My guest, Dr. William Levine, DDS is also a board-certified Periodontist specializing in oral diseases and implantology and has over 35 years of experience in the dental field. That may sound like the lead into a boring conversation but my time with Dr. Levine was anything but. 

He makes the science of teeth and gums simple and interesting.

I had to ask about flossing—yes it is as important as why our dentists harp on doing it. 

He made a good point I hadn’t thought of:

“You're brushing the outside and the inside, but you're actually not getting between the teeth. The surfaces of these are filled with bacteria and the bacteria forms immediately there and begins to grow there. And you're not able to remove it. There's no place else in your body where you would tolerate that.”

All sorts of nasty possibilities if we did…

He gave a thumbs up for my fave portable flossing tool—the interdental brush pic, or in my parlance, the round brush thing. It’s virtually as good as flossing.

I’ve got a new favorite phrase: immunomodulatory protective system, aka bacteria killing agents. These guys work to keep us from getting infections below the gum line and in the bones. Ask them to work overtime for too long—not effectively cleaning your teeth and gums—and they begin to cause damage and bone destruction.

We Americans are not doing too well in the tooth and mouth care scale.

“In the United States, which is relatively high level of oral health awareness and the population generally takes care of their teeth.

And still over 50% of the American population have advanced or significant gum disease over the age of 35. That's an enormous number. 

And when you look at gingivitis, which is simply inflamed gums that haven't yet caused bone destruction, we're talking about the 85% of the adult population.”

The thing I most wanted to share with you is the relationship between the health of our mouths and our cardiovascular system. Dr. Levine says it goes further than just our hearts.

“if we get to the place of periodontal disease, bacteria overload, infection you can’t necessarily see, our bloodstream absorbs reams of bacteria causing an enormous elevation in inflammatory chemicals, which will elevate what we would classically call the inflammatory profile. Our body is at high risk at that point, and therefore it impacts actually much more than just cardiac disease.

There's very strong associative data to show that it impacts significantly upon, strokes, it increases diabetes risk, it increases rheumatic fever and rheumatoid arthritis and pretty much every other disease, even Alzheimer's and others.”

No healthy aging program can be complete without including our teeth and gums.

Dr. Levine was and is so concerned with the high rates of inflammation in our population, and knowing that none of the over the counter rinses are reaching into the gums where inflammation can live and hide, that he created his own product, PeriActive.

According to their website, PeriActive is the only product that will actually penetrate into the gums to reduce inflammation and strengthen the gums by inducing collagen formation and healing.

It’s 100% natural plant based formula. If you listen you’ll hear him talk about the painstaking process of testing ingredients and formulations. What he thought would take 6 months took 10 years to develop! Unlike most over the counter rinses it has no sugar, no alcohol, and no chemicals.

I had hoped it would be available here in the states by now (June 5, 2023) it’s slated to arrive in September. Dentists have been recommending it for years so it’s not an untested product. And they offer a 6-day money-back guarantee. Who else does that?

I for one can’t wait to add it to my healthy aging arsenal.