely proud? You know, she doesn't express it as often as I would have expected, but I'm sure deep down. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, of course. Duh. Exactly. Okay. All right. I got it. Okay. So... Why is vitamin D important? I think that everyone understands that vitamin T is important for bones. I think that most people now understand that vitamin D is essential for your immune system, especially, you know, we had this big thing happen to all of us in 2020. And there was lots of talk about if your vitamin D level before you got the thing was at a certain level, then the likelihood that you would be hospitalized or have serious complications. was diminished, whereas if you had low vitamin D levels, you had an increased risk of being hospitalized and being on a ventilator and yada, yada, yada. I think that most people in the breast cancer world, although I don't know if the medical oncologists have necessarily caught on yet because I still see so many people who come to me and I'm like, what's your vitamin D level? And they don't know and their medical oncologist isn't measuring. which blows my mind in this day and age, but in any event, most people I think understand the importance of vitamin D in immunity, in cancer, in bone health. What is the significance in oral health and in your teeth? Vitamin D is so important because vitamin D, and not only vitamin D is important in the dental world, vitamin K2 and vitamin D work synergistically to take everyone. So when growing up, my dad would be like, here, you need to milk for your teeth and your eyes and your bones, right? And you need calcium. He's right. You need the calcium. But people have been so focused on the calcium aspect of it. And little do they know that you need vitamin D3 and vitamin K2 to uptake the calcium and to bring it and to deposit it in the right place. Okay. So it's not just about the calcium and magnesium is extremely important in that for, in that process as well. Okay. So the beautiful thing about vitamin D is that on x-rays, can see when somebody's deficient, even if they don't have like, so the, the, the chamber that houses your pulp. So our teeth. Just take a step back. We have enamel, then we have dentin, and then we have our pulp chamber. And our pulp chamber houses our nerves, our lymphatic system, and blood supply. So each tooth is an organ. Each tooth needs to be respected and taken care of and honored. That's how I feel about like, they're not just structures for chewing food. They're more, they're an extension of these nerves that come out. What's here? Like what's here? It's next to our brain. It's next to our spinal cord, our nervous system, close to our heart. And then the blood supply connects you to the rest of your body. It's, they're so connected. when you do it, I saw at the beginning, when I first started doing this and started kind of slowly talking about it on Instagram, I was very, very vigilant at the beginning. And even now, like I'm. It's just, didn't want pushback from other dentists, especially like older dentists that are going to come and be like, you don't know what the hell you're talking about. And so I didn't talk as much. had, they come, no, they come, they come at you. But now like I've replaced that anger and annoyance with just grace and they are, it is going to catch on. Cause you know what's starting to happen? Like I had a dentist bring me his mom and he was, and he was a root canal specialist. He was an endodontist. And I was like, Hmm, I'm happily going to take care of your mom. Just like I take care of everybody else, but I could tell he was, you know, at the beginning, like a few years ago. So, vitamin D is so important and it's, it's low hanging fruit. Like when people got rickets back in the day, and scurvy it was like vitamin D and vitamin C. What do we have in our mouth? We have mucosa. We really need good, we need vitamin C. We need collagen. We need vitamin D. the magnesium, the boron, the K2. They're finding that people who are suffering from cardiovascular issues and like getting heart disease, they're very low on K2 and the amount of calcium that builds up in your, in the vessels increases because you need the K2 to take the calcium out of the vessels. Exactly. And into your bones and into your teeth. Deep. So your teeth, your teeth, the status of your teeth is very reflective of how your bones are. We don't see our bones, but we can see our teeth. So your teeth tell so much, so much. So that's why vitamin D3 is very important. And before surgeries, we test our patients to make sure their vitamin D3s are, D3s are levels, the levels are good enough because if you're extracting like an infected root canal, we need good D3 for your immune system. for your healing and if you're replacing a zirconia white implant, we need to make sure that you have enough D3 for that implant to properly integrate and for the osteoblast and osteoclast to work properly. And you need all those micronutrients to be working synergistically to make that happen. Yeah. I want to ask you about something that we haven't talked about on my podcast yet. You know, there's a saying called long in the tooth. And essentially what we're what we mean, I mean, we're referring to people who are old. It's like a nice way. But it means that like the root of their tooth is is basically like being exposed. It's gum disease and gum recession. Right? I see so many people who have, yes, and bone loss, have scary, scary, scary gum recession and bone loss. What