Eat one a day , change your life!
1. An avocado a day will change your life. The good fats in the avocado add fiber, fat and vitamins and reduce your sugar cravings. Actually, it may be the best health food ever! Good for bones, brains, hearts, eyes, and guts to name but a very few benefits. Nutrient rich and full of so much goodness. Add one a day to your breakfast and see what little miracles occur!
My Fav- The Kyoui
2. Use an electric toothbrush every 12 hours. Use the best toothbrush you can afford. Your toothbrush should be as fancy as your phone, and it will last longer. Get a new brush head every three months; change the entire family’s brush heads with the seasons. Power tools just work better, really. And, brush for at least two minutes. If your teeth don’t “feel” clean then please brush until they feel and taste clean.
One of my favorite electric brushes is the Kyoui ( pronounced “Q-ee”) It is different but so effective. I partnered with them because I love their product! Use my code to save 10% on any order: BARBARATRITZsave10%
Kyoui now also has a very soft straight toothbrush head as well. Perfect for sensitive teeth. LOVE their new addition.
And, the KYOUI electric brush does not give off any E lectro m agnetic F ield (EMF) radiation unlike some electric brushes . So many things to be aware of – I had not paid any attention to this but realize now it is important to our well being and reducing exposure to EMF’s is one more piece of the health puzzle.
Irrigation gets where your brush can’t
3. Use a water flosser twice daily . The real home of gum disease bacteria is down underneath the gumline- where the bugs live. It is moist, dark, acidic, and devoid of oxygen. Perfection if you are a bug. Bacteria, fungus, and viruses thrive in this environment. Introducing medicated water into this biofilm raises the pH, changes the bacterial composition of the biofilm, and reduces the anaerobic levels. Simple, and very effective way to reduce gingivitis. Getting where the bad bacteria live and changing the microbiome is a game changer. Depending on what bugs live there dictates what medicament I recommend patients add to their water flossers.
Healthy Gums NEVER bleed
4. Healthy gums DO NOT bleed. Teeth should not crumble . See an integrative medicine physician for blood work if you have tooth decay or bleeding gums (which may indicate gum disease) – look at gut health, vitamin and mineral levels. DIG DEEP. Tooth decay and gum disease are signs of gut health issues, absorption issues, and autoimmune issues. Is your body getting enough fat soluble vitamins , is it absorbing these vitamins and nutrients? Find the “why” so you can address the “how” best to treat. Just removing the tartar or decay will not stop the infection from reoccurring. You can’t fix the problem by only addressing the symptoms. Find the cause. That will guide your treatment protocols. Skip the pick/poke/polish/repeat treatment and cure the infection once and for all .
High risk Test results
5. Salivary diagnostics – know the enemy – find out why you have bleeding gums and tooth decay. Here’s the key to periodontal disease: we always have bacteria, viruses, and fungi in our mouths. Ninety-nine percent of the microbiome are good or neutral bugs. The 1% that are “bad “are kept in check by the good guys. Our mouths will never be sterile nor should they.
Hang with me here: A “something” that we ingest inflames the gut lining, which causes havoc with our immune system, which then allows the bad bugs to takeover. Periodontal (gum) disease is about a mutiny of the bugs because our immune system has allowed them to overgrow because the immune system is mostly driven by the gut.
I want salivary diagnostics because I want to see how crazy the take-over is, and have a baseline for where we need to start. Salivary diagnostics then gives us a road map of how we need to treat the mouth help get it healthy.
Tooth decay cause is a little different- but just as important to know the enemy. Again, find the “why” before just jumping in and flailing around, hoping you solved the problem when all you really did is make a big hole and patch it. I want to know what’s going on with the immune system that has allowed this breakdown of the teeth, gums, and bones. Healthy, strong teeth require a diamond bur to cut into them. Teeth with decay almost feels like fruit leather. When the teeth and bones are melting then something’s way off within the body. Which brings us back to #4. See that functional medicine, integrative medicine or primary care doctor to help be part of your healing team. Dentistry cannot work in a vacuum. We need to embrace the body as a whole and look deeper for the root causes of disease. Test, teach, treat, repeat: a better philosophy,
Prebiotics and Probiotics: feeding the good bugs
6. There is good plaque . Healthy plaque remineralizes the tooth surface, stops decay, and tooth sensitivity, and keeps the tooth healthy. Good plaque biofilm is achieved when we have the mouth at a neutral pH, and feed the good bacteria with food that has prebiotics and probiotics. Prebiotics are non-human-digestible foods that feed the friendlies, growing the good guys. (I had never even heard of Prebiotics until recently!) Probiotics are actual good bacteria that repopulate the oral cavity. Looking at the microbiome as our friend, which it is, we can instead care for it and nurture it to grow a good garden of bugs that can care for our teeth and gums, andultinately protect us.
Nutrition plays a critical role in our oral wellness. There’s that avocado again, along with apples: great fiber and so healthy for you. Skip the processed boxed stuff. Eat food that looks like nature intended. Think one-ingredient food. We must be aware of what food goes into the mouth and gut. Put our money where our mouth is.
Every time we eat or drink we are either feeding disease or fighting it. Heather Morgan MS
Tongue Cleaner- Use twice daily for fresher breath!
6. Clean your tongue twice daily. Use a metal tongue cleaner, and incorporate tongue health into your routine. The tongue is like a shag carpet and traps everything, good and bad. Plaque bacteria builds up and covers your taste buds. That biofilm creates a stinky, smelly tongue and no amount of mouthwash will cover that up. Those bacteria settle into that shag carpet and thrive in that oxygenless environment, and they get smelly as they decompose. And, then the bugs can re-infect your mouth and hitch a ride in your blood stream to other body parts and infect them as well. This is called a bacteremia .
Bonus: A clean tongue helps food and wine taste so much better! Make your taste buds pop in flavor. Thank me later…
