Are you wondering what to do with all of your leftover Halloween treats? Perhaps you are unsure how these scary, yet yummy sweets may affect your pretty pearls?

In this episode, we explore the scary myths and truths of dental cosplay, which treats are better or worse for teeth, and when is the best time to brush.

Show Notes:

1. Whitening Popups and state regulations on whitening services
2. Tooth Scaries
   1. The NIDCR reports that adults 20-64 have an average of 25.5 teeth!
   2. 2.2% of US adults have NO teeth
3. Best Types of Treats for Teeth = chocolate, sugar-free, and nut candies
4. E-Brush vs Manual
   1. moderate evidence shows e-brushes are more effective at removing plaque
   2. however, e-brushes are also more likely to abrade dentin

If you want to learn more about the links between oral and systemic health, follow Let's Get Oral here on LinkedIn and subscribe to our pod on your favorite streaming platform to stay informed!

Probiotics are living microorganisms that provide health benefits when consumed in adequate amounts. These beneficial bacteria are known to support digestion, enhance immune function, and promote overall well-being. In recent years, probiotics have gained significant popularity, leading to the development of a wide range of products aimed at delivering these beneficial microorganisms to consumers.

In this episode, Camille and Jonathan further explore the existing research, safety, and consumer landscape of oral probiotics. Below are some notes we refer to throughout this episode:

• Lactobacillus salivarius tablets (Nishihara et al 2014) have shown the ability to reduce the risk of tooth decay.
  
• Inactivated Lactobacillus plantarum L137 capsules showed probiotics can reduce pocket depth in patients undergoing supportive periodontal therapy (Iwasaki et al 2016).
  
• L. rhamnosus GG + Bifidobacterium lactis BB12 lozenges were evaluated for anti-gingival and biofilm effects in healthy adolescents (Alanizi et al 2018).
• L. reuteri 2x chewing gum reduced OLT scores after two weeks of use (Yoo et al 2019) and L. salivarius probiotics helped control bad breath and related factors (Suzuki et al 2014).

Want more from us? Follow us on Instagram (@letsgetoral) or our website (Let's Get Oral) to stay informed!

There has been a lot of discussion in recent years about the role of the oral microbiome in heart health. Recent studies have indicated that oral bacteria are essential for nitric oxide production. What does this mean? How is this related to heart health?

In this episode, we dive deep into the roles nitric oxide (NO) play in cardiovascular and oral health. We go over the basic of NO biology, the role of the oral microbiome in NO production, and how the disruption of this relationship can impact our health.

 
In this episode, Camille and Jonathan explore ALL things about oral inflammation!

Since the previous episode with Dr. Glogauer covered a lot on this topic, we want to share our thoughts on how we think of oral inflammation and its relationship to dysbiosis, periodontal health, and more.

Additional Tidbits:
Intermittent fasting and perio health
Footballers and oral health

Dr. Michael Glogauer, DDS, PhD
Professor at University of Toronto
Head of Dentistry and Dental Oncology at University Health Network
Periodontist at OMGPerio
CSO at Ostia Sciences

We talked with Dr. Glogauer (Michael) about saliva, his new diagnostic!!!!!!!!!!, and the issue of inflammation.

The Questions we had for him:

You’re currently working on a chair side device that measures inflammation-

1. What started you on the path to developing this device?
2. What do you think the benefit will be for the providers using this assay?
3. What is the most surprising thing you learned during the development process?
4. Most salivary diagnostics outside of infectious disease run up against the issue of person to person variability, especially around inflammatory cytokines. How is your device different or how have you been able to address this common issue? 
5. One of the most compelling pieces of your work is your observation that oral inflammation is intimately tied to the immune profile of the circulating cells. Can you tell us more about your work in this space?
6. Do you think there is a role for your chair side assay in tracking circulatory health?
7. There is currently a lot of activity in diagnostics for analysis of the oral microbiome. I have my skepticism but I do see a potential to create a more robust opportunity by mixing the two tests- inflammation and microbiome analysis. The way I see it is this: oral inflammation can drive dysbiosis and create potential for chronic pathology and therefore, if you have a positive inflammation test with a micro test that shows increase to pathogen profile, risk for progression of pathology is certain. However, I am still unsure if we really need to know exactly which bacteria are present. I think of inflammation as the primary driver. Can you tell us your thoughts on combining tests - how they might be (or not) useful for the clinician and/or patient?