is going on there? Okay, that is so multifactorial. And one of the reasons why hormones is important is because that, so let's talk, let's, a menopausal woman, post-menopausal woman. I see that a lot in post-menopausal women. Those are your ladies. Okay, so that estrogen drop. So you need estrogen for your mucosal health. So I did this live with, I don't know if you know Angie Green. Right. Yeah. your mucosa like everywhere here is your mucosa and have your gums around. So when you get that drop in estrogen, it impacts the way your osteoblasts and osteoclasts the balance between. just to the osteoclasts are the cells. Exactly, exactly, exactly. of So we're in constant remineralization and demineralization in our teeth and our bone, right? And so when why people, DEXA scans are useless because they don't speak to where you are in the process. So sometimes people come to me and they're like, yes, my DEXA scan improved. And I'm like, maybe. And maybe you're just in a building phase, whereas the last time you got measured, you were in a resorption and repair phase. So yeah. Yeah, what is a scan that's accurate in your world? I actually don't use bone density scans. I don't think there's, yeah, it's another topic, but I don't, I never have people expose themselves to unnecessary radiation, certainly not for the purposes of screening ever. If we have someone who has like pathologic fractures and we can't make sense of it otherwise, then yes, we're doing investigation. But I am not randomly having everyone do DEXA scans, but also it is my practice to be very, very highly selective about who goes on aromatase inhibitors. I'm more on the everyone should get hormone replacement rather than people should be on these hormone blocking and deprivation treatments because I see long-term, I don't see short-term. And I also understand about hormones in a way that nearly all medical oncologists do not. Yeah, and that is so important. Like, that's what sets you apart. And that's what's setting our office apart because back to your question, so you have that dip in estrogen, like your estrogen progesterone, you're out. How is that impacting your mouth? It impacts your bone, it impacts your salivary glands, and it impacts your gums and mucosa in different ways. And then it becomes a perfect storm. And then you start not only getting bone loss, so the jawbone like we just said, it's in constant remineralization, demineralization, the drop in estrogen increases the demineralization around it. That drop in estrogen, exactly, exactly. And that drop in estrogen is increasing the acidity in your mouth. So it's offsetting the microbiome. You have more strep mutants. P. gingivalis, those are all disease causing, cavity causing, gum infection causing bacteria. So you're more acidic, you're producing less saliva, your bone turnover rate isn't quick enough. Even your enamel, the older people have more yellower teeth, their enamel thins out, our dentin is more yellow than our enamel. So, then couple that in with a little bit of sleep apnea, mouth breathing, a little bit of mentally not feeling well about all the changes that are happening in your mouth and most likely as well in your vagina. Because when you have dry, if you have dryness up here, you have dryness down there. like, it's so connected. Also, vaginal and oral tissue is very similar. There's progesterone and estrogen receptors the same way. They histologically stem from very similar germ layers during post-conception and during the... So how can it not be connected? How can we not be talking about this? Like, is this not a course in dental school? How is this not a course in medical school, in nutrition school? And goes back to you saying... I should, I am working on a course. did a course for kids to reverse dental cavities for moms. That was my first course. Yes. Yeah. Very, very, very necessary. Yeah, I was the mom that got the stink eye from the dentist when the dentist was like, can we do fluoride treatments? I'm like, No, you cannot. fluoride treatments, don't even like look at the toxicity levels and the IQ issues, which that in itself is enough reason. It's a bandaid. Like you need to educate these mothers of what really causes cavities and how to strengthen your teeth from within. And that goes back to your vitamin D question. That goes back to the micronutrients and what are we eating on a day-to-day levels? Yes, brushing and flossing is important, but it's only one of the five pillars of dental health. Only one. There's four other pillars that are very important. That's what I teach in the course. and it's, yeah, it's so important. Yeah. OK, so let's talk about dentistry through the ages and stages of life. So the first question, I did have a couple of listener questions. And they want to know about dental x-rays. Are they necessary? Are they safe? And how often should they be happening in children and in adults? Okay. I'm team for the x-rays. It depends. It depends what I see clinically, kind of like what you just said. If there's a reason for you to take an x-ray, let's take it. If there's no reason. So with children, I can prolong the need for them getting an x-ray for a pretty long time. Very long time. Like, unfortunately, many offices say, okay, we got to take an x-ray because that's what insurance covers and they'll get paid for that appointment. So x-rays and sealants and fluoride, boom, boom, boom. That's a good $200 for appointment. see like 40 kids a day. It's, it's a, it's a, what is it called? It's a