94-Beyond Cavities: Understanding the Oral Microbiome with Dr. Sem

In this episode, Kat sits down with Dr. Sem, a holistic dental expert, to explore the often-overlooked connection between oral health and overall wellness. Discover why your mouth is more than just teeth—it's a gateway to your entire body's health. From the oral microbiome to breathing patterns, this conversation will change the way you think about your daily dental routine.

Connect with Dr. Sem

Website: www.ritualsdentalwellness.com
Instagram: @ritualsdentalwellness

Dr. Sem offers holistic dental care, including saliva pH testing, airway screenings, and a focus on reducing chronic inflammation through integrative oral health practices.

💬 Have questions for Dr. Sem? Send them to the podcast, and we'll forward them along—or bring her back for a follow-up episode!

⭐ Enjoyed this episode? Leave a review and share it with a friend who needs to hear this. Your feedback helps more women discover this space.

Remember: Taking care of your mouth is taking care of yourself. Your oral health matters for your longevity and overall wellness.

☎️ Schedule a Complimentary Call
See if KatFit Strength is a good fit for you: Book Here

📩 Join the KatFit Strength Weekly Newsletter
Get coaching tips, mindset insights, and updates: Sign Up Here

❓ Questions About Strength, Nutrition, or Cardio?
Submit them here: Ask Kat

Transcript

Kat 0:00

Today we're sitting down with Dr. Sim, a dentist who's completely redefining what it means to care for your oral health with a dental degree from Temple University and a master's in biomedical science. Dr. Sim has spent her career connecting the dots between what's happening in your mouth and what's happening in the rest of your body. She's not just looking at your teeth, she's looking at the whole system. Weaving together evidence-based dentistry, nervous system regulation, and preventative care to help her patients stop chasing symptoms and start building real lasting wellness. If you ever wondered why your dentist should care about more than just cavities, this conversation is for you. Welcome to MilesFromHerView, the podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood. All while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in. Welcome back to Miles From Her View. I am here today with Dr. Sim and I'm excited to jump into all things oral health., Welcome,

Dr. Sim 1:38

thank you. I'm happy to be here.

Kat 1:40

We just discovered we went to high school together. I have to bring that up'cause it was so coincidental. We met at a networking event and we didn't realize we crossed paths beforehand in our high school lives. So it's awesome to reconnect and to hear about, your journey and your studies on oral health and the impact of overall health, because I feel. We sometimes disconnect what's happening in our mouth and its impact on our whole bodies. It's really interesting, you know, the body's all connected, so it all relates together, but how your oral hygiene and oral health can impact your overall health.

Dr. Sim 2:23

Yeah. I mean, it's so integral to living well. And you're not the only person that disconnects the mouth from the body. It's disconnected in med school, and, I think it's time that it all comes back together. Even in medicine, medicine tends to be so hyperfocused and specialized and there's specialists and you can keep specializing on top of specializing, I think in general the human population is ready for integrative medicine for everything to just get connected again.

Kat 2:48

I a hundred percent agree. When I'm working with clients, I'm always asking about their sleep and nutrition because it impacts how they're going to function or how the adaptations of exercise going to impact them. They're always like, what does sleep matter? I'm like, because that's where exercise adaptations take place. That's where your body restores, that's where your body repairs it is so vital. If it wasn't vital. I mean, we would've, it would've been ironed out years ago. We wouldn't have to sleep though, which sometimes would be amazing because all the things we have to get done. I would love to hear, we hear about gut microbiome, but there's oral microbiome. And. What is that? Can you define it and share more on how that impacts oral health overall?

