Excellent post. I use saliva nitrite test strips to confirm nitrate to nitrite conversion and adequate nitrate intake. I had to change my oral hygiene practices and start supplementing with a NO booster to get good results. My BP decreased from “normal” to low normal in the same timeframe.
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Arhu
#22
Not a lot of evidence for interdental brushes either, though perhaps slightly better than floss. No hygienist I know recommends flossing, all either recommend brushes or softpicks (personally I prefer wooden toothpicks for my own use and for cleaning cement after placing a crown, they work better than softpicks, interdental brushes or floss )
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aggs
#23
Can you speak to correct use for the waterpik please? It’s been a gamechanger for me for a slowly failing implant but I probably don’t know wtf I’m doing!
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I’m interviewing Ellie Phillips DDS (of Zellie’s Mints & Gum fame) today. Any questions to ask about oral health?
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I have been using oil pulling for three+ years. I initially thought the same as you: an ancient widespread practice can’t really do any harm and the coconut oil did improve my gums.
However
I am going to put up a separate post because I think the possible negative effect of Lipid Pneumonia which involves oil getting into the lungs is quite a significant negative effect: I think I got it, as I had a dry cough and flecks on blood on tissues.
Beth
#26
@Joseph_Lavelle I’ll look forward to this one! I am addicted to Thrive brand cinnamon mints and I see Zellie’s makes them, so I’ll give those a try. (I’ve never heard of them). Are too many mints a bad thing?
And this is timely because yesterday I think I discovered I have a chipped tooth at the gum line and am wondering what to do to keep it as clean as possible until I get to the dentist. I can’t be sure because it’s hard to see as it’s far back in there. And fun fact: It’s my baby tooth!!! For 20 years they have been telling me it was on its last year :).
@aggs
Edit: I see this post was from last year!
Ditto!! Please! I bought one and have been meaning to watch a YouTube because I felt I was being attacked with a firehose. I’m still trying to get over the trauma 
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One of my big learning already is the damage being done by not giving the mouth time to heal (restore pH and re-mineralize teeth) after eating and drinking (especially acidic beverages: coffee, tea, soda, citrus juice).
For most of my working life I have been drinking something with a frequency of somewhere between continuously and every hour. This is a problem that I am struggling to stop but is necessary for long-term oral health, according to Ellie Phillips DDS.
Having a healthy oral microbiome is just as important as a healthy gut microbiome. It may be that all microbiomes are critically important (nasal, skin, etc). Bacteria in the mouth can get into the bloodstream and cause havoc. Bleeding gums? —-> Leaky gums (think: leaky gut, leaky BBB)
More to come.
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Beth
#28
I’m glad you mentioned that!
Yeah, the only thing I’ve learned is not to brush after having something acidic. And not to have lemon water on my nightstand to drink at night after brushing 
Two questions:
Does he advise against lemon water (at any time)? I have stopped but I’d certainly love to add it back.
Also, I happen to use Boka toothpaste and always get tempted by their probiotic mouthwashes but don’t know if it’s of value. I’d love to know if he recommends them (not brand specific)
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Great! Oral probiotics are a great question! There is no stomach acid to survive but do they stick around? And lemon / citrus is relevant to a lot of people. I frequently have lemon in my water at a restaurant. I’ll find out.
Edit: here’s a study on oral probiotics. Looks good!
The Benefits of Probiotics on Oral Health: Systematic Review of the Literature - PMC.
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amuser
#30
Bristle Health offers reports on your mouth contents, and a probiotic.
They have a complete protocol for how to reset the biome and repopulate. (Example at the end of my report.)
My latest report follows. I’ve been (sort of) following their recommended protocol for one year, and the current results reflect meaningful improvements in most every category, except promoters of tooth decay, which have gotten more numerous. Go figure. In any event, no cavities for the last two years, after having had a major problem for the prior thirty. Maybe rapamycin cures cavities.
Bristle-KitBHL7H228.pdf (1.6 MB)
I like these things. Prefer chocolate. Keep in the fridge, they melt easily.
I applied the Lumina probiotic recently. Will test in six months and see what the story is. S. mutans is what it replaces, but I have zero s. mutans. Support says it should replace any gram positive stuff living on your teeth, which would eliminate some of the decay causers list in the Bristle report. We shall see.
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Bryan Johnson recommended using food grade tea tree oil. It has saved my implant. Eliminated the inflammation. (I also use a water pik, floss, etc).
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@Beth Partial feedback on interview with Dr Ellie Phillips.
Oral probiotics are a no go. No reason to think it would work, per Dr Ellie. Gut probiotics are useful when needed. A diet rich in fiber and a variety of plants is the best long term solution for gut health. Oral microbiome is more like skin microbiome, but you can’t just wipe some probiotics on skin or put in mouth to repopulate the good bugs. It’s a long term approach that works (her systematic use of commercially an available products and hat work in a particular order to condition the mouth for health).
Lemon in water. After drinking lemon, rinse with water or eat/drink something alkaline or use xylitol gum/mints.
I’ll add a full report when I publish but the main takeaway is:
(1) use her system to clean, condition, remineralize. Twice a day but before bed is critical. Floss / waterpik okay if mouth already healthy.
(2) minimize acidic food/drink but always neutralize the pH immediately afterward
(3) keep the mouth closed and empty most of the time. Stop sipping on fluids all day. Stop snacking throughout the day. Sleep with mouth closed.
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Beth
#33
*removes oral probiotics from cart
I appreciate the follow up!!!
Is her system already publicly available or do we wait for your podcast to come out? Ty!
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amuser
#34
Surprising she would say that, since she sells an oral probiotic in her Amazon store.
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https://drellie.com/ for all the gory details and list of products to use.
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I spoke with her yesterday. No telling how long ago her website was updated.
blsm
#37
This should be a good one @Joseph_Lavelle . I’ve been loosely following Dr. Ellie’s program for 7 years and it really helped me. I relaxed it after the first 2 years of doing it religiously. I started because my mom lost her teeth in her 50’s and I was scared it might happen to me too but all is good so far and I largely credit her recommendations. Thanks for having such an interesting and informative podcast that never disappoints!
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Beth
#38
That link wants me to buy yoga pants 
Oops. I updated the link to https://drellie.com/
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@blsm My pleasure. I have never looked into oral health before. I was stunned to discover how much of what I knew was wrong or critically incomplete. Dr Ellie is great. She is a practitioner who wasn’t afraid to try new ideas until she found what worked for her patients.
The standard dental business model and oral health advice from my dentists was based on an assumption (I now infer) that I couldn’t or wouldn’t do what was necessary on my own, so I needed to come in every six months so the dentist could fix whatever went wrong since my last visit. This would be done except for the obvious failure for most people to keep their mouths healthy and the terrible health consequences thereof.
I have been lucky in the oral health genes so my teeth and gums are good despite not knowing how to really take care of my mouth and doing as little as I thought I could get away with. But no longer.
This is easy to pick low hanging fruit.
Not hard to implement
Huge benefits
Synergistic with other health levers : nitric oxide, circadian rhythm (no late night snacking), low visceral fat (barriers to eating outside of meals; calorie control)
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