strip mall dentistry. So that's like, but there is a time and place for x-ray. So someone who has a history of dental decay, if I want to see bone loss, I need x-rays to see the levels of the bones between the teeth. If you've had dental work to see the integrity of the dental work. When I'm cementing my dental work, take x-rays to make sure my work is integrous. Integrous, is that even a word? It's, it's properly sealed because if you have something in your mouth that's not properly sealed, that's, that's a pit hole for all the bacteria to go. And then it leaks into your, into your tooth. and, and so I don't have like a formula, a recipe of how often I need to take x-rays. Most of the adults that I'm seeing. No, no. Like it should be based on need. Yes, yes. So. like if you're an adult who's had like Invisalign three or four times, I need a full set of x-rays. I want to see the roots of all your teeth because people who have had braces or Invisalign multiple times, their roots sometimes are blunted. They like, they literally get shorter over time. If you want a full mouth rehab, I need a full mouth set of x-rays. So on adults, it's important for a baseline, but As they've been in my office, I go up to like two, two and a half, sometimes three years, not taking any x-rays on like, if you come in, I have a baseline full, a full mouth set of x-rays, which is the equivalent of the amount of radiation from a flight between a flight from California to New York. And there's ways to detox and I give them my detox protocol and the foods to eat and they do it and they're fine. But then they come in every two to three months for their hygiene visits and they don't need x-rays. Because we're able to maintain, we're able to develop that rapport where every time they come, we're able to show them where they can do a better job brushing, where they're doing a great job. We discuss supplementation, medical history, and unless we feel the need, we don't take another set of x-rays. okay, that's good. And then there are issues that affect each stage of a woman's life. So puberty, pregnancy, postpartum, if you're going for IVF, perimenopause, menopause, can you talk to some of that and what you should be thinking about at each phase and each stage? Yes, yes. So I call each one of those phases transitions. We have transitions. And the first big one is puberty, right? You know, and, and I think the, I think health isn't a primary focus during puberty. It's like more like the social life and, and how we're feeling emotionally, which is very important to health. But there needs to be like, where you are on the growth chart and how cool you are and what's, and those are all great. But our girls need to, deserve better. They deserve better than like if they're having irregular periods to be put on birth control, cause that's going to impact their gums and their mouth. So that's the first estrogen progesterone I call, it's the huge rise. a lot of times they are in braces or Invisalign. they're mostly concerned about cosmetics and don't get me wrong. I love cosmetics. I think health and beauty need to meet. And we shouldn't only focus on one or the other because there is a vanity component. And when I have a beautiful smile, I'm going to feel better about myself and I show up different in the world. So I'm not taking that away. I believe in cosmetic dentistry, but I call it responsible cosmetic dentistry. Okay. So. She has her braces on and if have you been to so when I first moved to America and I went to high school here in Granada Hills, I was shocked at what I saw in the vending machines. I had never liked and Cheetos at school. It's it's so so that was like I feel like that's like when the seed started to find I'm like, why are they feeding us this like, and then the smuckers the the the jelly the peanut butter jelly. and the chocolate milk and the apple juice. a bunch of food-like substances and different versions of concentrated sugar. It's awful, awful, awful. And you know, what's really interesting is this is something that it's like a rite of passage for teenagers to get the wisdom teeth out. And yet we're taking wisdom teeth out of teenagers, for the most part, or young 20s. during a time when they are taking terrible care of themselves, their diets are terrible, they're not sleeping enough, some of them are just finished growing and so depleted. And then we take their wisdom teeth out and expect them to heal. Why are we even taking the wisdom teeth out? Why are our mouths getting smaller? Why is there no room for wisdom teeth? What kind of food are we eating? So, soft, soft food. Women are, and I couldn't breastfeed my first two daughters properly like I wanted to. I'm in the medical world and I didn't know how important it is. and I didn't have the right support system around me. Just to go back to your question, like why women's dental health, women need so much help and support and love and compassion. And we need to help each other. That's the bottom line. So when I made that decision, I told Rashad, I'm like, Hey, you're going to see all the husbands and the partners and you're going to see the guys. I don't care to see. Like, I want to see the women. I really do. I, I connect and guys are great. Don't get me wrong. They're fun to work on and they're fun to visit. They're the biggest wusses sometimes in the world. my God, my husband has to get general anesthesia to have his teeth cleaned. That's unbelievable. And I just want to give a shout out to my dear friend, Sonia