A-List Dental Care
How your teeth can make you forever young?
Prof. Badr Barsoum, DDS
We speak to probably one of the best dentists in the world, Professor at the renowned School of Dentistry at the University of Southern California, about the effects oral hygiene has on our body. Keep reading for some tips for this movie-star-smile and how this smile can become your personal fountain of youth. Tips Prof. Barsoum is usually sharing with his celebrity clients.
Celebrity Beauty & Health Secret:
“Inflammation is among main causes of premature aging in the body” – says Dr Barsoum – “And one of the most important causes of inflammation is oral bacteria”. This is why you need to take proper care of your whities not only for this celebrity smile, but also to stay healthy, hot & young looking. “If we managed to eliminate inflamation from our bodies, it would be very difficult for us to die – says Dr Barsoum – or we would at least live much much longer and healthier life.”
We will talk about causes of inflammation and ways to eliminate it in detail over and over again on this blog. But you can start dimishing it already today with Your Celebrity Daily Dental Ritual.
Question: Dr Barsoum, how taking proper care of our teeth will help us with conquering inflamation in our body?
Dr Barsoum: In the oral cavity we have more bacteria than in any other place in the body. That might sound strange, but it actually has more bacteria than the stool ;-). Some of these bacteria are beneficial, but others are no. So when a patient has inflamation in the cavity area, one of the first symptoms is gum bleeding. The bacteria travels through blood stream irritating and causing inflamation in different parts of the body, and with this also pre-mature aging of the body.
The function of the mouth is to masticate food and, with saliva, to mix it with enzymes that break down the food elements and soften the food before it is swallowed. If you have a healthy mouth, you have possibly healthy nutrition. If you have diseased mouth, no matter what you eat, you are adding bacteria to even healthiest food and creating this way problems for the entire body. With the proper oral hygene, you reduce possible infection and inflammation.
Question: What can we do against it Dr Barsoum? What should be the obligatory steps in our Daily Dental Ritual?
Celebrity Dental Ritual Tip No 1:
One of the best weapons against bacteria is a mouthwash available everywhere in the pharmacies – says Dr Barsoum. It contains small amounts of chloraixdeed and is extremely effective against the bacteria. This mouthwash has an effect for ca. 12 hours, so if you use it every 12 hours you will be able to reduce the amount of the bacteria to more or less 10%. (!!! WOW !!!).
* Mouthwash can cause a darker stain, so you might want to use the whitening tooth paste after rincing your mouth.
Prof. Barsoum: Then you need to understand when it comes to oral hygene bacteria is not the only problem. the bacteria produces something like mucus. Under the microscope it looks a bit like fish net, matrix – we call it collectively plaque. This is kind of a home bacteria create to stay there. Plaque is actually accumulation of bacteria and mucus. so they create this… matrix and its usually in the areas where neither tongue nor tooth brush can – between the teeth.
Once bacteria produce this matrix, they stick to it. Bacteria are living organisms, they nourish themselves and they produce waste, which we call collectively exotoxins. Exotoxins – which is bunch of enzymes – are getting absorbed by the gums, irritating them and the gums start to bleed. Bleeding is one of the signs of inflammation.
And it’s getting worse: next to the gum you have pre-dental ligament. The toxins arch this ligament, which is then getting weaker and looses its elasticity. Next to ligament there is the bone, which in this process is getting eaten away.
Celebrity Dental Ritual Tip No 2:
This is why the most important thing in the oral hygiene is to destroy bacteria’s home – says Dr Barsoum. The optimal way to take care of your teeth is to know where the plaque is and to remove it. You need to use disclosing solution or tablets, so that when you chew on the tablet or take liquid and it will show the spots covered with bacteria and plaque. If we don’t remove bacteria, they die and produce toxins which then poison our systems, so it’s a chain process.
Brushing alone is here not sufficient, as bacteria accumulate mainly in the areas not accessible for the toothbrush. That’s why you HAVE TO floss daily (sorry about that 😉 or use interdental brushes to remove soft and hard plaque mechanically. Just rinsing your whities with the mouthwash is not enough – says Dr Barsoum. It’s better than nothing, but you need the mechanical dislodgment.
You see now that on top of using the mouthwash, another necessary part of Your Celebrity Daily Dental Ritual will be removing the plaque and eliminating any inflammation of the gum. You need also treat any chronic infections and that includes cavities, as they are hosting bacteria, which travel through gums to the blood vessels. ALSO:
Celebrity Dental Ritual Tip No 3:
This is something very important most of the patients dont think about – says Prof Barsoum: you HAVE TO brush your tongue! Wait, it’s getting even worse: on top of this you also HAVE TO use the tongue scrabber. First you brush, then you scrab, oh la la ;-)! Just brushing the tongue is not enough – says Prof Barsoum. Once you do both: brush and scrub your tongue, you will be amazed how much will come out of it this ;-).
And you really want to do this, as most of the oral odours come from the surface of the tongue not from the teeth. Under the microscope your tongue looks like your scalp: it’s covered with what we call… And that is the optimal shelter for the bacteria to hide. So brushing and scrubbing the tongue is AS IMPORTANT as brushing and flossing the teeth.
In the next episode: Cucumber and baking soda: Celebrity nutrition tricks that will keep you and your teeth healthy, beautiful & young forever.