Written by: Bonnie Feldman, DDS, MBA, Anthony Tung, Ellen M. Martin
Envision this: you wake up on a Saturday morning after a night of good sleep. Your hair is everywhere, your arm is numb, and you realize that it’s almost the afternoon. You open your mouth and greet the day with your best yawn… and you are taken aback by how terrible your breath is. No shame, we’ve all been there.
The next time you find yourself in this shameless Saturday-morning state, take the time to run your tongue across the surface of your teeth. That strange slimy texture you’ll find is known as biofilm–the perpetrator of your bad breath and of ten dozen other things we don’t want in our mouths.
Wait, what is it?
Biofilm is best described as the accumulation of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms on the surface of your teeth. If you need to visualize it, think of the white stuff you might find under your fingernail after scraping your tooth. While the formation of biofilm is a natural process, disease may occur if it is allowed to accumulate beyond levels compatible with health (1). Yes, we’re talking about cavities, but we’re also talking about everything from halitosis (bad breath) to systemic autoimmune diseases. Although there are dozens of different species (and billions of individual microorganisms) involved in the development of pathogenic biofilms, the primary bacterium we’re going to focus on today is a nasty little guy called Streptococcus mutans.
S. mutans absolutely loves to hang out in the biofilm of your teeth, but it does a terrible job at keeping your enamel healthy. That’s because S. mutans produces acid that eats away the surface of your teeth (2), causing–you guessed it–cavities.
Traditionally, broad-spectrum antibiotics were used to stop S. mutans and other harmful microorganisms, but this solution is unideal, as they kill many species, leading to ecological imbalances in the oral microbiome and increasing the chances of opportunistic infections(3). We know that’s a mouthful, so we’ll break it down in simpler terms: traditional antibiotics not only get rid of harmful bacteria, but also helpful bacteria. This disrupts your natural microbiome and opens your mouth to other infections. So, while the S. mutans may be gone, an imbalanced microbiome allows other diseases to develop.
Checkmate? SIKE
You might be thinking “Yeah, that sucks. So what can we do?” Thankfully, you’re not the first person to ask that, and our friends at Bio-Botanical Research have just the solution for you.
Bio-Botanical Research and Biocidin
Dr. Rachel Fresco founded Bio-Botanical Research in 1989 to tackle one question: how do we get rid of pathogenic biofilms while preventing opportunistic infections? With her extensive background in medical herbology, functional medicine, and clinical nutrition, she decided to implement Biocidin–a cocktail of botanical medicines that targets the oral cavity and GI tract to support healthy microbiome balance. Biocidin is made of several ingredients with antimicrobial properties and–unlike other products with crazy hieroglyphic chemical constituents–we think you’d be surprised at how many names you may recognize:
- Bilberry (aka European blueberry) — disrupts co-aggregation properties of oral pathogens.
- Garlic — has significant antibacterial properties against S. mutans.
- Grapeseed — supports healthy remineralization of teeth and decreases cell viability in the biofilm.
- Shiitake — inhibits cell division and disrupts co-aggregation specific to S. mutans.
- Raspberry — prevents coaggregation and disrupts existing biofilms.
Does it sound more like what you would find in a kitchen pantry than in an antimicrobial agent? Well, that’s the point: Biocidin has been described as “the most powerful natural inhibitor of pathogenic organisms”–and for good reason too. Previous studies have shown Biocidin to be immensely effective against planktonic microbial populations and pathogenic biofilm formation(4). Don’t believe us? Take a look at the graph below (we know graphs suck, but if you’d just follow the blue and red lines in the figure below, we think you’ll see what we mean).
If you were too lazy to look at the graph (which is understandable, but it was worth a shot to throw it in there), here it is in words: the presence of Biocidin significantly reduces the amount of pathogenic biofilm present in a given sample, and it does so WHILE supporting a balanced microbiome.
Take that, S. mutans!
Introducing Dentalcidin
Now, unless you ENJOY bad breath and cavities and all those other things associated with nasty biofilm, you probably want to know how you can implement Biocidin into your oral care routine. It’s an understandable sentiment, so we’d like to introduce you to…
DENTALCIDIN!
Dentalcidin is a toothpaste developed by Bio-Botanical Research that effectively removes pathogenic biofilm and promotes a healthy and balanced oral microbiome. Its primary active ingredient is Biocidin, and the ingredients that make this toothpaste toothpaste-y are primarily naturally-occurring as well. Here’s a list of the ones that surprised us the most:
- Aloe Vera
- Tea Tree Essential Oil
- Cinnamon Essential Oil
- Clove Essential Oil
- Royal Jelly (from bees!)
(Yes, we also think it sounds absolutely delicious).
If toothpaste is not enough to satisfy your Biocidin needs, we recommend supplementing Dentalcidin toothpaste with its cousin, Dentalcidin LS (Liposomal Spray). Dentalcidin LS has been reported to significantly reduce the number of oral pathogens present in that precious, precious mouth of yours; in a case study conducted by a dentist, the number of pathogens present in a patient’s mouth decreased from thirty-five to four species after four weeks of use.
Sure it sounds good, but is it yummy?
If you’re like me, then you care about the taste of your toothpaste. If you’re REALLY like me, then you’d like the taste of Dentalcidin. With its honey-like appearance, Dentalcidin holds a subtle peppermint flavor that complements all of the yummy ingredients previously listed above.
How’s it feel?
It would not be an exaggeration to say that my teeth were “squeaky” after two minutes of brushing. After following my brush with a quick rinse of Dentalcidin LS, my mouth was feeling cleaner than ever! So for those of you with bad breath insecurity, fear no more–Dentalcidin will definitely get the job done for you.
TL;DR
Pathogenic biofilms are nasty, and the way they affect your health extends beyond the shameless Saturday-morning bad breath. Bio-Botanical Research has implemented Biocidin into their products to attack this pathogenic biofilm in a way that is beneficial to your microbiome, and we can’t recommend a better way to go at it than with Dentalcidin. So the next time you yawn and are greeted by that mouth odor after a good-night’s sleep, start your morning right with a nice scrub of our favorite microbiome-conscious toothpaste.
References
- Marsh P.D., Bradshaw D.J. Dental Plaque as Biofilm. Journal of Industrial Microbiology (1985) 15; 169-175.
- Forssten S.D., Bjorklund M., Ouwehand A.C. Streptococcus mutans, Caries and Simulation Models. Nutrients (2010); 2(3) 290-298.
- Balakrishnan M., Simmonds R.S., Tagg J.R. Dental caries is a preventable infectious disease. Australian Dental Journal (2000); 45:(4): 235-245
- Marques, Claudia. Preliminary Report on Activity of Biocidin against Multiple Species of Biofilms. Binghamton University Biological Sciences Dept., 30 Sept. 2013.