Gilch, because we were pregnant together and she was head of breast imaging and I was head of breast surgery and I was on my first, she was on her fifth, but we pumped together every single day. so that we were each other's support. I mean, she would have done it without me because she breastfed all five of her children for two to three years. Yeah, she is superwoman, truly superwoman. And she's like 4'11 and superwoman. I mean, she is unbelievable, unbelievable. But she was the reason that I breastfed for as long as I did because they, I, I, I did it as much to keep up with her as I did to nourish my child because I was like, if this woman who works full time and runs the department and has five children and I just have one, if she can do this, I can do this. do it too. Yeah, no, that's how we support each other and inspire each other. And she influenced you in the best of ways. And that's what I want to do. I want you to influence me in the best of ways and vice versa. back to puberty and back to, so I feed my baby like hard foods. Of course I'm watching him. I'm making sure he's safe. Please don't be negligent. Don't be irresponsible. But I don't puree anything. I don't pray or anything. I practice baby led weeding and I nurse him. Those are the, and that's the first. So nursing is the first orthodontic treatment of a child. And if he or she are properly growing properly in the sense that they're nasal breathing, their mouth is securely shut. their bones and their teeth are getting properly stimulated with harder foods because when you're using you develop all of the muscles of your mouth and bone follows muscle, right? So as you do that, as you develop that skill, so too will your bone grow in. Exactly, exactly. And as your bone grows in properly, there should be enough room for our wisdom teeth. So yeah, the wisdom teeth thing is it's like just, it's a cash cow for some offices. If you know how much money some of these offices are making, it's like, it's a lot of money. It's like great money, but it's like, you can make money, I don't know, doing the right thing. And I just think that extracting wisdom teeth and they're just extracting suturing and goodbye. Like, so there's something called cavitations that form in areas where there's wisdom teeth when the bone is necrotic in the area where the wisdom tooth is has been removed. And back to what you were beautifully saying, like, what are they eating at this time? What is their nutrition level? Are they taking good care are they cleaning their mouths properly? So puberty is a beautiful opportunity that we're missing. It's a beautiful opportunity that we're missing because we're focusing on the wrong things. And I think the orthodontists need to get on board because they'll, they're more likely to see an orthodontist than they are to see me right now. Unless they have tonsil stones or bad breath and they start freaking out about that. You don't want to be going through puberty and have bad breath. but it's so connected. I mean, I'm orthodontist, think nutritionists at school should be talking about this. think, I don't think only a cavity check should be done. So before they go to school, they need to go to dentist so that they can properly like check them off. A lot of dentists just like sign it, like it should be taken seriously. For a woman who is entering puberty, I think there needs to be like an hour, dedicate an hour in her life during that time to educate her about this and why it's important and show her the end result if she doesn't take care of it. That's how you can scare them in a good way. So we are in a time like no other and be it women are starting later, even men are starting later, there is a fertility problem in this country. It was certainly made worse by the thing that happened and was given to a lot of people in 2021. But. It's not that simple. It's not only that. We are surrounded by things that disrupt our endocrine systems, that disrupt our hormonal systems. So microplastics and all the things that we call xenoestrogens or refer to as xenoestrogens, non-stick, fragrance, antibiotics, all of these things have a terrible, terrible impact. on fertility. And there is also the issue of how your oral health plays into that time of your life. So if you're in that phase and lots of people have gone to the IVF, an egg freezing place because they're not ready for children in their 20s or you know, relationship hasn't happened yet or for whatever the reason, for whatever the reason, they are choosing to go that route. So what do they need to know about their oral health during this stage of their lives? Oral health is not only really important for yourself, but also for your future child. So what you do is very important for him or her. So that's why I always start by that because we're driven by our children and we care for your child more than you care for yourself most of the time. And that's just human nature as a mom. But let's talk about the men. I know I've been focusing on the women, but let's talk about the men. periodontal disease in men has been shown to increase apoptosis of sperm, so lower sperm count, and also decrease sperm motility. So someone who's struggling to get pregnant, I feel like the lowest hanging fruit is to get all sources of infection in your body under control. You don't want chronic infection in your body. And your mouth is one of the hidden the number one hidden sources of infection. So getting that deep cleaning if he needs, getting the oral microbiome