Healthy Oral Microbiome Means A Longer, Healthier Life
Which is about three dental veneer replacements, if you have them.
It’s an observation so easily debated or dismissed were it via a TikTok livestreamer surrounded by crushed cans of bulk-buy energy drinks and ended with “AITA?”. From a 2024 Nobel prize winner for his work in the simulation of human intelligence, and professor emeritus at the University of Toronto, they’re words worth listening to even if you truly don’t want to hear them.
Professor Hinton claims that humans would be “like toddlers” compared with the intelligence of highly powerful AI systems, given the pace of change in the technology is “much faster” than expected. With no “invisible hand” to keep the profit motive of the behemoth companies in charge in check, he proposes that the only way to force more research into safety, is government regulation.
We know that more bureaucracy isn’t the most effective answer; given that it already has major challenges with standardisation, misinformation, securing sensitive data, and finding balance between economic benefit and social disadvantage.
Looks like it’s a fine mess we’re getting ourselves into.
We seem to have done the same with oral care when we stood back, drowning not waving as health bodies and insurance bodies hypothetically removed our mouths from the rest of our bodies. (Again, with the difficulty finding balance between economic benefit and social disadvantage.) Being that your pie hole is medically recognised as essentially the portal to robust wellbeing, it’s a hypocritical stance that doesn’t have a leg to stand on except that it does.
Amid all this speculation, perturbation and cunctation, what remains pretty much a given is that no matter how subjectively challenging a life may look, most of us try to avoid a kick in the face by the Fourth Horseman for as long as we can. Sensibly so, in the eyes of evolution; the human genome would have had its report card littered with “has potential” had we been indifferent to our own survival.
We need to want to live, even if it is some kind of biological scam, or a shaggy dog tale paradox, tracking memento mori all the way.
Does our aversion to death withstand self-reflection? Or is it purely the machinations of natural selection, tradition and ideology? Maybe it depends on what we think happens after we leave this mortal coil.
Many, regardless of religion, hold the belief that consciousness and identity persist after death. The range of possible transcendence destinations are largely assigned to be within the paradigm of human behaviour – so there are places that are a vast improvement on life as we know it; and those that are much, much worse.
For others, it’s no more and no less than a final breath.
Maybe, in considering that the end brings merely another opportunity for a do-over, there’s less incentive to make the most of what you have if you’re not that impressed with it to begin with.
Who knows what possible repercussions there could be for even thinking that way; such are the complexities of sentience and the absurdity of wisdom awakening ignorance. Whether it’s preferable being a dissatisfied human or a satisfied pig, as English philosopher J.S Mill proffered in 1863, can’t reasonably ignore that the level of perceived dissatisfaction could be at least moderately improved by the consumption of a satisfied pig between two bits of sourdough with some avocado and horseradish.
Of course we’re now at the point of being able to modify, delete or introduce almost any DNA sequence, so resisting genetics or even knowing what it means to do so changes everything because it changes everything.
Longer lives are definitely possible, without sipping port and eating a kilo of chocolate a week as it’s claimed Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment did, who died at the age of 122; although this is now disputed. The story goes that her daughter assumed her mother’s identity in order to avoid inheritance tax.
Ooh-la-la.
Whatever life we have, it might as well be a healthy one because the alternative is pretty sick. Perhaps for some, there’s personal advantage in reassessing the attitude we have to our oral health; unquestionably there’s dire need for health institutions worldwide to recalibrate.
What matters most is our oral microbiome. With more than 700 species of bacterium living in our mouth, it’s pertinent to decide which should live long and prosper, and which need to join the 27 (day) Club. They’re the ride or die for a multitude of viruses, and even fungi. There’s a cacophony of colonies in there. When oral hygiene isn’t maintained, not only is gum disease inevitable, pathogens get a free ride all through the body. The inflammatory responses they cause, result in a plethora of chronic diseases and psychological disorders.
Keeping microbiota in balance – which just on a basic level means a healthy diet, and regularly seeing your dentist – cleans and re-shoes the hooves of the Fourth Horseman, and with newfound vigour he clip-clops away.
He will return, but who knows what AI might have in store by then. Might turn him into a unicorn and we can sip port, eat chocolate and lie about when we die.
Disclaimer: The material posted is for informational purposes only and is not intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Results vary with each patient. Any dental procedure carries risks and benefits. If you have any specific questions about any dental and/or medical matter, you should consult your dentist, physician or other professional healthcare providers.
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