Feeling “down in the mouth” can be more than just a saying—it may have literal implications for your mental health.

While depression is often perceived as a mental health issue, its effects are far-reaching, impacting the entire body. Interestingly, your dental health can play a significant role in this intricate relationship. Dr. Jason Auerbach, an expert in oral and maxillofacial surgery, explained to The Post that neglecting oral hygiene can lead to gum disease, which in turn triggers chronic inflammation. “Chronic inflammation has been linked to various health issues, including depression,” he noted.

The mouth is frequently described as the body’s gateway. Not only is it vital for nourishing the body, but it also serves as a potential entry point for harmful bacteria.

The brain-mouth-body connection

When oral infections are left untreated, they can allow bacteria to enter the bloodstream, posing serious risks such as life-threatening sepsis. Furthermore, these infections can result in chronic inflammation, a condition associated with numerous health challenges, including weakened immune function and cardiovascular disease.

Untreated infections in the mouth open the door for that bacteria to go directly into the bloodstream, potentially leading to life-threatening sepsis. These infections can also cause chronic inflammation, which is linked to a number of health conditions, including lowered immunity and heart disease.

Oral health is also inextricably linked to mental health. Patients who are struggling with oral health often change the way they think and act. Auerbach says patients may stop smiling in photos, start covering their mouths, and stop speaking up in meetings because they’re self-conscious about their teeth.

“The connection [between mental and oral health] is definitely stronger than most people think,” Auerbach said. “The reality is the body doesn’t divide itself into neat little compartments the way people perceive it does.”

Can you brush away the bad mood?

Research shows that people with common mental health disorders (depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD) have higher rates of tooth decay and tooth than the general population.

The reason is not only a lack of daily care at home. One study showed that over 65% of people dealing with poor mental health did not seek dental care.

While not brushing your teeth twice a day and skipping flossing and dental check-up won’t directly lead to depression, it certainly doesn’t help.

“It’s one piece of a much bigger puzzle, so the better way to think about it is this: The same people who consistently prioritize sleep, exercise, nutrition, medical care and oral health tend to be supporting both their physical and mental well-being,” Auerbach said.

A vicious cycle

Depression is marked by lack of motivation, fatigue and feelings of worthlessness, which make it hard for people to keep up good habits.

Hygiene routines — including showering to changing clothes to cleaning teeth — are among the first things to suffer.

Unfortunately, skipping brushing and flossing can lead to secondary effects like pain, self-consciousness and isolation, which only make matters worse.

“I’ve seen it countless times. Someone becomes depressed. Self-care starts to slip… Maybe they develop bad breath or become self-conscious about their smile,” Auerbach said. “Now, they’re not only struggling emotionally, they’re struggling physically and socially as well.”

It creates a vicious cycle in which decay and tooth loss can reduce quality of life, make mental health even worse, and make it harder to seek care and improve health overall.

“When people feel good about their oral health, they tend to engage more confidently in life,” Auerbach said. 

The most important dental care habits to keep up

Auerbach stressed the need to brush twice a day, floss once a day, see your dentist regularly, stay hydrated and abstain from smoking.

“Don’t overcomplicate it,” he added. “If everyone did those five things consistently, we’d eliminate a tremendous amount of dental disease. The basics aren’t sexy, they’re basic, but they’re incredibly powerful.”

And for people with depression who are struggling to keep up with dental care, don’t make being perfect an enemy of the good.

“If brushing for two minutes feels impossible, brush for thirty seconds. If flossing your entire mouth feels overwhelming, floss a few teeth. If you miss a day, don’t turn it into a week,” Auerbach said.

“I think people underestimate how important small wins are when they’re struggling. Some days brushing your teeth is just about proving to yourself that you can still take care of yourself. That’s a meaningful victory.”

Karmelo Anthony has begun serving his 35-year prison sentence following his conviction for murder. Meanwhile, the fundraising campaign his mother, Kala Hayes, initiated to support their family has been removed from the GiveSendGo platform.

This campaign was launched on April 15, 2025, shortly after Anthony was involved in the tragic incident that resulted in the death of 17-year-old Austin Metcalf. The fatal stabbing occurred during a high school track meet in Frisco, Texas, an event that shocked the community.

Despite his conviction, Anthony is not giving up the fight for his freedom. He has already filed a notice of appeal, aiming to overturn the court’s decision. The move indicates that his legal battle is far from over, even as he starts his lengthy sentence.