tested to see if there's any high levels of pathogenic bacteria. Research is showing it takes almost six months longer to conceive when there's periodontal disease in either the man or the woman. That's. That's low hanging fruit. Like go visit your dentist, get your deep cleaning, take care of your mouth and see what happens. I'm not saying that's a direct causality and nothing is like cancer doesn't form overnight. It's a bunch of insults to the body. Same thing with fertility. know, if you're injecting yourself with tons of hormones, I have someone, she openly shared her story so I can, I can, I can share her, her name, Jesse Golden. She's 45, she got pregnant, she has rheumatoid arthritis. It was undiagnosed for many, many, many years. Her body was rejecting the fetus. Long story short, I just watched her full YouTube video. I think she's gone through three rounds of IVF and two miscarriages. And her mouth is the xerostomia, which is dry mouth, the discomfort in your mouth after injecting all those hormones. So I tell people after each round of IVF, visit your dentist, get a good cleaning. We use ozone and ozone is wonderful. We're able to avoid so much antibiotics. Antibiotics is wonderful when it's needed. It's just overprescribed. Like I had strep throat, I needed antibiotics. It was too advanced. I was trying to all the natural stuff. It saved me, but not every person. who has pathogenic bacteria in their mouth needs antibiotic or who gets surgery needs antibiotics. So it's definitely over prescribed. And the more we prescribe them as dentists, it's gonna offset your oral microbiome as well. So with regards to the fertility world, I would say. affect all of your microbiome, not just your oral microbiome. Yeah. 65 % of your gut health comes from your mouth. If you bleed when you floss, you have leaky gums. If you have leaky gums, you have leaky gut. It's so connected. So this is such an important part of your body. To me, your eyes and your mouth set the tone. Set the tone. One is your portal to your soul and one's a portal to your body. I don't know. And they're both very important. so if you're undergoing fertility treatment, had a woman go through 20 rounds of IVF. She, she was a wreck. She finally got pregnant. She got her baby girl. She's as happy as can be. But also when you're feeling emotionally off and feeling very, that's financially stressful. It's stressful to the relationship. What are you going to, are you going to take great care of yourself unless you're super duper proactive? What kind of foods are you going to eat? Comfort foods. So it all, it all adds on to one another and you're going to be so tired. You're probably going to sleep without brushing and flossing many nights with injecting all those hormones. So if you have, I, I slept many nights without brushing and flossing during my, had a very hard pregnancy. Thank God I was eating like the Weston Price diet. I was taking care, I was trying to supplement as much as possible. So we're not seeking perfection here. We're seeking awareness to understand that your oral cavity and your hormonal fluctuations throughout your lifetime is going to impact your oral cavity. So let's just take more care of it as it ebbs and flows. Yeah. Now we did talk about the changes that come with perimenopause and menopause and that being related to estrogen deficiency. It has a significant and profound effect on the health of your mouth, on the mucosa, on the teeth. And what I advocate for and because, and this is why I advocate for it, it's because if you lose that estrogen, even though I understand menopause is a natural state, sometimes people are put into it very unnaturally, like if you're being treated for breast cancer. But you know, I understand that people say that menopause is a natural state, but also, you know, that was from a time when we didn't have the solutions that we have today and most women died in their 50s. or before. So they never had to live 50 years in this postmenopausal state. And the truth is that when the estrogen goes away, everything starts to die and you lose a lot of form and function and it's not necessary. And I include the breast cancer population in that category. It's not necessary to lose your form and function and estrogen is never the It's never the cause and we have to consider that women who have had breast cancer deserve that same attention and option and consideration that women who don't have breast cancer have. So I'm very, very, very much in favor of bioidentical hormone replacement even in the hormone positive breast cancer population. And we're finding there isn't a lot of research done on this yet, unfortunately. I hope that more is, but for my post-menopausal ladies that are undergoing bioidentical hormonal replacement therapy, their symptoms are improving. The dry mouth improves. The burning mouth syndrome with proper supplementation improves. Yeah, yeah, this does not surprise me because your soft tissues improve, right? You go from having dry everything to getting the moisture back and getting the thickness back and getting the texture back and you know, it all tracks because that's what estrogen does. So, and I'm not advocating for estrogen alone. I tell people that You know, we replace estrogen and progesterone and testosterone and DHEA and, you know, we replace what you need. But the goal is not to restore, you know, the levels that you have in fertility. It's not to restore menstruation. It's not to restore ovulation. It's not for any of those