Listen…do you hear that? That’s the sound of every cell in your mouth talking to every other cell in your body. Your mouth is a gateway to the rest of your body. And, it’s a reflection–a mirror, if you will…of what’s going on in other parts of your body. Maybe it’s just something you’re in touch with–knowing your body. But do you, really? And if so, based on what? Where did you learn whatever that is?
You’ve probably heard the adage “you don’t know what you don’t know.”
Did you know that here in the United States, every minute, someone dies of a heart attack [1], and every hour someone dies of oral cancer [2]? Did you know that oral cancer incidence and survival haven’t changed significantly in over 30 years? [3] …that over 22 million Americans have sleep apnea, and most of those worst-affected don’t even know it? [4] Did you know people with autism-spectrum disorders (ASD) are significantly more likely to have crowded teeth than those without ASD? [5]
Did you know that the United States is the chronic-disease capital of the world? Read on, and watch the film Say Ahh! The Cavity in Healthcare Reform on our site for some shocking statistics.
We’re hearing more and more news about the mouth-body connection, and more exciting books by cutting-edge authors have come out in the past few months…more are coming soon–and we’ve been talking to them–AND listening to their answers. Much of what these expert authors are saying is that oral health’s not all about brushing and flossing anymore.
Simple, basic things like diet, lifestyle, the way we breathe, and importantly–the way we sleep (or…DON’T)…impact our mouths, which in turn affect our bodies—with equal or greater importance. The most central feature in all of this is your airway…those critical few inches between the back of your throat and the top of your chest–if it’s too narrow, as it is for so many of us, you can’t breathe–especially when you sleep. And that has profound effects on every other part of your body–especially your brain.
High-risk periodontal pathogens cause cardiovascular disease…and by extension, heart attacks [6]. There’s a connection emerging between periodontal disease and Alzheimer’s[7]…and even colorectal cancer[8], preterm birth[9] and stillbirths[10]. That’s naming only a few from a 50K view.
So, the thing I keep having trouble with…both as a dentist AND as a health consumer…is this: with all this accumulating evidence–and acknowledgment, by physicians and dentists–that the mouth affects the entire body…
…oral health is still not considered mainstream healthcare. Medicine continues to resist. Disturbing an admission as it is for me, dentistry continues to resist. Insurance companies continue to resist. The good news: we are making some headway here (more about that in another article).
The point? Medicine and dentistry are staying separate–despite all the mouth-body interactive scientific evidence we’re accumulating. The ‘silo mentality’ persists.
Some of the major mouth-body risks outlined above pose a dangerous education gap for consumers and health-care professionals alike. This is especially dangerous when healthcare professionals don’t talk to one another–ideally, they should be working as a team, with you–the patient–at the center–calling the shots. Do you like the sound of that? Or does it scare you a little?
Perhaps you’re used to your doctor or dentist ‘calling the shots’…and that’s one of the reasons why the United States is a world leader in chronic disease. Because patients–consumers–are not taking charge of their own health–and that of their families–and being effective advocates for better health, by broadening their reach and getting better, more actionable information. This has GOT to change!
So you may ask, ‘why’s what goes on in my mouth so important to the rest of my body–and why do I need a healthcare team?’
Because you need to be working with health-care practitioners who “get it”. And the critical piece consumers are missing–mostly because of cultural programming–is that each of your health-care practitioners has an area of expertise to contribute to YOUR health–and none of them is an expert in everything. Hence, this collaborative, interdisciplinary team approach is a critical piece of the healthcare puzzle for you–the consumer–to understand.
Not only do you need that team of experts…but you have to know how to vet them–to ‘pre-qualify’ them. The level of all-encompassing trust in one’s doctor, dentist or other health professional is emerging as a false comfort zone, and consumers must realize that they need to know what questions to ask, and be familiar with what cutting-edge knowledge base will optimally benefit their health–and their families’ health.
And this is going to take some work, folks. It is going to take research, questions, and conducting interviews to get the right people on board for YOUR health. And their willingness to collaborate with one another, and be on the same page with what’s best for your health…will likely be a challenge.