Dr. Sim 3:31

Yeah. So your oral microbiome is just like your gut microbiome, where it's a living ecosystem and it's this balance of microbes. So some of them are, you know, quote unquote good, and some of them are quote unquote bad, but they're not necessarily bad. They're all living in harmony amongst each other. It becomes bad when the, pathogens, when the bad bacteria. Kind of overpower the good bacteria when they're more prevalent. The conditions that lead to the bad bacteria kind of becoming more prevalent are things like acidity or low saliva environment. That saliva is like kind of that buffering mechanism for your mouth. And so your oral microbiome is so imperative, it's that first entry point for your breath, for your air, and your food to enter your body. So your gut microbiomes actually consists of 50% of your oral microbiome. It is that important. So when we talk about gut microbiome, we can't leave out oral microbiome because half of it is your oral microbiome. And so you can try to get your gut microbiome balance, but if we're leaving out oral diseases and we're not really understanding what's going on in the oral cavity, then we are going to keep missing them. Piece of the picture. And so I'll often even find patients that have elevated risks of cavities or, periodontal disease. They'll oftentimes have gut issues and skin issues because all of our microbiomes, they talk to each other. They communicate with each other, they send pathogens to each other. And so yeah, it's so important to see how they're all connected.

Kat 4:55

That's really interesting. I was gonna ask you a follow-up question, but you answered it is the oral microbiome influenced by the gut and do they talk, and that's, I mean, it makes sense that the body communicates to each other. Oral microbiome, how does it change or are there noticeable changes? Let's kind of hone in a little bit more on women's health. Does that change through like pregnancy, through perimenopause? Is that impacted.

Dr. Sim 5:16

Oh, for sure. The hormones really change the balance of microbiomes in your mouth So the shifts in your hormones throughout your menstrual cycle play a huge effect in how your, mouth behaves as well. Some people will have more mouth burning during sometimes of the month, or they'll feel more inflammation in their gums during, elevated estrogen times of their cycle. Your hormones really impact, the way your mouth feels for sure.

Kat 5:38

Yeah, that's so interesting. With nutrition not to get into like more of, nitty gritty of nutrition, how does, your dietary. Intake impact your teeth and your oral microbiome.

Dr. Sim 5:51

So your dietary intake, it really impacts because it really affects the pH of your saliva too. And so when you have more acidic foods, you can really see that uptick in pathogens in your mouth because they really thrive in acidic environments. So it really kind of all ties back to also glucose spikes and that chronic inflammation in your body. And so if you start to eat in a way where you are starting with, your crucifix roots vegetables and really relying on prebiotics and probiotics and really trying to get your saliva to be an elevated pH rather than a lower pH. So we wanna get it more basic that's, that's better for your body overall. Okay. And is that Yeah, like lactose foods, like Greek yogurts cheeses, things that are a little bit more higher in pH.

Kat 6:39

Okay. How does one know what their pH of their saliva is? Is that something you test or is that

Dr. Sim 6:45

We test every new patient in our office as often as they'd like for a pH.

Kat 6:49

So your practice, if you actually wanna take a moment and talk about your practice it's a bit different than conventional dentistry practices. So you are looking at obviously more integrative in the mouth and how it impacts the whole body.

Dr. Sim 7:03

Yeah, so we'll start with a saliva test and a pH test, but our intake questions also include questions like, how do you sleep at night because that to me tells me how is your airway functioning? Are you breathing through your mouth or your nose? And if you're a mouth breather, that tends to,, increase your chances to getting cavities. So it's really important breathing through your nose at night throughout the day, really, impacts. Your energy levels throughout the day impacts your anxiety levels. It impacts even manifestations of A DHD. But it also, we can, as dentists, we can screen for that first. When you first come in, we can see the shape of your tongue. We can kind of. Ask you more questions about how you're sleeping. And so a lot of that kind of stuff they go into what your systemic issues are or if you're concerned about any. So we can kind of see that through your saliva test. We can see if you have the markers that are present for dementia or heart disease or stroke and help prevent any of those things.