purposes. It is, yes, it is the minimum amount you need. to keep your brain working and keep your heart working and keep your bones working and your joints working and your vagina working and your relationship working and your mood working and you know that's what it's there for. That's what it's there for. It is there in the esteemed words of Dr. David Rosensweet. It's to keep women out of nursing homes, wheelchairs and adult diapers. And the dentist's office. Right? Well, electively. electively, exactly. No, because I've had exactly or preventively like just come in for your cleanings. Let's get a high five and have a nice discussion and send you on your way instead of dealing with like 10 cavities at the gum line because of the, the Zerostomia. Yeah. Do you work with women if, so I have a few patients that are actually like, they are looking for practitioners that really understand hormones and I have full confidence in you. I'm going to ask you off, off who do you recommend? But if, if, because we, yeah. Okay. see the world the same way that I do. Some of them are out like I am. Some of them are doing it on the DL. And either way, I'm happy to be a resource for you because while I use my very loud voice to impact change, there are people who are doing it but don't want to be out there. about doing it. So, you know, I hope that I can take the shame away from it and that we can make it perfectly clear that it is perfectly safe. And the truth is that women who have had breast cancer, they get recurrences whether they take hormone replacement or not. But when we compare the population of women who have had breast cancer, and are taking hormone replacement to the population of women who are not. The women who take hormone replacement do not have more recurrences. They have better quality of life and they have the same or better survival because if you're happier and healthier, the likelihood is you're not gonna have a recurrence. That doesn't mean it's not going to happen. Of course it's going to happen. But all we have to do is look at the world since 2003 to know that taking away hormone replacement didn't stop breast cancer. In fact, the breast cancer incidence went up. And it didn't stop recurrences because no one was doing hormone replacement after breast cancer. And we still have the same exact number of deaths every single year from breast cancer, the same exact number. It's not the hormones. It's not the hormones, honey. It's not. And we need to take a long hard look at why all of that information and why all of that narrative was out there. And it's pretty easy to see. Why would you advocate for a one or two drug system when in fact you can instead put them on six, seven, eight or nine drugs? So why put them on hormone replacement when you can put them on anti-anxiety pills and anti-depressants and sleep medicines and beta blockers for heart rate and anxiety. And you can put them on medicine for their joints and NSAIDs and pain relievers. And you can put them on medicines for their bones. And you can put them on a medicine to stop their bladder from leaking sometimes. on and on and on it goes, right? And so this polypharmacy that is supposedly the solution as opposed to just having women on hormone replacement, I mean, it's really despicable. It's really dubious and despicable. So the time for change is here, it's now, and I have a posse of people who are going to make sure that this isn't gonna happen anymore. I love that. Thank you. Thank you on behalf of all women. We want to function. We want to be happy. so I want to talk specifically about drugs now that we got onto that topic. So how does birth control, how do birth control pills, which women are put on as like a trigger reflex, have cycle irregularities, put them on birth control pills. have acne put them on birth control pills, have headaches put them on birth control pills. I mean, this is happening all day, every day in the gynecologist's office. And no one's asking what are the long-term consequences of which there are many, right? But specifically, can you address what's happening in the mouth? So these are synthetic hormones and... But to be clear, everything is synthetic, but these are non-bioidentical in that these are hormones that are non-physiologic. don't know of many of these forms of hormones. They're very good for pregnant horses, but they were not meant to be in humans. humans, we are finding so much gum inflammation, so much gum inflammation. we, so by the time somebody comes to my office, they've done a lot of research, they've vetted me out and they've gone to a lot of other doctors. We're usually the third or fourth or fifth opinion. And it's usually after like, for example, crap, I need to get off birth control. This is making me feel ill. It's making me feel sick. It's not making me feel, it's making me feel crazy. I'm unable to take proper care of myself. So we're seeing a lot of gum issues and depending on how long the woman was on the birth control is how I like evaluate like the severity of the gum issues. The longer I'm seeing more bone loss. in women who've been on birth control longer. If you're on birth control for a couple of years and you come to me like 20 years later, I don't think it's had massive irreversible effects. If you, you know, you've detoxed and you've cleansed and you've visited your dentist, hopefully. But what I want to say is for anybody on birth control is to really pay attention to the quality of your gums. and the quality of your saliva as