If you’re unfamiliar with Invisalign, they are clear, plastic, molded retainers that are designed to shift teeth over the course of time. As a teenager, I had some mild crowding on the top and bottom, so my dentist recommended a 9-month course of using these dental trays to gently shift my teeth instead of having metal orthodontic braces put in. My dentist counseled me about the importance of keeping my teeth clean so that food particles didn’t get trapped underneath, and I took him seriously. But what he failed to mention and what I failed to realize is that the Invisalign trays were also keeping important things out, and that is how my cavity developed: saliva and oxygen.

Our mouths are living ecosystems. Just like “bad bacteria” causes cavities, good bacteria produce beneficial chemicals that protect our teeth and keeps our mouths functioning normally. Healthy saliva continually bathes our teeth and gums, protecting the enamel and maintaining an optimal chemical environment so that good bacteria can grow and bad bacteria cannot. When I was wearing the Invisalign, the saliva in my mouth was blocked from reaching my teeth, which influenced the type of bacteria that were able to grow. Without that natural cleansing, bad bacteria developed.

In addition to saliva, oxygen exposure is essential for a healthy mouth. Oxygen allows certain types of beneficial bacteria to grow and kills bad bacteria, which tend to die when exposed to air and oxygen. This is also part of the reason that flossing is important because in addition to removing stuck food, flossing introduces oxygen between teeth so that bad bacteria can’t grow, and so that saliva can get in to bathe and protect our teeth. My Invisalgn dental trays were also blocking my teeth from oxygenation, which favored the growth of anaerobic species of bacteria, which ferment and produce acid as byproducts, eroding enamel and leading to cavity formation and rot.

Obviously, it’s bad news when cavities form. A generally healthy lifestyle is needed for good dental health, and it’s also important to take steps to preserve the dental microbiome. Here are some strategies from functional medicine that you can take to help support your dental health and preserve your oral microbiome.

Here’s How to Support Your Oral Microbiome through Functional Medicine

1. Stop using plastic dental trays. As I outlined above, plastic dental trays prevent oxygen and saliva from reaching your teeth which leads to unfavorable shifts in the dental microbiome. It also damages gums and can worsen receding and inflammation. Instead of Invisalign and related products, opt for traditional wire braces. Likewise, instead of plastic retainers, use either a wire retainer or consider palate expansion so that the teeth naturally stay in place without the need for the constant pressure of a retainer.
2. Ditch sugar. Sugar favors the growth of bad bacteria in your mouth. It also is the fermentable substrate that bacteria consume, converting into acid and alcohol byproducts that erode enamel. You should also be mindful of foods that break down into sugar, like crackers which become wet and form a paste, sticking to teeth and holding sugar against them over the course of time. These pasty carbohydrates can get wedged into small grooves and cracks in teeth and contribute to cavity formation over time, even if they aren’t sweet foods with sugar added.
3. Use hydroxyapatite toothpaste. This is a natural way to rebuild enamel and protect your teeth if you have had exposure to damaging substances over time. Avoid toxicants like fluoride, which harm the balance of good and bad bacteria in the mouth (fluoride is toxic to good bacteria.) You should also avoid products like hydrogen peroxide which can damage enamel and harm the microbiome by killing beneficial bacteria.
4. Consume probiotic foods. Fermented foods like yogurt, kombucha, kimchi and natural pickles seed the mouth with beneficial probiotics. They also naturally stimulate saliva production which helps keep teeth and gums clean and moistened. You should have probiotics foods with every meal.
5. Avoid alcohol-based mouthwash. Alcohol-based mouth washes are not only drying, but they also kill beneficial bacteria in the mouth. This is a problem because the oral microbiome is there for a reason! Instead, use herbal mouth rinses like the Tooth & Gums Tonic from Dental Herb Company.
6. Fix mouth breathing. When we are sleeping (or awake), we should be breathing through our noses, with our mouths shut, unless we are eating, drinking or talking. Mouth breathing dries out the mouth and contributes to decay by shifting the oral microbiome and drying out teeth. This can worsen gum inflammation, lead to break down of enamel, and disrupt the oral microbiome. Mouth breathing can be challenging to fix, but I recommend having a comprehensive evaluation of why your body tends to use that method of breathing. Are you dealing with undiagnosed allergies Do you have a restricted airway Do you need dental expansion I recommend working with an airway dentist to have a thorough examination.
7. Take oral probiotics. In my functional medicine practice, I have somewhat of an eclectic approach to gut health and proboitic use. I am absolutely an advocate for consuming probiotic foods when appropriate (individuals with some histamine problems and overgrowth patterns may not tolerate probiotic supplementaiton.) In general, I prefer for people to not need to take probiotics in order to be healthy. However, as a consequence of our food system and because of some of the problems outlined in items 1-6 on this list, sometimes probiotic supplementation is necessary. Apart from correcting imbalances as outlined in functional medicine stool microbiome testing, I often recommend the E.N.T. Biotic from Protocol for Life Balance or Adult ENT-Pro from Biotics Research Company. What’s unique about both of these formulations is that they are not capsules; rather, they are lozenges that are meant to slowly dissolve in the mouth and “seed” the oral and sinus cavities with beneficial bacteria.
8. Use Red Light Therapy. If you are dealing with chronic imbalances in your oral microbiome or chronic problems with gum inflammation (gingivitis), consider using red light dental trays to administer red light therapy to your gums to facilitate healing and reduce cavity formation. Red light limits the growth of harmful bacteria and facilitates the growth of beneficial bacteria to balance the microbiome. This strategy is also a natural method for tooth whitening that does not use harsh chemicals or erode enamel like peroxide does.