Because different doctors will tell you different things. Some will tell you not to worry about what’s going on with your snoring child, while others will describe a clear course to evaluate him or her further–possibly with a sleep study. Which one do you believe?
This is the reason you need to be able to judge for yourself–with your own level of knowledge…a level most consumers don’t currently possess. But you can change that–if you listen, do your own research, and talk to enough people…the light bulbs will go on. The bells will ring. It will happen if you persevere. Yes, getting optimal, functional healthcare is challenging. But properly implemented, the effort is well worth it.
Chances are, nobody’s telling you this, because mainstream knowledge still presupposes blind trust in one’s doctor, dentist, or other practitioner. They’re the experts, right? Yes and no. That level of trust is no longer practical. Now, YOU need to be the expert–on how YOU and your family can truly achieve greater wellness.
You need not only a team, but a well-vetted team that’s on board with knowledge that’s in many ways very basic…but the more questions you ask, the more you’ll find out that many physicians and dentists just don’t have those basic knowledge points on their radar. And if this scares you, it should. If you don’t believe it, that’s a problem you probably need to re-think.
So you NEED to ask…to interview…to be selective–and to know HOW. This is the critical piece you’re likely missing, and your health–or your life–may depend on it.
Let’s use an example that will resonate with just about everyone: pregnancy.
Pregnancy poses huge risks in the presence of poor oral health.
Women with infertility issues turn their lives upside down trying to conceive. Are the fertility docs even conversant with the well-established evidence that shows poor periodontal health poses a well-defined obstacle to conception? Or, that a woman with periodontal disease has only a 1 in 7 chance of having a healthy, full-term, normal-birth-weight baby (Please see the film Say Ahh! The Cavity in Healthcare Reform for a discussion related to this)? Specifically, periodontal infection shows significant associations with preterm birth [11] and low birth weight.[12]
Even in the face of this…and while numbers here would be difficult to find (and I’d love to be wrong about this), I would guess that in the mainstream fertility world, the subject of oral health simply never comes up.
Any more than it’s likely to come up with your primary-care doc at your physical, or even your OB-GYN.
Unless it’s in connection with looking at your throat and asking you to “Say ahh..(remember those words–there’ll be a ‘quiz’ later),” the mouth just doesn’t register.
And if you were to ask your doc why (s)he never asks about your mouth, the response would likely resemble, ‘That’s your dentist’s job.’ Whose job is it–the dentist’s–or the physician’s–to start a conversation with the other?
Sadly, it’s not likely that either one will, unless you–the patient take–the initiative to start that dialog yourself.
Mainstream medicine, for the most part, simply does not have oral health on its radar. Not surprising, since most traditionally-trained MDs don’t study the mouth beyond the first semester of medical school.
This has translated into a consciousness (or lack of it) in which medicine doesn’t consider itself responsible for what goes on in the mouth.
It’s just not on their radar, which is why YOU need to start that discussion. And some docs will be receptive to it…and others won’t. Some of their responses may shock you, so be prepared–you’ll be listening to some open minds–and some closed minds.
Making that distinction could be the first step in your research into building a better wellness team. And it may well involve finding a new doctor, dentist, or other medical specialist. And you need to be prepared to take that step. And other steps. It’s a process.
A feature film you’ve probably never heard of—let alone watched—is titled Say Ahh! The Cavity in Healthcare Reform.
This film is the best overview I’ve seen of the cultural gaps between medicine and dentistry, and how the lack of collaboration between them is costing patients their lives.
Simply put, medicine and dentistry are separate siloes that simply don’t communicate effectively. Impactfully showcasing this accountability gap in the context of the unprecedented…rising…and all-too-PREVENTABLE levels of chronic disease that are impacting the United States more than any other nation on Earth–this film is a call to action for physicians, dentists, AND YOU–THE PATIENT!
Please click here and register, watch the hard-hitting Say Ahh! The Cavity in Healthcare Reform…
…we featured this eye-opening film on our Functional Oral and Airway Health Summit, and have extended its free streaming period–we don’t know for how long, but the film’s producers are really helping us out here. If you haven’t yet seen it and want to, please click here!
