Discover What Saliva Can Reveal About Whole-Body Health at the NYDHA 2026 Empire Conference

Posted on October 30, 2026October 28, 2026 by Nichelle Venable, BSDH, RDH

Dental hygienists play an important role in recognizing the connections between oral health and overall wellness. At the 2026 NYDHA Empire Conference, attendees will have an opportunity to explore how salivary diagnostics can support this connection and help advance preventive, personalized patient care. Taking place November 6–8 at the Hyatt Regency Long Island in Hauppauge, New York, the annual conference brings dental hygiene professionals together for continuing education, networking,...

The Three Pillars of Periodontal Healing: Why Identifying the Infection Matters

Posted on October 23, 2026October 22, 2026 by Lee Sheldon DMD PA

Over the course of my career, some of the most satisfying—and often surprising—results I have seen in periodontal practice have come from balancing what I call the three pillars of periodontal healing: root cleanliness, control of the infectious component, and occlusion. All three matter. But for this discussion, I want to begin with the infectious component because it raises an interesting question: If we believe we are treating an infection, shouldn't we try to identify what we are trea...

Throwback: Six Mouth Infections You Need to Get Rid of if You Have Heart Disease

Posted on October 16, 2026October 15, 2026 by Cass Nelson-Dooley MS

Address Oral Health to Prevent Heart Attacks, Strokes, and High Blood Pressure When you ask most people, “What can you do to treat heart disease?” they will say “diet and exercise.” But how many people mention mouth bacteria at the top of the list for turning around heart disease? Even medical doctors rarely mention this as a top contributor to heart disease. While diet and exercise are critical, don’t overlook the sinister bacteria lurking in the mouth that cause gum infections and send the ...

Throwback: Children Get Gum Disease Too

Posted on October 9, 2026October 9, 2026 by Barbara Tritz RDH

Parents always ask me, “Does my child have any cavities?” What I also want parents to wonder and ask; “Does my child have gum disease?” People – parents – don’t know what they don’t know! Too often, we dismiss a “little bleeding” or calculus buildup in children (never mind adults) as poor oral hygiene and admonish them to brush and floss. Yet, without addressing the root causes, this inflammation does not resolve. Evolve your practice: look deeper into bleeding gums in children and ...

The Missing Link Between Bacterial Testing and Clinical Decision-Making

Posted on October 2, 2026October 1, 2026 by Lindsey Bieligk, MSDH, RDH

Salivary bacterial testing has transformed the way we identify periodontal pathogens and assess disease risk. Instead of relying solely on clinical findings, today's clinicians have access to biologic data that provides a more personalized understanding of each patient's oral microbiome. However, as testing becomes more widely adopted, many dental professionals are encountering an unexpected challenge: interpreting the results is often easier than knowing what to do next. Receiving a labo...

Why Oral Microbiome Testing Might Be One of the Most Important Health Tests You’ve Never Heard Of

Posted on September 25, 2026September 17, 2026 by Jessica Lederhausen

What if we could identify risk long before disease develops? For years, dentistry has focused on repairing damage after it occurs. Today, advances in oral microbiome science allow us to understand why disease develops and how to prevent it. Your Mouth Is an Ecosystem Your mouth is home to a remarkable ecosystem of 700–900 species of bacteria. Most are beneficial and help protect your teeth, gums, and overall health. Good oral health isn't about eliminating bacte...

The Story Behind Referral Conduit: Why We Are Uniting Dentistry and Medicine

Posted on September 18, 2026September 4, 2026 by Michelle Hougland

Every dental professional has experienced that exact moment of frustration. You are looking into a patient's mouth, seeing severe periodontal inflammation, and you know with absolute certainty that it is wrecking their systemic health—whether they are managing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, or cognitive decline. You want to co-manage their care with their primary care physician. But when you try to reach out, you hit a brick wall. The pathway just isn't there. ...

We Are Talking About the Oral-Systemic Connection—But Are We Talking to Each Other?

Posted on August 28, 2026August 20, 2026 by Michelle Hougland

A New Way of Thinking For a long time, dentistry and medicine lived on separate islands. Today, we all know the truth: the mouth and the body are completely connected. We read the research on periodontal pathogens and systemic health, and we track the inflammation. But a massive practical gap remains: How do we actually talk to each other across that dental-medical divide? That is exactly why we started the Dental Referral Marketing Podcast and built Referral ...

How Salivary Testing Changed the Way We Look at Whole-Body Health

Posted on August 7, 2026August 5, 2026 by Zach & Savannah Labie

When my husband Zach was diagnosed with Stage 3 colorectal cancer at just 33 years old, our world changed overnight. Like many families facing a serious diagnosis, we found ourselves asking one question over and over: Why? Beyond treating the cancer itself, we wanted to better understand the factors that may have contributed to his overall health. That search led us to nutrition, lifestyle changes, detoxification, and eventually to an area we had never considered before—oral health. ...

From Cleaning to Cause: How Salivary Testing Changes the Patient Conversation

Posted on July 24, 2026July 17, 2026 by Jonathan Evans

For many patients, the hygiene appointment still carries a simple expectation: “I’m here to get my teeth cleaned.” As clinicians, we understand that what we see in the chair often tells a much deeper story. Bleeding, inflammation, pocketing, bone loss, and recurring disease activity are not simply “cleaning issues.” They are signs of an infection-driven inflammatory condition that requires diagnosis, strategy, and targeted therapy. The challenge is helping patie...