Other Strategies for Dental Health

In addition to maintaining the above strategies to support the dental microbiome, an overall health lifestyle is essential for good oral health. It’s not just as simple as brushing and flossing, though those are obviously important too.

In order to maintain your dental health, I also recommend eating a low glycemic index, nutrient-dense diet. Dental health requires micronutrients like chromium, copper, zinc, selenium, magnesium, calcium, vitamin D, vitamin C, and B vitamins. While you could certainly supplement these factors, there are additional nutrients far too numerous to list in a blog post that can only come from a diverse and abundant diet. Please also be sure to include quality animal products in your diet to support your long-term health.

I’m Dr. Alexandra MacKillop, a functional medicine doctor, food scientist and nutrition expert.

I specialize in women’s nutrition & hormonal health, addressing concerns like longevity, fertility, postpartum, PCOS, endometriosis, and gut symptoms like bloating, constipation, diarrhea and more.

If you’re looking for a new way to approach your health, I’m here to help you through it.

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Reminder: The information on this post or anywhere else on this blog or other writing is purely educational, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any health condition.

The post Dental Probiotics: How Good Bacteria Can Transform Your Oral Health appeared first on Dr. Alexandra MacKillop.

The Gut Microbiome

The word “microbiome” refers to the microbial colonies that live in, on and around the human body. [Microbes = bacteria and yeast] Modern researchers estimate that as few as 30% of our cells are actually human, which means the remaining 70% are actually bacteria. This is an incredible number, but when we factor in all the functions of these bacteria, it’s not that surprising. See, the vast majority of the cells in our digestive tracts—an estimated 39 trillion—are bacterial cells responsible for clearing up waste products. Not only do these bacteria clear up our own waste after we’re finished with the food we eat, but they also get rid of all the contaminating chemicals we come into contact with throughout our lives…things like pollution, plastics and more. Our bacteria help break these chemicals down so that they don’t wreak havoc on our health. They also break down our own bodily chemicals, like old, broken-down hormones that are past their prime, and red blood cells that are no longer functional. Our liver filters our blood of these toxins and deposits them into our intestines where it then becomes the job of our bacteria to take care of the rest.

Unfortunately, we don’t always have enough of the right kind of good bacteria; and sometimes those good bacteria are crowded out by bad bacteria. This isn’t necessarily pathogenic bacteria, like E. coli or Salmonella, though those too can be problematic. Dysbiotic and inflammatory bacteria like Group B beta-hemolytic streptococcus are also of concern. These dysbiotic bacteria take advantage of us if we consume something contaminated, if we take antibiotics, if we don’t have a diet that is adequate in diverse types of fiber, and more. Even stress can shift our microbiome and make us worse for the wear.

Our gut microbiome is also closely connected to our skin microbiome. That’s because, in all actuality, the human body is rather hollow. We are an open tube from the points of input (eyes/ears/nose/mouth) to the point of output (rectum) and those openings seamlessly blend into the exterior epidermis—that is, our skin. In this way, the microbial populations of our gut hold a profound influence over the microbial populations of our skin. Yes, our skin has a microbiome too, and it plays a big role in preventing and mitigating disease.