…you’ll also get free access to over 4 hours of expert interviews I did with Drs.Gerry Curatola, Michael Gelb and Al Danenberg, and world-renowned Buteyko breathing trainer Patrick McKeown–this is a ton of information you won’t see anywhere else!
In this film—and in your doctors’ and dentists’ practices—and in the woeful (usually corporate-sponsored) mishmash of misinformation the health consumer is fed by marketeers on the Internet, what we’re talking about here is culture.
Unfortunately, culture breeds misinformation–lots of it. What we accept as true, all too often, simply is NOT true. And medicine and dentistry are no exceptions to this.
The culture of medicine and the culture of dentistry (distinctly separate cultures—a big piece of our problem) have been, especially in Western society, powerful drivers of social consciousness–and to at least an equal extent–the lack of it.
You talk to your doctor…your dentist…your NP…your dental hygienist…your soccer-mom/dad buddy…or, you go online…you read consumer blogs, you read all manner of websites that will tell you anything, everything AND nothing at the same time…and if you really listen, it may frustrate you. If it doesn’t…it should.
These kinds of health misinformation are all over the place…the cultures of medicine, dentistry, pharmaceuticals, marketing are controlling what information the consumer AND doctor see…and don’t…sadly, health and healing get left out of the equation all too often.
And unfortunately, as I described above, the key piece of information to understand—if you understand nothing else—is that the era of sight-unseen faith in the mainstream health professions is over. The sooner you realize that this is true, the better. And you will likely realize this truth before your doctor or dentist does. Again…culture.
The deeper you dig, the more you will comprehend that finding what will benefit you—the health consumer—is your job…to be your own best advocate—and your family’s advocate—for what’s healthy in healthcare—and what’s not. And there’s a LOT of what’s not. So it’s a job you’d better get good at. And fast. And if you don’t believe that, it’s only a matter of time until you do. If you listen.
And, even more disturbing, unless a consumer seeks out a functional medicine health provider, that consumer is likely not getting good, actionable answers from his or her physician or dentist, either.
I know this will annoy some of you, but truth has an uncanny way of showing up if you look in the right place. Or, sadly, when you least expect it, and when the consequences could be most costly in terms of your health.
And unfortunately, the established milieus of medical and dental cultures have come to obscure truth, sometimes, without intending to, or even realizing that’s what they’re doing.
So, bottom line: who’s talking…and who’s listening? Our surveys of over 1,000 health consumers told us they are looking for good, actionable information.
Where can they find it? Much more importantly: will they know it when they findit? Will they listen? Or will the medical and dental—and consumer-marketing cultural barriers continue to get in the way?
Culture incurs bias—sometimes, a harmful bias. The result: our health-care system is broken—perhaps beyond repair.
Profit is a huge piece of the healthcare culture. Not unrelated to that…politicized medicine is an even bigger piece. Can we allow this culture–much of which simply isn’t motivated by health–to continue to impart degrees of not listening to the health consumer and professional alike?
Diseases have become industries. Cures continue to enjoy the status of a socially conscious yet lofty goal (each complete with its own special week—and color)… a goal that by commission or omission never seems to materialize.
And patients continue to hear the forcefully-expressed words, “There is NO cure” from their doctors. However well-intentioned and motivated to help, not harm, their patients, most doctors simply don’t have the root cause of disease on their collective radar.
What if the cure was IN the cause—just waiting to be found?
Doctors and dentists are practicing with the best of intentions—most of them are, anyway. But…not unlike the health consumer, even these practitioners don’t know what they don’t know.
Worse, they often resist the opinions of those who wish to share a new perspective—even their colleagues! Just as disturbingly, conventional physicians will recognize and acknowledge that a ‘functional’ medicine paradigm has merit, but thanks to the medical culture, their practice clings to the old—often misinformed—way of doing things…and nothing changes—for practitioner or patient.
So they continue doing what they were trained to do: accept that we don’t know (and that it’s impractical to seek out, in a 7-minute patient encounter) what causes most diseases.
Yet they embrace a mission to treat that disease. Usually with drugs…which often make the diseases worse. If the drugs were working, then why are the incidences of the worst chronic diseases continuing to skyrocket, among younger and younger age groups? It seems the more chronic disease we have, the more drugs are developed to treat their symptoms. But never their true, root causes.