Kat 7:59

That's so interesting. I feel like there's a lot in the mouth that we generally don't know. That is not decoded. I know about mouth breathing and sleeping at night. And even mouth breathing at day, we don't wanna breathe. Constantly through our mouth. We wanna breathe in through our nose, out through our mouth. So that is so interesting. So I wanna jump back to the shape of the tongue. How does the shape of the tongue impact. You mentioned it, I guess, with sleeping, the shape of the tongue and how it's with sleeping

Dr. Sim 8:27

so oftentimes like a red flag would be for somebody who has issues sleeping. Maybe they have some sort of obstructive sleep apnea. And from the tongue you could tell by a scalloped tongue. So it has ridges and those ridges are indicative of your teeth kind of slamming up against your tongue. So it leaves those marks. And so when you see kind of an enlarged tongue with those ridges, those scallops on the sides, then you know, okay, so your jaw doesn't have enough space for your tongue to live. Basically. And so that is often indicative of obstructive sleep apnea.

Kat 8:58

That's so interesting there's so many questions.

Dr. Sim 9:00

More about,

Kat 9:01

yeah.

Dr. Sim 9:02

Throughout history our jaws have really constricted in size. They used to be much bigger, much wider. But as we evolve as humans, as we are not eating like, very, very tough foods. So that's a huge thing actually, when we're babies, they're kind of like eating like baby food and kind of. Not eating as much crunchy vegetables. So things like that actually help expand your jaw. But you know, vitamin K 12 when you're pregnant, that also helps your baby's jaw be developed a little bit bigger. But throughout history, our jaws have just shrunk over time.

Kat 9:31

Yeah. In the book, breath by James Nestor.

Dr. Sim 9:33

Yeah.

Kat 9:35

He was talking about how to your point, your jaws it's narrowing down and do you find like. The one thing I talk about, I mean, with hyper palatable foods to, non-hyper palatable foods and your nutrient dense foods take a longer time to chew. I think it's like 26 to 20 chew for like a carrot versus a potato chip, which is like four to six chew when we're eating a carrot, we're getting more feedback and stimulus. It's the hard crunch on the teeth. You're getting that chemical digestion in your mouth and then swallowing, and it also takes longer for you to eat, so you're not consuming as much like a potato chip. And so with my clients, I talk about like, yes, it's gonna. Be more, not just e we're not looking at like solely energy calorie output, but the nutrient density foods are gonna be tougher. It's going to allow for the body to realize it's eating versus quickly putting food in.

Dr. Sim 10:35

Yeah. As you're saying, is that biomechanical feedback of your body saying, now we are, you know, we are satisfied. We have reached, that hormone, it gives enough time for that satiety signal to reach your brain and your body.

Kat 10:46

Do you encourage?'cause I heard this a long time ago, so it's a little bit of myth. The bunky for myself where I don't know where I heard it. I don't know if it was from a dentist or whatnot, where it was like you have to have at least and every meal have a crunchy food, a soft food. Mm-hmm. And a. Pureed food and like a tougher food to keep your teeth strong. So I don't know if this is like on that. No,

Dr. Sim 11:07

I've heard before. Okay. Agree with the crunchy part? Yeah, I think oftentimes we do rely on foods that can be quickly chewed and swallowed and a lot of soft foods in our diets. And so yeah, trying to be mindful of the having crunchy foods is, I don't think people need to be pressed for pure age. I think we're doing that so much anyway.

Kat 11:25

Do you find sometimes I hear from my clients. I don't speak to them about their oral health'cause I am very limited in that capacity. But I hear from clients sometimes, they're like, oh, well hard, crunchy foods hurt my teeth. And knowing from, strength training, adding more of a resistance on the. Bones allows for our bone growth and stimulus. Is that similar to our teeth? Will that like allow for stronger teeth like eating, you know, just gonna use the carrot, example carrot versus like a potato chip or a carrot versus, a fig bar or something. Is that gonna help strengthen our teeth or not?

Dr. Sim 11:59

I personally have not had a patient say that when they're biting on foods, it hurts unless they have, you know, some sort of cavities or, oral disease going on. So to me that's more of a signal of it's time to see your dentist and take a look at what else is going on in there.'cause eating crunchy foods should not hurt your teeth. But they are held in there by periodontal ligament. It's a good question. It's something for me to kind of consider is can that be strengthened over time? But yeah, to that I don't necessarily know, but I would say if somebody's having pain while chewing crunchy foods, that it's time to get checked out.