Additional Questions:

1. Do you think there are potential applications for this salivary Dx beyond oral health? (e.g. fitness/recovery assay for professional athletes)
2. Could you share some insights into what inspired your journey as an entrepreneurial research physician?
3. How do you envision the realm of dentistry and oral health will look in 2050? What do you think are the biggest challenges oral health faces during this window of time?
4. How long have you played bass guitar? Are you in a band?

Camille and Jonathan nerd out over SALIVA. We have a lot of experience to pull from which can be a little gross but a lot of fun! This episode discusses the foundation of salivary biology and where we are at with salivary diagnostics.

some references of note:

• https://myfitstrip.com/
  
• ‘Persistent salivary gland hypofunction often leads to an increased activity of caries with lesions on cervical, incisal and cuspal tooth surfaces, dental erosion, mucosal changes and oral fungal infections’ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/odi.12867
  
• ‘The rate of alpha-amylase secretion was influenced by mastication in accord with digestive function, in that more secretion was induced by food than by nonfood stimuli, more by bread than by celery, and more by larger than smaller pieces of bread.’ https://doi.org/10.1016/0031-9384(90)90131-M 
  
• ‘Ghrelin (hunger hormone) in saliva is produced and released by salivary glands. The effect of ghrelin on oral cell proliferation adds to the pro-proliferative action of other salivary growth factors.’ https://doi.org/10.1373/clinchem.2004.040667 
  
• Chewing gum can help stabilize GLP-1, upstream, and reduce feelings of hunger https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12020-015-0566-1 
  

Reference List

• Gingival tissues AND 2010 paper Wendal investigated bitter tasters and cavities
  
• Korean study of 3500 ppl found that non-tasters actually consumed more fruit and had higher BMI/Bodyweight than super tasters (exact opposite of their assumptions) 
  
• Gingival tissue and Taste
  
• Oral Microbes and Taste
• S mutans saves us from S aureus
  
• Bitter receptors and oral health
  
• Bitter Asthma 
• Bitter Treatment Asthma
• Taste and Immunity
• P. aeruginosa and Taste
• Taste genes and gut microbes
• Taste receptors in microbial sensing
• T2Rs P. aeruginosa (Hariri et al, 2017; Freund et al, 2018)
• Bitter taste metabolites from bugs can activate T2Rs Gopallawa et al, 2021
• T1R2/3s by sugars or bacterial amino acids can inhibit T2R-dependent signaling (Lee et al, 2017)
• A mouse study showed all interventions regulated a bitter receptor
• Oral hygiene products. CXH seems to disrupt the system
  
• study mouthwash (2x/day) prediabetic to diabetic.
  
• Antiseptic mouthwash review
• Covid and Taste: Nontasters look out!
• regular hygiene habits increases taste perception 2021
• sugar intake and oral microbiota composition 2020
  

Why have we demonized the Oral Microbiome? 
From dental cleaning, root scaling, microbiome guided therapy, chlorhexidine, Listerine, Stannous Fluoride. We are all trained to remove, deplete, and kill our mouth bacteria. How can we harness the oral microbiome for good? What should we be doing differently? Should we be microbiome testing our mouths? What would we learn? Would we treat ourselves differently?

As dental professionals the oral microbiome is seen as problematic because oral bacteria can contribute to the development of cavities, periodontal disease, and tooth loss. As we uncover the mysteries of the oral microbiome, we have found that depleting some species with oral care products intended for therapy can cause a depletion in essential nitric oxide, which is essential for heart health; obviously our unique microbiome is nuanced and tricky and I cannot think of a single person more qualified to speak on this subject than Dr. Purnima Kumar, recently named Chair of Periodontics and Oral Medicine at University of Michigan.

We deep dive into Dr. Kumar's (recent) past to lay a foundation of discovery for how we now appreciate the oral microbiome as an ecological system. In the early 2000's Dr. Kumar started researching oral bacteria. This was a time of limited understanding of the bacterial community when we were still very hyper-focused on a few 'bad' bacteria. During her early research years the tools utilized for examination of bacteria quickly became very sophisticated. Dr. Kumar has maintained a frontier approach to her work diving into all aspects of the mouths ecology to bring into focus a very nuanced environment that is not isolated from the rest of the body.