Decoding the White Tongue: Signs & Solutions for Detox

Hi, everybody, I'm Dr. Sandhya Moldovan, periodontist and nutritionist. Welcome to the Holistic Dentistry Podcast, the show that gives you the tips and tools to detoxify your mouth for a healthier body. As we explore together the root cause of disease. Remember, you're not healthy until your mouth is healthy, so take care of it in the most natural way. Happy New year, everyone. I'm Dr. Sandhya Moldovan, your host for the Holistic Dentistry show, and I'm excited to start 2024. I hope you had a relaxing holiday season. I know a lot of us indulged in decadent foods over Christmas and or New Year's Eve celebration pastries and sweets and definitely, definitely more sugar than normal. So how do we feel typically after such a feast? Well, perhaps feel a little sluggish or bloated or maybe tired. If you look at your skin, you might have more breakouts, sometimes even rashes on the scalp or skin, which some people think, oh, maybe it's due to cold weather. But is it really due to cold weather? When you wake up in the morning after a big celebration like we just had, the mouth can feel sticky. You look in the mirror, you stick your tongue out and it's coated with a white fill. What does that mean? When your tongue is so heavily coated that it results in the appearance of a white tongue, it's a warning sign that you're suffering from an overworked digestive system. Historically, the emergency rooms are full with GI disturbance and GI issues of patients just rushing in after having a feast dinner for the holidays. If your digestive system is overburdened, it can't function properly. And what happens is everything gets backed up. This leads to buildup of bacteria, not only in the intestinal tract, but also on the tongue. The over consumptions of sugar also causes a yeast overgrowth. The most common species of yeast in the mouth is Candida. A lot of you have heard of this. Candida actually causes this white coating on the tongue. So if you look in the mirror and you see this white coated tongue, it's time to detoxify. But it's a full body detoxification, not just the mouth. Or it's not just gut detoxification. We must also take care of oral detoxification. A lot of people go for dry January or maybe green smoothies right after the holidays. And indulging in all the sweets or sometimes even fasting. But very few people really pay attention to the mouth. How's the mouth doing? Because the microbiome is affected Overall, not just in our gut, by the foods that we eat. So you're going to see an increase in plaque deposit on the tongue, on the gums, on the teeth, maybe increased bleeding of your gums, especially those of you that have been traveling. Maybe you didn't take your water flosser with you. You haven't practiced good oral hygiene during your trip. So it's time to get back on Tremec Full mouth detoxification. What is it exactly? When you do a search on Google, we really just find oil pulling and maybe tongue scraping, but really there isn't much information to what to do about a white tongue. As biological dentists, we help people detoxify their mouth. So if you want to learn how to detoxify your mouth fully, definitely see a biological dentist in your area. You can go to IAOMT.org I belong to IAOMT as an organization. I think they do an amazing job at vetting and somewhat standardizing the biological dentists out there. But again, you have to find somebody that you can connect with yourself. What do we detoxify the mouth from? Well, it's really microbes and metals. Microbes are the ones that are on the tongue, on the cheeks, on the gums, in the teeth that cause cavities. And then of course, toxic metals such as mercury fillings, stainless steel crowns. Perhaps we take those out and we put healthier things in. Microbes can also be present in the jawbone. But for today's show, I really want to focus on bacteria on the tongue and the white tongue and what we can do about it. Can we fully get rid of the bacteria on the tongue? No. Nor do we want to. There's 10 times more bacteria in and on our body than there's human cells. We can never win the war of fully detoxifying. I'm going to post at the bottom in the show notes a link for NIDCR funded study in which they actually show the microbial world on the tongue. It's astounding that there's mostly bacteria in the section that they stained and not much tissue of the tongue. The scientists in this image used a new technique to visualize fluorescently the labeled bacteria. But when you have a white coating of the tongue, this is definitely not healthy. It's not a sign of good health. It also creates bad breath. Some of you might have it like this sticky Velcro like feeling. If you let it go on like that, it can turn into a hairy tongue. Basically you actually when you look at your tongue, you'll find that black hairs actually start growing? Well, they're not actual hairs, but there's bacterial deposits on top of dead cells of the tongue that cause these kind of hairy like structures. This coating on the tongue can cover your entire tongue surface or maybe just the back part of the tongue. And it might appear even in patches. So what do we do about this? Well, is that white coating, is it just on the surface of the tongue? No, it's actually embedded in the little microvilli that are inside the little crypts of the tongue. So even the papilla of the tongue or the little hair like structures that are tissue become inflamed, and you can actually get some sensitivity on your tongue from this inflammation. What can cause this? Well, number one, definitely diet. Diet and increased level of sugar, but also poor hygiene, not brushing, flossing, or scraping the tongue. Smoking also increases the bad bacteria and candida levels on the tongue, as well as vaping and chewing tobacco. Drinking more than one alcoholic beverage daily leads to dehydration and a change in the oral microbiome, which can cause your tongue to turn white. People who are wearing dentures, dentures most of the time are made out of plastic and they can harbor Candida. This can cause an increase of candida levels on the tongue, causing it to become white. When you take antibiotics, and I know there's a respiratory condition going around Los Angeles, a lot of people are sick. A patient are asking me for antibiotics. Antibiotics don't