Tune In: Everything You Need To Know About Oral Health & Keeping Your Smile Bright, From A Celeb Dentist

Oral health is the foundation for facial aesthetics, beauty, and overall health. The health of our gums, teeth, and mouth in general plays a huge role in how we look and feel. So having proper oral hygiene is truly one of the most important beauty and wellness routines you can have. 

"People look at the mouth as this little area, but oral health is the gateway to overall health. It's where everything begins," says celebrity cosmetic dentist Victoria Veytsman, DDS, in this week's episode of Clean Beauty School. In the episode we talk about the many ways oral inflammation can wreak havoc on the body, how a smile can influence mental health, and the ways the gums and teeth change with age.

"The first signs of aging often show up in your mouth," she told me. "Remember, it's one of the most used parts of the body. You know, your skin loses collagen and volume, but so do the teeth. The bones in your face change, the musculature changes, and the teeth can experience things like chipping and discoloration."

You have to have a basic oral care routine if you want a healthy smile. You know the drill: twice daily brushing, flossing, tongue-scraping, and alcohol-free mouthwash. But those aren't the only habits affecting your oral health in the long run. 

"We have to understand that nothing in our body exists in a silo. The body is all interconnected, and no one system can exist on its own. There's a symbiosis in the way that the systems function," she says. "Looking at the mouth, I can't think of one system that it doesn't affect."

And on the flip side, there isn't one system in the body that won't ultimately affect the mouth.

For example, gut health and nutrition play a huge role in oral health. When we eat a nutrient-dense, robust diet, that can help keep teeth and gums strong long term. For example, antioxidants can help fight free radicals in the mouth and reduce inflammation1. 

There are aesthetic changes that happen to the teeth—yellowing, volume loss, and chipping, for example—but just as important are the changes that happen to the gums. With age, lots of folks experience changes to their gums.

"The gums are so important and are the foundation of the smile. There are a couple of different factors to consider. It's loss of volume—so the loss of collagen and elasticity—that changes the gum levels. That's when you see things like gum recession," she says. 

Perhaps not surprisingly, inflammation also plays a huge role in gum health. "I see a lot of inflammation—you know, gingivitis—and that affects the entire body," she says. 

There are many benefits associated with staying hydrated—oral health being one of them. In particular, it can help support your oral microbiome and pH of the mouth. "Hydration is going to help with the pH of your mouth," she says. 

Why pH matters is because it influences the balance of our various microbiomes.

"The microbiome that's in your mouth is going to affect the microbiome that's in your digestive tract, and we know how important that is, right?" she says. "For example, it plays a huge role in immune system support. The oral microbiome actually communicates and educates the immune system and kind of regulates the immune response in the body."