Kat 12:29

Yeah. I'm like, consult your doctor, your dentist, because that's outta my scope.

Dr. Sim 12:34

If my patient said it hurts when I chew crunchy food, I'd be like, let's get those X-rays. Let's take a look. What's going on?

Kat 12:38

Yeah,. And I would be intrigued to hear what you uncover about the teeth and how it is like attached by a ligament, because it's like they. But with bones and how bones give nutrients to ligaments and tendons and muscles and how the stress of the muscle on the bone allows for strengthening and thickening of the bone. I'd be curious to see if there's what there is behind that.

Dr. Sim 12:59

Yeah. We'll take a look.

Kat 13:01

Now. Blood sugar, how does that impact the mouth at all? Or does that show any impacts of how the mouth will react?

Dr. Sim 13:11

Yeah. So I guess the whole idea for this office also is to reduce chronic inflammation in the body. And as you know, blood sugar with those chronic glucose spikes, it really just, it's like this hit on your body that takes chronically over time, especially when you are also digesting foods. So when you have periodontal disease or you have. Cavities. It's like this low grade inflammation that's present in your body, just like when you have glucose in your body. But not buffered by, you know, having vegetables first or something. If you go straight into having glucose and causing those glucose spikes, it's your body over time. Taking those chronic hits of, inflammation. Which lowers your body's ability to fight kind of those bigger infections over time. And that's what leads to more systemic issues. Specifically glucose on the teeth. You know, I find that it's any sugars, it's not just a lot of people say refined sugars but really it's any sugars that lead to an acidic environment in your mouth. For me, I always just tell my patients follow any sugars by water. But for the blood spiking for the glucose, that's more of that chronic inflammation still in the body that we wanna reduce. So that is something we talk about in this office a lot. We talk about how to reduce the chronic inflammation in your body with the way you eat in order to reduce that glucose spike. And it's not necessarily a glucose spike related to your risk of having cavities, if that makes sense. Mm-hmm.

Kat 14:36

Yeah. No, I like that. And so one of the things I'm actually curious'cause I'm a big runner and I do endurance races, and so a lot of that food is like gel breakdown of glucose, carbohydrates, mm-hmm. And so one of the things, it was an opinion piece that I read and it was an endurance runner who talked about how his oral health and his gut biome went way down because he was consuming a lot of high carb gels.

Dr. Sim 15:05

Mm-hmm.

Kat 15:06

Have you noticed or can you notice those runners who might be consuming gels any impact there? I don't know if you have any info.

Dr. Sim 15:15

I would also be asking them like, are you breathing through your mouth while you're running? How's your saliva flow? Do you have water after you have the gels? Because I don't know that if you have a gel and it's just kinda sitting on your mouth for hours without. Rinsing it with water or kind of getting it off your teeth. I could see how that could make your mouth a more acidic environment, but I would be more curious about how they're breathing while they're running. And if they're having any sort of water. But other than that, I don't see why the gels would be a big issue. Yeah. If it's like kind of a runner thing, I don't know. I run very minimally. I'm more of a Walker Pilates. But my assumption is it has something to do with the breathing.

Kat 15:53

That is something I know for myself, in the winter it is so cold outside. And my nose tends to run and I catch myself breathing for about of time through my mouth. And I'm like, no, wait. Close your mouth. Breathe through your nose in, through your nose, out, through your mouth. And there are times where, if I'm working and it's like a higher threshold, like sprint, it's like sometimes yes, I'm gonna breathe a little bit more out through my mouth. But it's, that's something, it's like you should be in an endurance effort breathing more controlled and not labored breath. When I do gels, I'm always like, drink water after that.'cause it also helps the gut response in feeling better over time that you're getting that water in there to help process the nutrients into the system.

