The mouth, the gateway to health!

Blog, Clean Living, Self Care

The mouth, the gateway to health!

Have you ever considered that the mouth is the gateway to your health?

Did you know that your mouth contains it’s own unique microbiome that’s estimated to house between 500-700 different microbial species?

Also, did you realise bad breath or dental cavities are a sign that your mouth microbiome is out of balance?

The mouth plays a pivotal role in our survival.

Food enters the mouth and digestion is kick-started by chewing and the release of saliva
Breathing begins as air passes through our mouth and nose
Also, the oral microbes found in our mouth are the first line of immune defence, protecting our body from invasion

Unfortunately, when our mouth microbiome is altered or in a dysbiotic state (when it has an overgrowth of bad bacteria), it then has the potential to cause issues with our oral health such as dental cavities and many other problems. This can also have a downstream effect on our entire body. So simply brushing your teeth daily isn’t enough to maintain the health of our mouth, we need to nurture the bugs inside it too.

The old mouth-washing habit of kill, kill, kill the bacteria in our mouth is one of the worst habits you can do!

Anti-bacterial mouth washes may kill off some of the pathogens in our mouth, temporarily creating a sweet, fresh breath. But this also kills off the beneficial bacteria in our mouth. These bacteria are incredibly important! Downstream this habit also affects the microbiome in our gut and, as a result, the health of the rest of our body.

Everyday we swallow around a TRILLION bacteria. Studies have found there is around a 45% overlap between the good bacteria in our mouth and our gut. Therefore, the mouth microbiome plays a very important role in continually seeding our gut with bacteria.