it changes as you're on that birth control. I was sharing, I did a live with Angie Green called Open Mouth Open Vagina. There's a lot of similarities between vaginal tissues and our mouth physiologically, histologically, and anything we do to restore one area is going to impact the other because they're also connected with fascia. That's another, topic, but they're very connected. I love that. Okay. Okay. I love it. So it's so important to, it impacts your mucosa and it just causes inflammation. And when you're inflamed, it's just, not going to make you feel well at all. Yeah. What about other drugs like acid blockers? acid blockers. And if you don't know and if it's not a thing, I'm just asking and I was just thinking about, because we, yeah, like proton pump inhibitors or, yeah. No, they also like and I think is that the one of statins proton pump like these drugs? Well, statins are another class of drugs that they, they're HMG CoQA inhibitors and they prevent the production of cholesterol, which has very, very, very detrimental effects on the rest of the body because what we've been taught to villainize cholesterol because, well, primarily for the sale of cholesterol blocking medications. But cholesterol is not the issue. It is a very, very, very important molecule. It is the base of all of our hormones, our neurotransmitters. It makes up our cell walls. It's very, very important. And depleting cholesterol never helped anyone. And in fact, it has lots and lots and lots of side effects and consequences, like depression, For men, it's loss of libido, there are mood changes, there's impotence, you know, not for nothing. And so I, unless you have familial hypercholesterolemia and your cholesterol is in the 300s and 400s, and then, you know, that's a different story. You need to slow down that train. But for the most part, if your cholesterol is going up, specifically your LDL, is your body, because cholesterol is a very anti-inflammatory molecule, that's your body trying to put out a fire. That probably goes along with birth control pills because they're so inflammatory that they probably do make people's LDL rise. Yeah, I'm not familiar with that. and the acid. What was the one you asked me? The acid blockers. I'm not I'm not familiar with that. But with the anti cholesterol medication, it impacts your like, we see it's anytime the mouth is very inflamed and red, and your gums are bulbous and you bleed when you floss. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And I would take a look at every single one of the pharmaceutical medications being prescribed to my patients, and I break it down with them. And a lot of these pharmaceutical medicines cause a lot of dry mouth, a lot of dry mouth. And then... slew of other things happens when the dry mouth and all the burning mouth syndrome, changes on your tongue, decay, the tonsil stones. So it's your immune system acting up to be like, hey, you're ingesting something that about antidepressants? those are, so antidepressants and anti-anxiety medications. I had this one 11-year-old boy come in, I think right before I got pregnant. And I could tell there was something off in the home and they had him on anti-anxiety medications, anti-depression, and ADHD medication. Okay, so I did my full exam. I tested his nitric oxide, his pH. awful off the charts. I looked at his mouth. He had severe crowding, open mouth posture, nutrition, awful. He wasn't eating well. This boy was not sleeping. He was not sleeping. He was not getting proper oxygenation to his brain. So he was a chronic mouth breather. He had severe inflamed gums in the front and really bad decay in the back. horrible microbiome and they have them on anti-anxiety medications and antidepressants. they, what is a big side effects of these two medications and the ADHD medications is dry mouth, is xerastomia. So we're adding insult to injury. This boy is not breathing properly. And at night, by the way, when you're sleeping, you don't produce more saliva. So that's why I'm a huge proponent and believer in mouth taping. because to lock in the saliva that we go to sleep with so that we can stay moist and protected. So antidepressants cause a lot of dry mouth, a lot of dry mouth. And a lot of people on antidepressants, they come into my office on antidepressants and we don't only talk about the mouth, we talk about everything else like sauna use, exercise, reiki. energetic, healing your emotions. We have a biocharger that we sit around and have like a heart to heart conversation. It's easy to drill on people's teeth. It's very easy. It's not easy to heal people. It takes energy and effort. So after we speak about all these things, their main thing is they want to get off their antidepressants or at least decrease the dosages. Decreasing the dosage will help. I'm not telling people to please, you know, obviously consult with your doctor. Yes, yes, is not a personal medical or dental consultation and any changes that you make, you should make in cooperation and conjunction with your provider. We are not your provider. Yes, exactly. So, but as you start learning more, and as you start talking to your provider, over the years, you start making changes. And over time, my patients are getting off their antidepressants and anti-anxiety, and I see a different mouth. The reason I love mouths is because it tells me a story. Every mouth tells me a story. Literally. literally. Okay, so I wanna end with something that you brought up a little bit and this is still like such