Dr. Sim 16:36

Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, it is true. It's not just sugar that does it. It could be any sort of carb source. It could be, goldfish is like the number one, but crackers, you know, anything kind of gets stuck in your teeth like that and just kind of sits there. But I have found that mouth breathing's even more prevalent than carbohydrates. Causing issues with your teeth.

Kat 18:06

That's so interesting.'Cause we don't tend to think about our breath a lot, and how it impacts our overall health. It is something that I cue my clients on how to breathe when they're lifting even outside and especially, working with women, you know, and men hold tension, but women, there's a lot of tension that they hold in their body. And I always ask'em like, you're holding, touching your jaw and your neck. Yeah. And when I lift, I see them like, hike here and I'm like, no, we wanna drop the shoulders. We relax the face, like, yeah. We don't wanna hold that tension. And I definitely don't want clients clenching their teeth when they're trying to lift we want a relaxed face so we can breathe through our diaphragm and out so that the whole core function is there and it'll help work physiologically with the lift.

Dr. Sim 18:49

Yeah, exactly. I'm hosting actually a Pilates class here at the office next week. And it's all about, how the floor of your mouth relates to the floor of your pelvis. And so when your body doesn't have the correct posture, it also can lead to jaw tension and jaw pain. And so yeah, it's all connected. The diaphragms of the body are all connected. When you strengthen one, it strengthens the other two. And so it's important to keep. Fit, keep strong and then really have that good posture while you're doing that.

Kat 19:14

A hundred percent. Now, how does stress show up in oral health?

Dr. Sim 19:18

Oh, like you just said, jaw is probably the number one. People, I mean, have, there's so much TMJ pain and clicking. And so a lot of it really resides in your jaw.

Kat 19:30

And then how does chronic stress change that microbiome over time,

Dr. Sim 19:34

yeah. So with emotional regulation is so important because when you are in your parasympathetic, you're hanging out, you're chilling your rest and digest stimulates your saliva flow in your mouth. So if you think about. Saliva its property is to keep your mouth at balance and keep cavities At bay, its job is to protect your teeth. And so when you have good saliva flow, you tend to have better oral health. And so that tends to be in the more parasympathetic you know, resting and digesting. When you go into a sympathetic zone and you are in fight or flight. Saliva drops because your body's now energized to do other things. And it's not producing saliva. So when you are in your rested and relaxed state, you're kind of in your cavity fighting state, which is super interesting. But that resilience to be able to bounce between the two and not stay stuck in one state versus the other, is sort of what the actual goal is for our bodies. Mm-hmm. That resiliency for our emotional wellbeing is really important and it plays such a role. So. People will come to dentist and they have a lot of anxiety, and then you see their saliva drops, their heart rate increases and so they're kind of in this fight or flight. And it does affect your body's ability to repair too. So if you come in for an extraction or something and you've been super, super nervous, one, you're probably not gonna take the anesthesia as well. And then number two, your healing's probably gonna be slower. So my goal here in this office is to help you emotionally regulate and bring all of your sympathetic or parasympathetic zones up. So I have music and low lights and try to make it this very comfortable experience so that you can be in your best state for healing.

Kat 21:12

I love that. And it's so true about the parasympathetic to sympathetic. What are some big mistakes? Well-intentioned, like health focused individuals make with oral care.

Dr. Sim 21:21

I think ignoring their tongue, that's a big one. So a lot of those pathogens, a lot their microbiome. Lives on your tongue. And then thinking that you're brushing your tongue and that's enough, or something even worse than that is mouthwash. I have a real bone to pick with mouthwash. They're antibacterial, which is bad because not all bacteria is bad for your mouth. And so if you think about, especially the alcohol based mouthwashes. They really kind of obliterate your oral microbiome. And so that's killing the good bacteria as well. So I encourage all of my patients to stay away from, most mouth washes. There are a few that are okay, and they tend to be more of the oil-based, mouth washes. And so I can go on about mouth washes for a while.

Kat 22:03

The oil based ones, is that the same as like oil pulling in the mouth or is that different?

Dr. Sim 22:07

Yeah. It's the same. So coconut oil, sesame oil, castor oil, those tend to be the better options for oil pulling.

