Gallinée is a beauty brand focused on the microbiome, which means that wherever you have a microbiome, we plan to help it. And for years we have been looking at the oral microbiome as our next conquest.
The mouth microbiome is the community of microbes that live inside your mouth.
Here are the top 5 cool facts about this very special ecosystem :
- Your mouth is a planet
The oral area is full of different ecosystems, from the hard and smooth surface of the teeth to the soft and spongious surface of the tongue, it’s a whole little world in there. Which means that each niche is going to be inhabited by different bacteria. It explains why the mouth microbiome is the richest one after the gut: 700 species live there!
- Your mouth is also very very busy
Think of your mouth as a very busy train station: Billions of bacteria travel there every day, through the food you eat, the water you drink (fun fact: there are 10 million bacteria in a glass of water). Some travel to the gut, some stay in your mouth. So you can think of your mouth as the first station before your gut microbiome. It’s actually a really good indicator of the health of your gut.
- One big enemy: sugar
Cavities are a lot more frequent since we introduced cereals and sugar in our diet: these nutrients are feeding bad bacteria (we’re looking at you S. mutans!) that will create acid as a by-product, that will then attack the teeth. This acid also leads to the development of more bad bacteria, creating a vicious circle. So diet is a really important part of a healthy mouth microbiome.
- Your bacteria there are very organised
They create little cities called the plaque. They are mostly harmless but can be the source of infections and cavities (read our article on the subject here). 99% of these bacteria are good for you, and 1% are the bad guys, which can lead to gum problems, tooth decay or bad breath.
- We don’t treat this microbiome really well
You wouldn’t disinfect your skin or your gut three times a day, and yet that’s exactly what most people try to do. Anti-bacterial toothpaste or mouthwash are useful when you have an infection, but don’t make sense on a daily basis. At Gallinée, we believe it makes a lot more sense to feed the good 99% and let them take care of the bad 1%, rather than to kill 100% of your microbiome and hope for the best.
Learn more on how to take care of the mouth microbiome here!