Your oral health offers clues about your overall health and problems in your mouth can affect the rest of your body. Oral bacteria and the inflammation associated with a severe form of gum disease (periodontitis) might play a role in several diseases. And certain diseases, such as diabetes and HIV/AIDS, can lower the body's resistance to infection, making oral health problems more severe. When we think about health oral health is not the first to come to mind. Most of us think of oral health the same way we think of our nails, hair, or skin, from a cosmetic perspective. It is time to change this given the scientific evidence coming forward on the importance of oral health on overall health.

Gut health and probiotics have gained importance in the past few years. Gut health is determined by the diversity and population of the gut microbiome. Similarly, the oral microbiome is also vital to our body’s overall health. In fact, the gut and mouth are very closely related since the gut microbiome is “fed” by the mouth’s every time we swallow. Sadly, current approaches to dental care do not consider how important it is to support a healthy flora within the mouth. Instead, we are told to disinfect and sanitize the mouth and are sold “99% germ-kill” mouthwashes. We are told to eat nitrate rich foods (such as beetroot, green leafy vegetables) as nitrates convert to nitric oxide which governs vasodilation and regulation of blood pressure. However, the nitrate to nitric-oxide pathway in our body relies on certain oral bacteria. Which if not is abundant supply the benefit of eating these nitrate rich foods is lost as the pathway is not complete. Nitric oxide is also critical to other body functions such as reducing inflammation, immune response and even regulating blood sugar levels.

Our gums absorb what we put into ours mouth faster than our hands absorb lotion. Most commercially available toothpastes and mouthwashes contain harmful ingredient and toxins such as triclosan, fluoride, parabens, titanium dioxide and artificial flavours which are then daily absorbed by our mouths into our blood stream. And while some natural brands tell us what not to use, they do not offer ingredients backed by science to heal our mouths. We are setting out to change that because the mouth is too critical to whole body health to ignore.

Our teeth have an outer protective covering called enamel that is made up of calcium and phosphate. Cavity-causing bacteria can break down food particles and create an acidic environment in your mouth. This acidic environment is harsh and can strip away these beneficial minerals from the surfaces of your teeth. This process is called demineralization. Hydroxyapatite is a naturally occurring mineral that makes up 97% of our tooth enamel. Adding this to toothpaste and oral care products has been scientifically-proven to strengthen and protect your teeth. Hydroxyapatite is absorbed by the teeth and fills up the small holes and depressions on enamel surface caused by demineralisation.

Aeka’s Premium Natural Toothpaste uses a nano-sized version of hydroxyapatite. Because of its small size, nano-hydroxyapatite (n-HAP) can even get into small cracks which leads to better benefits. We combine this with other high-bio availability marine mineral salts (Aquamin) which also help strengthen the enamel. Most commercial toothpastes use fluoride as ingredient to remineralise enamel as it cheaply available and has been used in toothpastes since the 1950’s. Over exposure to fluoride is also linked to low thyroid function, learning and behavioural difficulties and bone fragility. N-HAP on the other hand is 100% biocompatible and non-toxic. This also makes our toothpaste child-friendly since young children do not have full control over swallowing and can ingest large amounts of toothpaste. Because Hydroxyapatite is a naturally occurring mineral in our teeth and bones, it is completely harmless if accidentally ingested. And since the rest of our ingredients are also all safe, you have nothing to worry about when using our toothpaste.