a big cultural thing. What is bad breath? And why should we not be using Listerine or Scope? Why is that not the answer? Listerine and scope. So never use anything with alcohol in your mouth because at end of the day, what makes a healthy gut? What makes a healthy vagina? What makes a healthy mouth? It's the microbiome. If we mess with the microbiome, it's going to mess. with the health of it and it's all interconnected. So at Listerine Scope and ACT and all those mouth washes that we see in our drug stores, they all mess with your microbiome. It's a band-aid. Like my husband was addicted to Listerine, specifically Listerine with alcohol. I spoke to him, he's like, it makes me feel like my mouth is clean. The power of marketing, they're putting billions of dollars in the marketing to make Lydia feel like when she swishes with that Listerine, it's going to clean her mouth. Go in between, I remember the commercials, they go in between the teeth and they remove all the plaque. That's BS. That's BS. Not only is it horrible for your microbiome, but it's horrible for nitric oxide production. because it just, it offsets your system. So stay away from all those mouth washes. If you really need something to feel better about yourself, there's some cleaner mouth washes. I say make your own at home. Salt water is wonderful. If you are a pregnant woman or going through a bout of stress or IVF or major hormonal changes, that is going to offset the pH of your mouth. I would do baking soda mouth washes and those work really nice. But I always say this to patients, please work with your dentist because even those mouth washes, even the natural stuff, if all overused can offset your microbiome. I think the focus should be your diet, your breathing and your habits. What I mean by that, eat whole foods, know where your food is coming from. No processed foods, no processed carbohydrates. Don't feed your children goldfish and pretzels and crackers. Those are just as bad as Sour Patch Kids, especially the gold. All the sticky crackers are horrible. Pay such close attention to your breathing. If you're mouth breathing, you're missing an opportunity to heal your mouth, but also heal your brain and your mind. because you're not getting properly oxygenated, you're not making nitric oxide, which is responsible for vasodilation and in men also has been linked to erectile dysfunction. But I always say, and heart disease, yes, high blood pressure, blood pressure issues. I always say your oral health is... Your nasal health is as important as your oral health. So next to my nightstand, I have my nasal spray. It's saline. I spend a couple of minutes really cleaning my nose before I put my mouth tape on on the nights that I put mouth tape on. If you cannot breathe through your nose and you breathe through your mouth, you're losing an opportunity to filter your air. You're drying out your mouth and you're messing up your microbiome. So breathing is so important. It is, it is. There's a great book by James Nestor called Breathe or Breath or Thigh. I never know how I'm supposed to pronounce it, but it's yellow and it's an amazing, amazing, amazing book that everyone should read. This was an awesome conversation. I so loved having you. one last thing, flossing or water pick or both? If you can floss, floss. Water pick is for those, like if you have a dexterity issues, if you have a wild teenager that won't floss, that doesn't know the value of it. Water picks are great, but if you can floss and get in between your teeth and not only up and down, hug each tooth and clean each side of the tooth, that's proper flossing. Water picking, I feel like if you're in a hurry, if you can't, if you can't get in there, but flossing is the gold standard. Yeah. I'm mostly on Instagram these days. I, so at Dr. Lydia and our website, for booking appointments, but that's like my main channel and I have a new. We are. to book an appointment? We are in Beverly Hills. I work with my older brother. I turned him on to biological dentistry. So he practices full on biological dentistry like I, he does all the surgeries now and we work beautifully together. It's a boutique dental clinic and it's a dream of a practice coming true. That is amazing. So I thank you so much for sharing this with us, with my community. The work that you're doing is so important and we need people who are thinking about dentistry for women because we are not another version of a man and this is demonstrated time and time and time again. And the medical industry has really... ignored women and differences in women and the needs of women. And it's so important, the work that you do in bringing this to the forefront. So I thank you so much for that and for your time today and for your great conversation. I really, loved having you. Thank you, you're wonderful to speak with. You're really easy to talk to. Thank you for having me. If you enjoyed this episode, please share it with someone who needs to hear it. If you are on a breast cancer journey, please get a copy of my book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, because this will allow you to make informed decisions and to really go to that place where you can truly heal. Remember the importance of biologic dentistry. So many people ignore that when they're on their breast cancer journey and your oral health is a reflection of your overall health. So make sure you're taking care of that and know that I will be back next week, same time, same place. It's Dr. Jenn. Bye for now. Bye.