The Power of the Dental Hygienist: Prevention, Airway, and Whole-Body Health

Welcome back to Beyond Breathing, the podcast for everyone who breathes, sleeps, and believes that prevention is the future of healthcare. I’m your host, Lancette VanGuilder, and today, we’re diving into a topic that is reshaping how we define oral care and total wellness — the power of the dental hygienist.

Dental hygienists are not just tooth cleaners.
They are prevention specialists, early detectors, and health connectors.
And with new advancements in airway screening, salivary testing, lasers, guided biofilm therapy, A1C screening, nutrition counseling, and myofunctional therapy — dental hygienists are stepping fully into their rightful place in healthcare.

Today, we’ll explore how oral health connects to mental health, cancer risk, metabolic disease, and overall wellness — and how the new ADHA policy on airway screening positions dental hygienists as essential partners in the integrated healthcare model of the future.

Segment 1 – The Airway Awakening

The airway is life. ( we actually had a previous podcast episode with an airway expert who actually wrote the book on that). 
 Every breath, every heartbeat, every brainwave depends on oxygen — and yet, millions of people struggle to breathe well every night without knowing it.

The American Dental Hygienists Association’s new policy from 2024 on airway screening officially acknowledges that dental hygienists play a critical role in identifying sleep-disordered breathing, mouth breathing, and airway compromise. They see the early signs before anyone else — in tongue posture, enamel erosion, scalloped borders, dry mouth, teeth grinding, crowded teeth and open-mouth breathing patterns.

By identifying these issues early and collaborating with sleep experts, ENTs and myofunctional therapists, we can change — and even save — lives.
 This is prevention in its purest form.

Dental hygienists should be familiar with sleep testing, oral appliances, CPAP therapy and the ramifications of untreated obstructive sleep apnea. They can play a vital role in care coordination, sleep testing distribution and review of findings as well as building a robust referral network. Dental hygienists can encourage their patients, ages 2 and up, about the importance of annual sleep testing, just as important as an annual dental examination. 

Segment 2 – The Oral–Systemic Connection

The mouth is a powerful diagnostic window.
 Through saliva, inflammatory  markers, proteins, good and bad bacteria  and pathogen mapping, we now understand how oral pathogens travel through the bloodstream, impacting the heart, brain, joints, lungs, and  even the gut.

• P. gingivalis has been linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
• Fusobacterium nucleatum plays a role in colorectal cancer.
• Chronic gum disease increases the risk of diabetes and heart attack.

With salivary testing, hygienists can detect these microbial shifts early — and with A1C screening, we can help identify pre-diabetes and metabolic risk right in the dental chair.
This is true medical-dental integration — where prevention and diagnosis meet in one place: the dental hygiene operatory.

Segment 3 – Oral Health, Mental Health, and the Mind-Body Connection (Expanded)

For decades, we’ve understood that stress and depression can worsen oral conditions like bruxism, gum disease, and dry mouth.
 But now, new research is showing the connection runs both ways — poor