really work on viral infections, but when you take antibiotics, this can actually cause a yeast infection inside the mouth, which is what candida really is. So when you look at your tongue after two days of antibiotics, you see that it's turning white. Candida is naturally present in the microbiome of the mouth. We just like it in very small amounts. It gets out of hand when we're starting to kill some of the bacteria present in the mouth. If you eat a diet that has a shortage of fruits and vegetables also can cause a disturbance in the microbiome in a white tongue mouth. Breathers out there can have a white tongue dry mouth also. And because all of these really what happens is they suppress the positive bacteria that is naturally growing in the mouth and it causes yeast to increase numbers. Well, how do we treat white tongue? Is it going to go away by itself? No, it's not going to go away by itself. It's a cyanotoxicity. So we need to pay attention. The best way to see what type of bacteria or candida perhaps is on the tongue, or if There is Candida. And maybe you are just looking at a catalyst is to test it. So how do we test it? My favorite test is the oral DNA Candida test or a RISC Candida. And basically this test is an easy test. It's a swish and spin test. You take a little bit of saline water provided by Oral DNA. You swish for about 30 seconds to a minute, spit it back at the test tube, and send it in. They test for all different species of Candida that are naturally present in the mouth, that maybe have gotten out of hand. And Candida can manifest in different ways. Even if you don't have full oral thrush with a lot of symptoms, it still means you can have a Candida overgrowth, especially in people that maybe have a compromised immune system. Let's say you're sick. That can also increase the level of Candida. The problem with antifungal treatments and oral candidiasis is that they're not very effective. Candida strains are usually resistant to standard antifungal treatment. Candida albicans is the most prevalent opportunistic human pathogen fungus. It can cause mucosal membrane infections and also invade the blood. Typically, I tell patients, if you have Candida in the mouth, it's not just in the mouth. It's already gone systemic. So it's in the GI tract. But if you're starting to feel rashes or itchiness of the skin, most likely it has gone into the bloodstream in the oral cavity. Candida can ferment dietary sugars and produce organic acids and therefore even has a role in developing cavities. So those of you that have a white tongue, I highly recommend you contact oral DNA and find a dentist near you that provides this test to take it to see where you're at in turmo. Candida. I recently had a patient that came to see me our Newport beach location, and she ended up in the emergency room a couple times with not being able to breathe. She has inflammation, had an immune reaction that, you know, comes and goes. Her mouth is super dry, and when I looked at her tongue, it was white with patch of reds. So when I tested her saliva, she had high levels of Candida. And from the symptoms she was having, definitely it's not just in the mouth. It was systemic. We need to approach it from an oral aspect as well as a systemic aspect. Some of you may ask, can I just use a mouthwash to treat my white tongue? Well, problem with a mouthwash is that if you swish, it's not Going to get in between the microvilli or the little extension tissue extension that's on the tongue. It will not reach there. So you're really not making a difference with a mouthwash. Plus, as we're gonna hear from our future guest, is that mouthwashes are actually detrimental to our health, especially the antimicrobial ones. So my recommendation is don't try a mouthwash to get rid of a white tongue, but let's go over some things that do help in controlling a white tongue and starting to detoxify the mouth. Number one, use a tongue scraper. Or if you don't know which one to use, you can ask your dentist to provide you one. Or ask your hygienist for some recommendations. Some water flossers, like the Orasana water flosser, actually comes with a tongue scraper attached to it that actually rinses the tongue as you scrape it. And you want to scrape the tongue gently from the back to the front. And if you're using the water flosser attachment, then it automatically rinses. But when you're done scraping, you want to rinse your mouth just using water or maybe a little bit of alternated water to get rid of all the dead cells and microbes that came off the top. You might not be able to scrape all the white in one session. This might take a while, okay? So don't be alarmed, be patient. It might take few days, sometimes a week to actually fully get rid of this white tongue. Following scraping your tongue, my recommendation is to actually drink some lemon water or have a cleansing green juice and start to change your diet. Because if you don't, just by scraping your tongue is not going to make a difference. And let's talk about green tea. Green tea is actually antifungal and is particularly rich in health promoting flavonoids, which account for about 30% of the dry weight of a leaf. Flavonoids have a lot of antioxidants, flavonoids such as catechins and their derivatives. They're thought to play a pivotal role in green tea's anti cancer and antioxidant effects. So one of the new habits for the new year would be maybe drinking green tea daily. Especially for those of you that are maybe wanting to let go of coffee, green tea is a great alternative. It's one of the most popular beverages in the world and it's gotten so much scientific attention because of its proven beneficial effects on human health. If you say, well, yeah, I really don't like the caffeine in green tea. The good news is there's a way around it. Most of the caffeine in green tea is extracted into water the first time the tea is infused. So throw away that first batch and steep the leaves again. So you're going to get a lot less caffeine than you can drink it. Green tea has also been shown to decrease or enhance the treatment of periodontitis because of its antioxidant effect and also the effect on the microbiome. Essential oils is another way to help with the white coat of the tongue. In this study, 13 studied essential oils actually have shown that the most effective