Kat 22:14

And then are there other, so with the tongue, is it, you mentioned like brushing, what else would be taking care of the tongue?

Dr. Sim 22:21

Well, brushing isn't enough. Brushing is kind of like swishing, like moving it around on your tongue so it feels like you're doing something but you, you not doing too much. So I would prefer tongue scraping. That's really kind of getting rid of the, bacteria that's living on your tongue. So that is the better option for that.

Kat 22:37

And what about flossing? I try to floss every night, but it does not ever happen every night.

Dr. Sim 22:42

So yeah, flossing is so important because periodontal disease happens when you don't floss. So if you don't floss and you have this buildup of plaque, it can get harder and harder over time. And that kind of adheres to your tooth. It goes underneath your gum line. And so now you've kind of created this, inlet for bacteria to go through your bloodstream what we really wanna do is keep that whole entire area clean. And flossing is one of the best ways to do that, not just any floss. I would stick to the thicker flosses. So one of my favorite ones is like cocoa floss, but it's made outta coconut fibers. Are a couple of options for thicker floss, but I definitely have an opinion about floss is not, not all floss is created equal. But any floss is better than no floss.

Kat 23:21

That's so interesting. I'm always like, I gotta floss and, sometimes best intentions and then life gets busy, but I'm always on my kids. I'm like, floss, floss, floss. And then I forget.

Dr. Sim 23:33

Yeah. I'd like to say it's like your mouth is incubating the food you ate all night, personally, I didn't start really flossing until I went to dental school. I had to become a whole dentist to really take it seriously because I had to understand like, I'm a y person and so why do we do this? We do it so that we can clear out the bacteria from our mouth and let it penetrate into our bloodstream and cause issues later. That's what I was talking about, like this chronic inflammation, it's very low grade and so it kind of goes under the radar. A lot of people, including myself when I was younger, didn't floss, or people won't floss because they're bleeding when they floss. Oftentimes when you bleed, when you do something, you're like, oh, maybe I'm just doing the wrong thing. Or my teeth don't like to be floss because they bleed. Nobody wants to bleed, or floss through the blood because that's not a really fun thing to do either. So I find that a lot of patients don't love flossing because they bleed. The truth is that bleeding is really the signal that something is wrong. Trying to get that to come down and actually just flossing more is the actual cure for that.

Kat 24:25

That makes total sense. I'm gonna put a post-it note on my bathroom mirror Flos, every single night. Now if someone's in that overwhelmed state and they're like, oh my goodness, I have neglected my oral health. I try to, but at the end of the day or the morning life is so rushed, what are maybe two or three things that they could focus on? Start here then progress on.

Dr. Sim 24:48

Yeah, I think some of these things are bigger in our minds than they actually are in reality. So in the morning, all you have to do is brush. That's it. That is the minimum. The maximum would be tongue scrape after. So that's two things. And that's all I would recommend doing. And then at nighttime. It is as simple as floss, brush, tongue, scrape. You're just getting all the food you ate throughout the day, out of your mouth. That's all. You're just giving your mouth the ability to reset itself. So the minimum would be probably floss and then brush. I always say floss first because we get all of that stuff out from between your teeth and then. Go through a second time by brushing over it afterwards. But again, if you floss afterwards, nobody's getting in trouble for that. It's totally fine. But yeah, there's a preferred sequence. And then tongue scraping after. Also, I find that it helps with, getting the toothpaste out of your mouth. I don't like the taste of toothpaste lingering. Especially if you're gonna have breakfast afterwards or whatever. So it also helps with that feeling in your mouth to get that toothpaste flavor out so that you can taste food. When you start tongue scraping.

Kat 25:49

That's so interesting. Admittedly, I have never tongue scraped. I've always been curious of like, is this a thing or is this a gimmick? So now I'm like, I think, no, not a gimmick, tongue scrapers. So yeah,

Dr. Sim 25:59

I come to my office, we have plenty.

