With me today is Dr. Victoria Sampson, a very accomplished dentist who has been on the forefront of change in dentistry, publishing several studies about the oral microbiome and the relationship between the mouth and the body.

We all know about the gut microbiome, the skin, but the oral microbiome is a very special one, because it's constantly under attack, it's one of the microbiomes that is exposed all the time. Every time we breathe, we drink, we eat, we smoke, anything, the microbiome is under attack. And what also is quite interesting is that the oral microbiome is one of the only ones where it's gotten on shedding surfaces. So, our teeth. And unlike anything else in our body, our teeth do not shed. And so, that means that whilst other my microbiomes or other areas, skin, or et cetera, can shed, and the bacteria can kind of change by itself with non-shedding surfaces like the teeth, there is no way of actually changing the microbiome. And if you have poor bacteria on your teeth and you're not going in and getting them cleaned regularly, it can have some really drastic effects on the rest of your body. The oral microbiome itself is the second most diverse microbiome, just following the gut. So, it's got around 700 different species of bacteria and they amount to about two billion bacteria in the mouth at all times.