BYOB: Bring Your Own Brush - Toothbrush That Is
When I tell people what I do for a living, most people respond by saying, “I could never do that! I could never look in dirty mouths all day”. And the truth is, probably most of them couldn’t. My job? It ain’t pretty. It’s not all pearly whites and minty fresh breath, (que the Mentos Fresh Maker commercial). And although it may gross people out. I.LOVE.MY.JOB.
Being a Registered Dental Hygienist is my calling. From age 13 actually. I knew this is what I wanted to do. So much so, that all my friends in high school knew they could ask me for floss, since I always had that and my toothbrush on me. Seriously lame, I know.
Helping fortify my decision to go into the dental field was my Family Dentist. Him and his entire staff, they were all sooo nice, and made each dental visit fun and easy as a child.
It was helpful that I already had a love for art and working with small tool sets to create art. As a kid I played with Femo, a clay material I made small figurines with, and loved painting flowers on my toe nails. This all aided to training a steady hand for art work. I’ve always seen Dental Hygiene as artwork. Making a messy mouth, squeaky clean again--it’s totally my jam. But who eats jam by itself? No one, duh. Just like jam needs the peanut butter to complete a tasty sandwich. From my perspective, dental hygiene needed something to compliment it as well.
Enter my passion for nutrition.
Your mouth is the way you put nourishment in your body, right? But what is your mouth telling you about the nourishment status of your body? What is it beginning to tell you about your hormonal status? When I look in someone’s mouth it can be like reading someone’s health report card. A person could reflect a failing grade, an A+, or C for average. *HOWEVER*, in traditional dental hygiene school, we are not taught to detect hormonal imbalances or possible nutritional deficiencies. It is my love for nutrition that has encouraged me to dig deep into health research. I've also traveled around to different countries and have pieced together many interesting aspects of oral health, and the mouth body connection.
And for that exact reason I have started this blog. There is so much info out there nowadays. I am not trying to re-invent the wheel. Just trying to approach it from a different view. I want to break down the importance of inner health, especially through what your *oral health* is saying about your insides. Don’t we all want to learn a better flossing technique? Ha! Kidding! I will do MUCH more than teach about flossing. Promise.
As for being healthy, we can all certainly try to exercise and eat our best. But sometimes, doing the “right thing” does not seem to help. In fact, many common health issues, like thinning hair and eyebrows, itchy skin, and dry mouth, to name a few, most people wouldn’t know that these are, indeed, signs of deeper health issues. That’s where I come in with this fun, little combo of Registered Dental Hygienist meets holistic health.
I know what you’re thinking. Dental Hygienist? What does that have to do with deeper health besides cavities? A LOT more than you could E.V.E.R imagine actually! The mouth is like a health diary, with multiple juicy entries that NO ONE has ever read before. Have you ever had the pleasure of reading someone else’s dairy? Or now a days, texts? Never? Oh, well…you should try it some time, it feels naughty. A sneaky kind of naughty, get your head out of the gutter.
Anyway, I digress.
By looking at the tissues of the mouth, in my personal experience, I believe I am looking at the TOTAL person, not just their mouth. From this perspective, I look at the person through a different lens then conventional medicine, and help the patient see possible deeper rooted issues. Mouth tissues can represent the WHOLE “inner” body. Did you know that digestion STARTS in your mouth! Enzymes break down our food as we chew. This enzymatic reaction is the catalyst (start) for digestion. And actually the more you chew your food, the easier it will be on your digestive tract. The easier that digestion is for you, the more energy you have for your life. And having energy is what we all want, right? Well, for me at least. That’s what I want. More energy. I have an infant and a toddler so every-glorious-drop of energy counts dang it!….anyways, continuing on… If your digestive system is functioning properly, it will not have to work in overdrive to break down large unprocessed particles. You see where I am going with this – realize whatever you put into your mouth, enters your body. Therefore it affects your body. What you put into your mouth (or don’t put in your mouth) matters.
Beautifully put by my all-time fav blogger, and sole reason I got into holistic health, Christa Orecchio, founder of The Whole Journey, “Your food choices instantly affect your hormones, your gut microbiome, and your inflammatory process. THERE IS INFINITE POWER AT THE END OF YOUR FORK”! Preach it sister!!!
Christa is soooo right! We have INFINITE power at our finger tips! How empowering is that?
So here on this blog, I want to share a different aspect of health. From an uncharted angel. Your health in perspective of your mouth. Stay tuned as I illustrate the mouth body connection, making it tangible to understand and help you learn how to help yourself. Yay for you, and well, yay for me to because I love to help people. So again, Yay!