An imbalanced oral microbiome can be a significant risk factor for various systemic diseases including heart disease and Alzheimer's.

“having an imbalanced oral microbiome increases your risk of oral diseases like gum disease and decay, but also can increase your risk of other systemic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, infertility, Alzheimer's.”

Antiseptic mouthwash and fluoride toothpaste are harmful because they destroy the oral microbiome responsible for nitric oxide production.

“they don't know that most toothpaste and mouthwash is killing the oral microbiome that's partly responsible for production of nitric oxide”

Alcohol-based mouthwashes are detrimental to oral health because they harm mucosal lining and disrupt the healthy oral microbiome.

“most all not all but most all mouthwashes especially those containing alcohol are terrible for oral health simply put they deplete certain components of the mucosal lining of the mouth and they disrupt the healthy components of the oral microbiome”

Dr. Whitman states that common oral care ingredients like alcohol and harsh astringents disrupt the oral microbiome and can lead to adverse health outcomes.

“So much of oral health is a less is more approach and it's not so product heavy it should be more focused on diet and lifestyle like anything with health uh unfortunately Dentistry has been separated in compartmental specialized out of the body like much of medicine”

It is more effective to foster a healthy microbiome by feeding existing bacteria with fiber-rich foods rather than taking supplemental probiotics.

“in order to get meaningful colonization and repopulation of the gut you have to feed them and so the food is ultimately more important because the truth is it's not that you don't have any healthy bacteria in your gut the population is low how do you get well population may be low”

Probiotic supplements from supermarkets are generally ineffective because they do not contain high enough concentrations of bacteria to colonize the gut.

“probiotics the ones you can go to the supermarket pick up off the shelf you know Yule Dan on whatever it is for the average person it's not going to make a huge difference because the strains contained within these mostly unregulated off-the counter or off the refrigerator section supplements”