Healing the body, working with nature, and restoring health are millennia-old medical concepts.
Much as it disturbs me to write this…these time-honored concepts have been virtually lost by mainstream allopathic medicine…AND dentistry.
This zealous treatment of symptoms—often in a patient who doesn’t understand that’s the only thing happening (because they’ve been trained not to understand) has become the “bias du jour.”
The functional medicine movement—which includes YOU–the health consumer–as a participatory, collaborative colleague—is probably the best shot we have at recapturing an awareness of health as a universal attribute. And it’s likely something that has to be built from scratch…from the bottom up.
Are you listening? This common denominator of ignorance for doctor and patient alike needs to be revised—and soon. And your role as an informed consumer and advocate will be a pivotal one in bringing about this much-needed change.
What if there was a “bias” that amounted to nothing more than wanting to foster better health, by putting a sharper focus on how the mouth affects the rest of the body—and vice versa?
We have just wrapped up our online educational summit to explore a vast set of unbiased, well-curated, science-based content, presented by a never-before-assembled panel of experts from medicine, dentistry and other health science fields whose ideas are making oral health part of the functional medicine movement—helping us make the world a healthier place…one mouth at a time.
Speaking of your mouth (here comes the quiz…don’t worry—it’s an easy one…I’ll even give you the answer), what words should you listen for from you doctor for your cue to explain how your mouth is “…The Cavity in Healthcare Reform”?
If you answered, “Say Ahh!”, you’re right!!! Ask your doctor (and dentist) if (s)he has seen this film.
Please visit us at https://functionaloralhealthsummit.com and register by putting in your name and email–we have successfully secured continued access to the feature film Say Ahh! The Cavity in Healthcare Reform—a stark appraisal of your mouth’s power of life and death.
For as long as we’re able to keep it available, please make the time to watch this film. It features Dr. Charles “Chip” Whitney, one of our Speakers in our expert lecture series, and a pioneer in mainstreaming the Bale-Doneen Method of heart-attack and stroke prevention, and fostering genuine collaboration between medicine and dentistry. And please enjoy the 5 free expert interviews described above–again, all you have to do is register on our Summit page.
Then…as we always recommend…do your own research. Find out what you may not know. Your knowledge and input as a health-care consumer are crucial to help build a better healthcare system—from the bottom up. If you listen. Then…ask yourdoctor…and your dentist…if they will listen. We’re asking them to ask you, too.
Do you really think your mouth doesn’t affect you?
Think again! Email us at info@healthymouthmedia.com and give us your feedback, ideas, rants…whatever’s on your mind. You can still purchase the Summit Package at the discounted price…and we’ll keep it that way for as long as we can…but sooner or later we’ll need to gear up for our next summit–
Our Functional Oral and Airway Health Summit has been a great success.
And we’re asking YOU to keep US informed too–and so far, you’ve risen to that challenge amazingly…
…I’m happy to report that the results of our post-Summit surveys generated hundreds of responses, nearly all of them RAVES in addition to suggestions on how we can make the next summit even better–we thank everyone who responded, AND we are taking your feedback into account for our next event, which we’re putting together now to go live in March or April 2018–STAY TUNED!
We care about what you’re thinking, and the information you want to see covered. That’s why we sent these surveys to everyone who watched our Summit, to glean their input and collaboration, to better provide our growing audience with what YOU want to see from us NEXT in the way of unbiased, science-based, actionable health-educational materials.
If you signed up for our Functional Oral and Airway Health Summit and haven’t seen our survey, please check your email for this survey, and tell us what you think, AND what you want us to cover next! If you haven’t registered, you still can, using the link above…
…watch the 5 free Summit talks AND the one-hour documentary film Say Ahh! The Cavity in Healthcare Reform, and let us know what you think! Again, we’ll keep this content up there for as long as we can, but again, new projects are in the pipeline for you, and we’ll have to make way for them, so please check out the site soon.
Please stay with us, and be part of the engine of change in health, healthcare, healing, accountability, empowerment, and informed advocacy…from the bottom up…starting with your mouth!