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) plays in cardiovascular and oral health. We go over the basics of NO biology, the role of the oral microbiome in NO production, and how the disruption of this relationship can impact our health.

Please help us spread the word about Let's Get Oral by letting your family and friends know about us! Hit that share button, subscribe if you're not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us.

Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn to stay informed on new episodes, announcements, and breaking news in oral health.

Keep smilin' everyone!

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

Since the previous episode with Dr. Glogauer touched A LOT on this topic, we want to chat about the how, why, and what to do about oral inflammation.

Additional Tidbits:

• Intermittent fasting and perio health
• Footballers and oral health

Please help us spread the word about Let's Get Oral by letting your family and friends know about us! Hit that share button, subscribe if you're not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us.

Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn to stay informed on new episodes, announcements, and breaking news in oral health.

Keep smilin' everyone!

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.

Please help us spread the word about Let's Get Oral by letting your family and friends know about us! Hit that share button, subscribe if you're not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us.

Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn to stay informed on new episodes, announcements, and breaking news in oral health.

Keep smilin' everyone!

Show Notes:

• 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 

Camille and Jonathan nerd out over taste buds, flavor science, and how our senses impact our oral health!

Please help us spread the word about Let's Get Oral by letting your family and friends know about us! Hit that share button, subscribe if you're not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us.

Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn to stay informed on new episodes, announcements, and breaking news in oral health.

Keep smilin' everyone!

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.

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. 

Please help us spread the word about Let's Get Oral by letting your family and friends know about us! Hit that share button, subscribe if you're not already a regular listener, and give us a quick review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to us.

Follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn to stay informed on new episodes, announcements, and breaking news in oral health.

Keep smilin' everyone!