Healthy Mouth Healthy Life Podcast Carrie Ibbetson

Last year I had the pleasure of attending the Voices of Dentistry Podcasting Summit, and was delighted to sit down and spend some time with the one and only Gary Takacs.
Gary is a seasoned podcaster, consultant, educator, and all around great guy! To date, he has consulted over 2,200 dental offices, and has interviewed over 250 guests on his podcast; I guess you can say he’s a someone who knows what successful dental professionals looks like!
I wanted to pick Gary’s brain about what questions a person should ask themselves when they are faced with choosing a dentist and dental office.  Needless to say, Gary sees enough dentists to know what it takes in making a good choice when looking for a dental home that fits your needs.
He recommends that you ask yourself the following questions after you visit the office for your initial exam:
Did the doctor ask what my interests and concerns were, and did the office listen to my wants and needs? Ask yourself, “are they interested in my goals for my oral health, or are they interested in their goals for my oral health”?
It would be nice to hear the office gather information by asking something like “what brings you here today?”

Did you feel like you were getting the attention of the staff instead of a feeling like a number?
What was the interaction between the dentist and the other team members like? Does the staff seem gracious to be there, and are the team members supportive to one another? Do they seem to want to be around each other? 
If you can feel the tension in the air, that may be a clue to keep looking. We begin our conversation by talking about the importance of putting yourself (if you are a clinician) in a position of being fearful so that you can see from the mind/eyes of the patient.  And, with each new patient exam recognize the courage it took for that patient to simply come and visit your office.
He explains that fear is real.  It may be irrational, but it is real.  Gary shares a story of how his office Life Smiles helped a patient overcome fear in such a way that helped her get on the path of oral health.
We talk about oral-systemics, and how Gary interviewed Dr's Bradley Bale and Tom Larkin earlier that weekend at the Voices of Dentistry Podcasting Summit. Dr. Bale recently published findings in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) proving that periodontal disease is a contributing cause of cardiovascular disease.
He gives a great analogy to smoking in the 60’s.
In the 60’s it was “thought” that smoking perhaps was linked to lung cancer, now we know that it’s a cause. Gary (like me), is a true believer in the Oral Systemic connection which is what makes him so excited about the profession of dentistry and how it has the ability to change lives!
He goes on to say you have to be an advocate for yourself and take action for yourself if you feel that you are not being taken care of.  It’s okay to say, I just don’t think that we are a good fit in order to find someone that fits your needs and wants.
Another good way to find a dentist is ask likeminded friends.
Make sure to ask them who they see and what they have learned from them? It’s not enough if their dentist is just a “nice guy”.
Look at the office website.
Is content updated regularly? Do they have an active Facebook page? What is the interaction with patients, and what are the existing patients saying about the office?
What type of new technology do they have? Are they investing in tools that help you get and stay healthy? Are they helping you identify the link between the health of your gums and the rest of your body? Do they offer any testing to help you understand your risks?
These are the things you want to pay attention to if you are looking for an office to put your trust in when it comes to the oral health of yourself and your family.
Gary and I twist and turn through some very cool stories about dentistry and he talks about the dentist in a fara