against C. Albicans or candida albicans are thyme, oregano and cassia oil. How do you use essential oil on a white tongue? Essentially, you take a little Q tip, you, you saturate the Q tip in essential oil and then you rub your tongue on the white coating and leave it there for at least 30 seconds and then you can rinse it off. But if you have a good quality essential oil, it's okay if you actually swallow some of it. Herbal supplements can be very beneficial when it comes to candida treatment or white tongue. One of my favorite ones is holy basil or Tulsi. This is an Ayurvedic herb and I grow it in my garden every year. You can actually find it at the nurseries here in California. You can keep it in a pot actually inside the home or on your balcony. But it grows very well in Southern California and the fragrance is really incredible. But tulsi has antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal activity. So how do you take tulsi? Well, my favorite way to have it is in the form of a tea because it's a very fragrant tea, especially if you have the fresh plant, but you can actually eat it because tulsi is part of the basil family. That's why it's also called holy basil. And you can really chop it up, put it on salads. You could eat the leaves just for a breath freshener. And it's been used for medicinal purposes for many years in Ayurvedic medicine. There's so many other herbal supplements out there that have antifungal property. I think one of the most important things with herbal supplements is just to make sure that they come from a good source. If you can grow them yourself, that's even more beneficial because some herbs can contain higher levels of heavy metals depending on what kind of water they were given. A fiber rich diet is also very Very important when it comes to treating Candida and especially a hairy tongue or a white coated tongue, what does the fiber actually do? Well, as you're eating, let's say a celery, stick those fibers through the chewing process as you need to chew about 50 times in order to get that celery fibrous content to soften in order for us to swallow it. Those fibers actually will naturally clean the coated layer on the tongue. But make sure for Candida, we want to have a low sugar diet. So if you have a sweet tooth, you can substitute the sugar with xylitol, stevia, erythritol. In my book Heal Up, I actually dedicated a few pages talking about sugar substitutes and which ones actually make a difference in our microbiome in order to reverse cavities and reverse inflammation. I challenge you in the month of January to try a zero sugar diet. Really start looking at every food that you're deciding to eat and look at the ingredients. You'll be surprised how much hidden sugar is in our food, especially in United States. Anything from, let's say sauces to sugar treats or, or even sometimes, you know, marinated meats have sugar. So try to be conscious about your intake of sugar in the month of January and see the difference in your body and especially on a white coated tongue. Lastly, one more way to help with the coated tongue is using ozonated oil. As many of you know, I'm a big fan of ozone because ozone is antifungal, antibacterial, then it doesn't harm ourselves, it's not toxic like some of the other antibacterial agents on the market. Now you have to remember ozone is potent, so only use it when needed. If you have a coated tongue, then use it until the tongue becomes nice and pink. If your mouth is in good balance, you do not need to use ozonated products. Ozone is highly effective against Candida and actually inhibits its formation, even used at 180 second treatment or 210 second treatment as seen in some studies. So how do you put ozonated oil? We have actually a thinner oil that's a little bit better tasting than your traditional ozonated oil in a jar. It's in the liquid form. You can put a little bit on a Q tip and you can start brushing your tongue from the back to the front. Leave the ozonated oil there. You don't have to actually rinse it off and just see how it looks next morning. Ozone, which is O3, is a highly reactive inorganic molecule. It is naturally part of the atmosphere, but we produce it really through ozone generators and it's being bubbled in the oil itself. It was discovered a long time ago in the mid 19th century and its medicinal use was discovered during the recent decades. It was found that ozone is one of the best microorganism killer, especially when things have overgrown. So after the use of ozonated oil, my recommendation is that you pop in a chewable probiotic because we do want to restore the friendly factor of the mouth and as some of you know, I was formulating a chewable probiotic called Orasana which is vegan certified and I highly recommend you try it. We have some patients with white coated tongue that used the chewable probiotics and have seen a complete reversal of the white coated tongue back to health for those of you that are using especially appliances such as mouth guards, sports guards or snore guards or even CPAPs, when you look in the morning your tongue is white. So pop in a chewable probiotic before you go to sleep and put your appliance on and see how your tongue looks the next morning. Most likely you'll see an improvement. So there you have it. Make sure you pay attention to a white tongue. Do an oral self exam periodically, I would say at least once a month and see how your gums are, your teeth, the back of the throat, the cheeks. If you see something abnormal, visit your dentist, but start with detoxifying the mouth first, especially if you see problems like a white tongue. Flip your oral hygiene routine and include tongue scraping, perhaps a cup of green tea a day and popping in a tropical probiotic. So the routine is brush, water, floss, use a chillable probiotic and scrape your tongue. Wishing everyone an amazing and healthy 2024. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please make sure you check out the show notes for any links mentioned in the show. If you like today's show, please invite your friends to listen as well. That would mean a lot to me. Do you have a question you'd like me to answer? Message me on Instagram at DrSanda. This is Dr. Sanda and remember, your mouth is the gateway to your health, so take care of it in the most natural and best way possible.