Inflammation

When we have an imbalance in good and bad bacteria, our good bacteria is no longer sufficient to do the job of “cleaning” up inflammation in our bodies. Our good bacteria produce anti-inflammatory chemicals like butyrate which help protect our bodies from inflammation. Likewise, overgrowth of inflammatory bacteria produce additional inflammation. Inflammation in the gut becomes inflammation in the blood and on the skin and feeds forward into flare ups of chronic skin conditions. These can include psoriasis, eczema, acne and rashes like those seen in autoimmune diseases. From hives and itching to flaking and dryness, the microbioe plays a role. If you have any of these chronic skin conditions and notice flare ups in periods of stress it’s because inflammation increases in response to chemical stressors in the body, and stress likewise affects the function of our microbiome!

Immunoreactivity

Another way that the microbiome affects skin is because of how those bacteria control inflammation: through the immune system. The good bacteria in our skin and our gut stimulate anti-inflammatory divisions of our immune system such as interleukins (i.e. IL-10, IL-17 and IL-22) which protect us from infection. Our microbiome also helps teach our immune system to distinguish between self and non-self as in the case of autoimmunity, and to develop tolerance to benficial exposures like food and food allergens. Breakdown of the microbiome, or a microbiome that doesn’t have the chance to develop properly early in life can all lead to immune system problems that may manifest as skin reactions. These can include the rashes seen in autoimmune diseases (malar rash) or skin-related allergic and intolerance reactions (hives, itching, swelling, redness.)

Toxins

A third way that the microbiome affects skin is through toxins. Here’s a somewhat unrelated example to illustrate the point: sometimes newborn babies develop jaundice which involves a yellowing of the skin. This is because at birth, new babies are filled with extra red blood cells from their mothers. These red blood cells die off rather quickly and if they aren’t broken down and cleared away through the (you guessed it) GI system, chemicals from the old cells such as bilirubin will build up in the blood stream and cause damage to other organs in the system. This bilirubin chemical is yellow which is why the skin begins to look yellow when it isn’t cleared away properly. Otherwise healthy babies who drink lots of milk and have frequent bowel movements in the early days are typically able to clear away this waste product in their stools no problem. But if they aren’t digesting and metabolizing properly, and if their gut microbiome is malfunctioning, the bilirubin and toxin buildup could become fatal.

Adults process bilirubin too, as we all make new red blood cells every 3 months. However bilirubin is far from the only toxin we need to clear out of our bodies. We make new hormones every day, and consume food that needs to be broken down every couple hours. All of these processes involve waste products that need to be cleared away from the gut. Breakdown in that clearance system due to imbalances in bacteria easily leads to problems like hormonal imbalances, which can manifest on the skin as redness, acne, and other blemishes.

Let’s take a closer look at eczema, for example. Eczema is very similar to an autoimmune disease, in that the immune system creates localized inflammation on the skin which worsens in response to different immunological triggers. Exposure to irritants and toxins, such as fragrance or detergents, may flare up the skin, inflammation tumbles out of control, and the immune system reacts all the more aggressively to the now broken-out skin. It tends to create a snowball effect once bad bacteria start colonizing the breakouts—namely Staphylococcus species which are responsible for the angry, rashy redness we so often associate with eczema. Treating a condition like eczema necessitates a combination strategy that is anti-inflammatory and immune modulating, but also requires a deeper look at toxic exposures and immune triggers which are all mediated by the GI tract.

In the early stages of a flare-up, however, sometimes a topical solution is necessary to calm things down enough to get to the root cause. Ozonated oils kill inflammatory bacteria like Staphylococcus and also directly stimulate immunological healing of damaged skin. This buys the time to figure out the root-cause trigger and treat it holistically.

If you loved what you read here, check out these related posts:

• Diets and the Gut Microbiome
• Natural Eczema Treatment

I’m Dr. Alexandra MacKillop, a functional medicine doctor, food scientist and nutrition expert.

I specialize in women’s nutrition & hormonal health, addressing concerns like longevity, fertility, postpartum, PCOS, endometriosis, and gut symptoms like bloating, constipation, diarrhea and more.

If you’re looking for a new way to approach your health, I’m here to help you through it.

Become a Patient

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Sign Me Up!

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Reminder: The information on this post or anywhere else on this blog or other writing is purely educational, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, prevent, or cure any health condition.

The post Here’s How Your Gut Health Affects Acne, Eczema, Hives and More appeared first on Dr. Alexandra MacKillop.