I had the pleasure of an in person interview with Ed Harrold at the Inaugural FACE Conference in Washington DC this year. FACE is an organization that helps bring health care providers together and teach the screening of airway disorders, and Ed was there to motivate the group and teach us how to better take care of ourselves so that we can continue to help others.
This is a great interview packed with tips on how to help stall aging, deal with stress, help our children’s health, get the most out of a workout and for our healthcare workers, tips on wearing a mask and having a clean nasal passage.
He explains how you can control your breath to conserve energy both physically and mentally.
Physically, when we control our breath, we can control our heart rate which then helps control blood pressure. Emotionally, when blood pressure is controlled, the brain can turn down the fear centers and turn up the learning centers
When the brain senses relaxation it helps to burn fat and save glucose. He helps us learn how to get more out of a workout with less time and less energy used.
Ed shares what happens to the body when someone mouth breathes during exercise. Pure mouth breathing burns sugars, taxes the immune system and your body has to work hard to get rid of the excess acid and bacteria that gets stirred up from over oxygenation during exercise (I didn’t even know that was a thing before this, but WOW)!!
Nose breathing during exercise will help strengthen the diaphragm which helps with good posture and amplifies the vagus nerve get most out of rest and digest.
He encourages us to use nasal breathing and exercise to help remove toxins and help with gut toxicity. He explains that exercise is inflammation reduction, but when you breathe too fast and too hard, your body increases inflammation. Taking in less than 12 breaths per minute helps keeps the body in fat burning mode
We talk about what type of workout is best and how to prepare for it not only with working out, but also with everyday life.
He shares about how to move through stress without becoming stressful and how to not get bogged down with things.
He shares how to transition from mouth breathing to nose breathing with things like breath retention in cycles which helps you shorten the amount of time it takes to recover normal breathing patterns.
I share my challenge with nasal breathing while cycling and the frustration of learning what to do with all of that extra fluid. Ed explains what toxins are being released from my body during that process and encourages me to keep going through training!
For professionals that wear masks, Ed shares some tips his tips for having a clear nasal passage.
Neti pot xlear nasal flush am Alternate breathing exercise Eat big meal at lunch Lunch size serving at dinner Try not to eat after sun is down Towards the end of the interview we jump back into nasal breathing at work and how it helps not only become happy and fulfilled, but also more in tune with emotional intelligence.
We talk about how how to help calm before a dental appointment (practice this at home multiple times before visiting the office)
Have some quiet time before the appointment. Slowing down the breath on the inhale Exhale longer than the infale Pause at the end of the exhale Towards the end of the interview we talk about how to help children through this type of breathing and how to help children. His book “Life With Breath: Iq + Eq = New You” is filled with tips and tricks to help calm and center our children and enjoy more family time together.
I wished this interview could have gone on forever, Ed has amazing insight, I hope we are able to get him on the podcast again soon!
Links discussed in the podcast
Ed’s Book Life With Breath: Iq + Eq = New You
http://amzn.to/2iNmJzn
Neti pot xlear nasal flush am
http://www.xlear.com/xlear-sinus-care/xylitol-products/adults/natural-netipot/

Julia Worrell is a Nurse whose personal experience has changed the way she looks at someone’s health and how it relates to what the body needs to do in order to stay healthy, pain-free and working properly.
Her journey through developing an underbite as a child that led jaw surgery which led to a cascade of health problems including snoring, weight gain and the inability to concentrate, put her on a personal quest to find answers for what she was struggling with.
Being an ER nurse she sees many patients in crisis, and it's seeing these patients which have caused her to deeply understand the medical issues that someone deals with when the breath is brought into the body through the mouth vs the nose.
No longer is this a cosmetic issue (mouth breathers faces grow long and narrow vs round and symmetrical), this is a life-saving quest for Julia as she now spends much of her day bringing professionals together to learn the importance of proper breathing?
Did you know that nose breathing supplies oxygen to specific nerves, and mouth breathing supplies different ones? You’ll have to listen in as she breaks down why it is so important to breathe through the nose, what happens when someone doesn't mouth breathe, and what parents of children can look for to determine if they are mouth breathing and early intervention by closing the lips and not using sippy cups and bottles.
Julia spends quite a bit of time introducing us to different doctors who teach on this topic and answers questions that parents can use to help determine if the person they are seeing is someone who is at the forefront of this branch of medicine that is changing and saving lives not by medication but by intervention!
This is an episode you won't want to miss if you have a mouth or take care of someone that does!! Trust me.
Takeaways: Mouth breathing leads to many of the diseases that baby boomers are dealing with. If we want to help our generation and our children’s generation we need to look at this piece of the puzzle seriously.
Links to topics discussed:
http://www.edharrold.com/ https://www.sleepandsinuscenters.com/ http://sleepandtmjtherapy.com/ https://www.facebook.com/FACEMEDICINE.ORG/ https://youtu.be/ivLEAlhBHPM Conference Link: https://www.eply.com/craniofacialinsights Got Questions? Oral Health Coaching has answers! If you are looking for something or someone to help you through the confusing information behind what it takes to have a healthy mouth be sure to look at the system that helps you in the comfort of your own with the guidance of a professional trained in oral health. Visit  www.oralhealthcoaching.com for more info