Dental Health with Dr. Sean O'Mara

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The issues that matter most, right here. The Drew Mariani Show.

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On Relevant Radio.

Dennis Merritt (0:18)

It shows disease. For most people, it's chronic inflammation, and for most people, it's leaky gums. And when you hear about leaky guts, but people don't seem to understand about leaky gums. And we're finding more and more oral bacteria that should just be in the mouth, are coming up in distal sites.

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The Drew Mariani Show on Relevant Radio.

Drew Mariani (0:38)

Yeah, that was Dennis James Gouldnick on leaky gums. Dr. Sean O'Mara joins me, as you know, just about every first Wednesday or so, somewhere in that ballpark. And I always love to give you a look at health through his eyes. He's been a physician to the president's cabinet. He's been involved in executive health. He's been very prominent on YouTube. In fact, last week, he was just on the Megyn Kelly show, and he's in demand. So it's always great to have him with us here at the at the network, and especially on The Drew Mariani Show. So if you want to get in today, you know the number, put it in your speed dial. It's 888-914-9149. We're gonna talk about something a little different, right? I want to talk about your dental health, right? Your dental hygiene. Because I'm sure you brush your teeth. I hope you floss. At least you know you should. But let me ask you this question. Do your gums bleed when you floss?

Or when you brush? And do you ever stop and wonder whether something's happening in your mouth that could be affecting the rest of your body? You ever notice if you're not feeling so great, or maybe there's inflammation in your gums or swelling too? Researchers right now are learning more about this incredible connection between gum disease, between inflammation and cardiovascular health and even diabetes. So there's a popular term for this phenomenon. And I was reading about it earlier today.

It's called leaky gum syndrome.

Yuck, right? Not a very attractive term, right? Leaky gum syndrome. So what's it mean? What should you be doing about it? We're gonna dive into that, and we'll take your questions too. 888-914-9149. Dr. Sean O'Mara is, as I said, a frequent contributor here, and it's good to have him back. Doctor, good afternoon.

Sean O'Mara (2:30)

Hey, Dean, great to be back with you, Drew. Super excited. This is a great topic. I'm excited to be able to talk about this problem, because it's a lot more serious than people think about, really, Drew. You're nailed on the head with this topic.

Drew Mariani (2:47)

So let's begin with it. Let's talk. The term is kind of gross. Leaky gum syndrome.

Is that an actual medical condition? Is this simply a useful way of describing what's going on with an unhealthy gum barrier? I mean, walk us through this. What is leaky gum syndrome?

Sean O'Mara (3:04)

Yeah. So what happens is the gums, a better way of describing it, if I was to name this, would be probably porous vascular tissue in the gums. So by porous, meaning there are these holes in the tissue that leak and allow things from inside that mouth that shouldn't get into your bloodstream, and this is a problem because our mouths are a lot more pathogenic and a lot more disease than most people understand.

There truly is a lot of pathogens within the human mouth. I'm a ER physician and work decades in emergency rooms, and when a human would bite somebody, we'd be more worried about the pathogens of a human bite than a wild animal because of the bad microbes that are resident within people because of our poor diets. We eat a lot of sugars and carbohydrates, the wild animals don't eat. It feeds pathogenicity, and then these pathogens cause inflammation in the gums. And when the inflammation happens in those gums, the blood vessels swell and they become porous. And then these toxins and little pieces of bacteria start going in. And you brought up the gums that bleed. But what people need to understand when your gums are bleeding like that, that bad toxins and bacteria start going into your bloodstream. And we see this contributing and associated with dementia, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, and inflammation systemically throughout the body.

So that's where it's beginning in many instances right in your mouth. And so we can, that's the basic problem. We can discuss some really good important solutions that you should be doing that go far beyond just flossing.

Drew Mariani (5:06)