Kat 26:01

I know. I'm like, that's a real thing. I need to do that,

Dr. Sim 26:04

that the ancient Ayurvedic practice, just like oil pulling is tongue scraping is Ayurvedic as well.

Kat 26:10

Wow. I have no, I That is, that's awesome. So going back to a little bit of saliva in the mouth how does. Water play into it, like hydration levels and water or even other beverages that maybe be just as good as water or, we all hear that, like coffee stains your teeth. Acidic, acidic drinks like sodas and stuff like that can cause enamel issues. Does water have a positive or negative or is that like a.

Dr. Sim 26:38

Yeah, water's great. I mean, it really it does hydrate your mouth. It increases your saliva flow as well. But then after you eat your, you know, meals or snacks, I always say, I don't like to eliminate foods, or if your kid needs to have a snack, I never say no. Or if you wanna have that chocolate, have it, if you rinse with water afterwards, kind of allowing your body to just kind of rebuffer itself. So, yeah, water's great.

Kat 26:59

Are there. Other drinks, you advise your clients to consume on the lower end. That may not be good for oral health or oral microbiome at all.

Dr. Sim 27:07

Yeah, the worst ones tend to be things like Gatorade or sugary sodas. Those are the absolute worst. Teas can be great. Teas that have different properties that can help boost your natural saliva capabilities. So like peppermint tea is really helpful. Chamomile also, and chamomile goes back to that emotional regulation with that rest and digest. And so Roy loss is also a pretty good one for helping the cavity fighting abilities of your mouth. So teas are great. I tend to stick to mostly just water. Milk is okay because it is a little basic, but again, I still would rinse with water afterwards'cause milk does contain sugar, But yeah, water is probably the king in this game.

Kat 27:45

Okay. Awesome. I'm always pushing water and that's like pretty much all I drink. Yeah. I'm always telling my clients, and even I, I love coffee in the morning. It's more of, not that I need the caffeine, but I'm like, I just love the warm beverage.

Dr. Sim 27:55

Right. I love it.

Kat 27:56

And I always find myself, I'm like, I just have to rinse out my mouth after I've let that final sip and I drink black coffee, so there's no sugar, there's no milk in it, but it's like, I wanna get. The coffee tastes out and I'm ready for my day. And I always think I'm like, oh, I don't wanna stain my teeth. I want my teeth to stay nice and naturally white, as for as long as I can.

Dr. Sim 28:15

Yeah, it's always a preference. Just do that.

Kat 28:17

This is so helpful. I know, I learned a lot. But if someone listens to this and only takes away one idea about oral health or overall wellbeing, like what do you hope it is?

Dr. Sim 28:29

I hope it's that, you know, taking care of your mouth is taking care of yourself. And so it really is about increasing your own longevity and increasing your own chances of fighting any chronic diseases later in life. Because oral disease can go so under the radar and it's so low key where it's just, you know it is gum disease or it's cavities, but it's not something that you feel like is outside. For example, if you, got a scrape on your arm, you probably treat it more seriously and put a bandaid on it and, really put medicaments on it to help it heal. But if you have, a cavity in your mouth, people tend to ignore it because, they can't really see it as much. And so it would be that your mouth counts and taking care of that matters and it really does affect longevity of your life.

Kat 29:11

And where can people find you? And it'll be posted in the show notes, so if you're driving or if you're out walking, you can't write it down, just go to the show notes after listening to the show.

Dr. Sim 29:19

You can find me at www.ritualsdentalwellness.com and then we're on Instagram as well. At Rituals Dental Wellness.

Kat 29:27

Awesome. It was so great to have you on and if anyone has questions, just message the podcast and I will forward them on, or we'll probably have you back on to talk about more oral health'cause I'm sure we'll get some questions.

Dr. Sim 29:39

Thank you for having me.

Kat 29:41

You're welcome. Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromHerView, powered by KatFit Strength. If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself. Hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes, and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into Next. You can connect with me on Instagram at KatFit or share this episode. Road with a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey. Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.