Longevity Starts in Your Mouth: Dr. Kenny Brown on Oral Health & Whole-Body Wellness
The Ready State Podcast
Kelly Starrett & Juliet Starrett
4.9 • 623 Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Did you know your oral health is directly tied to your longevity?
In this eye-opening conversation, Dr. Kenny Brown, Stanford-educated oral and maxillofacial surgeon, unpacks the shocking link between dental hygiene and overall health and wellness. Discover how bacteria in your mouth can impact your heart, brain, gut, and even reproductive system, and why gum disease could be silently affecting your body’s performance. Learn the dos and don’ts of brushing, flossing, and tongue cleaning, bust common oral health myths, and explore groundbreaking innovations like the Feno Smartbrush that could revolutionize your routine. Whether it’s preventing chronic inflammation or improving systemic health, this episode is packed with actionable tips that could transform your wellness journey. Don’t miss out—your health starts here!
What You'll Learn in This Episode- Why oral bacteria travel to the heart, brain, joints, and gut
- The difference between brushing “daily” and brushing correctly
- Why only 3 out of 10 people brush properly — and just 1 in 10 floss
- What bleeding gums actually mean (hint: inflammation, not “brushing too hard”)
- The connection between gum disease and chronic illness, diabetes, heart conditions, and preterm labor
- Why panoramic X-rays and cone-beam CT scans matter
- How root canals can hide silent infections
- Whether oral care is improving or declining — and why
- How Zyn, vaping, and nicotine damage gum tissue and affect wellness
- Why nasal breathing and airway health matter for kids and adults
- The future of oral hygiene: AI, microbiome testing, and automated brushing
(00:00) - Intro
(00:39) - How Often to Brush Teeth
(04:10) - Mouth as Gateway to the Body
(09:12) - Proper Tooth Brushing Techniques
(11:39) - Importance of Flossing
(13:03) - Benefits of Mouthwash
(14:15) - Manual vs. Electric Toothbrush
(15:34) - Teeth Whitening
(17:03) - Understanding Root Canals
(22:17) - Oral Health and Overall Wellness
(29:40) - Hope for Non-Flossers
(31:52) - Gum and Dental Health
(33:55) - Effects of Mouth Breathing
(38:39) - Nicotine and Oral Health Risks
(44:32) - Innovations in Oral Care
(47:19) - Current Trends in Oral Health
(55:22) - A book for our Infinite Shelf
(57:11) - Finding Dr. Kenny Brown
(58:28) - The Starrett System’s Durability Challenge
SponsorsThis episode of The Ready State Podcast is brought to you by LMNT and Momentous.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Well, the bacteria in our mouth can also penetrate our bloodstream, just like those medications can. |
| 0:05.2 | And so those travel throughout the body. |
| 0:07.2 | If we constantly are having bacteria poison our bloodstream through our mouth, then it's going to go everywhere. |
| 0:12.1 | Whether that's to your brain, to your heart, to your joints, to your ears, it's going to go everywhere. |
| 0:18.3 | Dr. Kenny Brown is an oral and maxillofacial surgeon and the co-founder and CEO of Fino. |
| 0:24.1 | Dr. Brown received his undergraduate education from Stanford University where he pursued research in regenerative medicine. |
| 0:30.6 | Traveling bacteria that can do all sorts of horrible things to us in our body and our heart and our brains and elsewhere can all be controlled with good |
| 0:38.6 | dental hygiene. The ADA did a survey. They said three out of ten people brush correctly. Three |
| 0:43.3 | out of ten. Should we be brushing our teeth once or twice a day? White teeth aren't necessarily a |
| 0:47.8 | measure of your oral health. Do you think oral care is getting better or getting worse? |
| 0:55.2 | Dr. Kenny Brown, welcome to the Ready State podcast. |
| 0:59.7 | Thank you. Thank you. Excited to be here. |
| 1:02.0 | We are really excited to have this conversation with you. We were lucky enough to meet you |
| 1:06.7 | recently at a conference we both went to. And I just had this moment as I was watching your |
| 1:12.1 | presentation that we have had so many, a breadth of so many different kinds of experts on |
| 1:17.6 | the Ready State podcast talking about all things, health, wellness, longevity, human performance. |
| 1:23.0 | And yet we have never had anyone on to talk about oral health, which Kelly and I both agree |
| 1:30.7 | is such a critical part of our overall health and longevity. |
| 1:33.7 | So I'm just going to start it off with you often say that the mouth is the gateway to the body. |
| 1:40.6 | Can you unpack that a little bit for us? |
| 1:42.3 | What does that actually mean? |
| 1:43.7 | And how does that connect |
... |
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