We live in an era of medical specialists.  Cardiologists, endocrinologists, oncologists, gastroenterologists – each tends to focus on parts rather than the whole being. Yet as science continues to evolve, there is ever more evidence that oral health is intimately linked to overall health.

While the cardiologist who focuses on hearts may never take mouths into consideration, biological dentists recognize, among other things, that chronic inflammation in the mouth is related to chronic inflammation in the heart and other organs and tissues.

If you, like the specialist, rarely relate your mouth to your overall well-being , you may want to put Dr. Felix Liao’s new book Six-Foot Tiger, Three-Foot Cage on your reading list. Dr. Liao highlights the role that the mouth’s structure plays in total health and explains why understanding it is a vital first step toward finding effective solutions for issues other practitioners have failed to resolve.

We might even say that every disease, pain, and illness has an oral connection until proven otherwise.

Sharing case studies of his own patients, Dr. Liao recognizes the concern for what it is: a sign that the mouth structure is impaired. Being too small, the tongue easily obstructs the airway. This, in turn – and the sleep deprivation associated with it – can lead to many common medical, dental, and emotional ailments.

His cases also show you how impaired mouth structure can be redeveloped with oral appliances and supportive measures, including nutritional improvements and myofunctional therapy.

Then there are patients whose health problems mystify physicians, precisely because they never considered what might be going on in the mouth. In one example, a patient who took herself to the ER with dizziness and went through a battery of tests at great expense was told the doctor couldn’t find anything wrong. Though she was given a referral to a neurologist, a holistic-thinking friend referred her to Dr. Liao. Upon examining her, he determined that her dizziness had come courtesy of a new filling. Had this been diagnosed before the ER visit, this patient could have saved $11,000.

Six-Foot Tiger, Three-Foot Cage encourages all to

• Seek understanding about the role your mouth plays in whole body health.
• Understand that an impaired mouth can cause a domino effect that can lead to or perpetuate pain, fatigue, and many other conditions resistant to conventional treatment.
• Recognize that resolving difficult medical, dental, and emotional symptoms may have an oral element.
• Find holistic or biological dental support to address impaired mouth structure and conditions.
• Consider that every dental visit presents an opportunity to connect the mouth with its owner’s total health.

Intellectually, you might understand that all parts of the body are interconnected, but medically, we are in a system that doesn’t much act on this understanding. If it did, we might all understand that dental issues don’t exist in a vacuum any more than medical issues do. Persistent and chronic stress, in whatever form it takes, can throw the body off kilter. The good news is that biological dentists offer an opportunity to rediscover your body’s harmony again.