The removal of the fundraiser from GiveSendGo highlights the challenges Anthony’s family faces as they navigate the legal and emotional aftermath of this case. The platform, known for supporting various causes, had briefly hosted the campaign before it was taken down.

The fundraiser for convicted murderer Karmelo Anthony and his family has been taken down from the GiveSendGo crowdfunding website. (GiveSendGo)

All the while, the fundraiser for Anthony and his family, titled, “Help Karmelo Official Fund,” initially had a goal of generating nearly $1.4 million, and raised just shy of $634,000.

The now-defunct fundraiser shared this purpose, according to the website:

The online fundraiser for Karmelo Anthony and his family, organized by his mother, Kala Hayes, has been scrubbed from the GiveSendGo website. (GiveSendGo)

“While legal defense is a critical part of this journey, we want to make it clear that this fund is not solely dedicated to legal expenses. The funds raised will also support a range of urgent and necessary means that have emerged as a result of the situation, including – but not limited to – the safe relocation of the Anthony family due to escalating threats to their safety and well-being, as well as basic living costs, transportation, counseling, and other security measures.”

It was not immediately clear where the Anthony family moved to from their Frisco, Texas home.

However, a man who identifies himself as Anthony’s father on Facebook, Drew Anthony, has publicly posted in his profile that he currently lives in New Orleans, Louisiana.

A man who identifies himself as the father of Karmelo Anthony appears to live in New Orleans, Louisiana (Facebook)

In a post on X, GiveSendGo wrote in part: 

“The fundraiser was created to support pre-trial needs, and those funds were dispersed over the past year for lawful purposes, including legal defense and family relocation with that stated purpose now complete the fundraiser has been closed. Our policy is that a fundraiser stated purpose stays accurate so givers always know what they are supporting.”

While one fundraiser was scrubbed, another has reportedly reappeared in support of the Anthony family. A new fundraising campaign was started by Dominique Alexander. Anthony’s family has had Dallas-based civil rights activist Minister Dominque Alexander as a spokesperson throughout the case.

News Media reached out to the Anthony family, Alexander and GiveSendGo for comment.

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On the surface, a recent Democratic primary in California’s Central Valley appeared to be yet another clash between the party’s progressive faction and its more moderate establishment.

This time, the spotlight was on populist challenger Randy Villegas, who emerged victorious. However, what makes this particular outcome stand out from similar primary battles is the significance of what lies ahead.

Unlike a contest over a securely Democratic seat, Villegas is now preparing to challenge Republican Representative David Valadao. This race represents a key opportunity for Democrats eager to regain control of the U.S. House of Representatives and slow down the trajectory of President Donald Trump’s agenda.

The upcoming November election will serve as a critical test of the left’s theory that progressive, anti-establishment candidates can capture the hearts of voters even in regions that have traditionally leaned Republican.

“A populist message isn’t confined to blue districts or specific areas of the country,” said Ravi Mangla, spokesperson for the Working Families Party, one of the progressive groups supporting Villegas. “It can resonate anywhere people feel disenchanted with the current political system.”

“More than ever, voters across the political spectrum want candidates who are willing to stand up to power,” Mangla said.

The National Republican Congressional Committee dismissed Villegas’ chances, even though the state’s Democratic leaders recently redrew the district to make it easier to flip this year.

“Democrats know Villegas can’t beat Congressman David Valadao, as he embraces the same failed policies that have made California more expensive, less safe, and harder for working families in the Central Valley,” said spokesperson Christian Martinez.

Progressives want a shot in key races

The Villegas victory comes during an election season in which substantial parts of the Democratic base are rejecting the candidates that party bosses see as their best shot at winning power in Congress.

Graham Platner overwhelmingly won the Democratic Senate primary in Maine this week after Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s preferred nominee, Gov. Janet Mills, dropped out with lackluster support weeks before the election.

A combat veteran and oyster farmer, Platner has never held elected office before, and he’s endured controversies over past relationships with women, inflammatory online posts and a since-covered tattoo recognized as a Nazi symbol.

In Michigan, Rep. Haley Stevens is entangled in a three-way contest for the Democratic Senate nomination against state Sen. Mallory McMorrow and progressive favorite Abdul El-Sayed. The primary is Aug. 4, and El-Sayed recently scored a major endorsement from the United Auto Workers union, a political powerhouse in the state that is home to the U.S. auto industry.

And in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race, progressive Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan is in a fierce battle with U.S. Rep. Angie Craig, who is backed by labor unions, LGBTQ groups and moderate Democrats ahead of the primary on Aug. 11.

Another test will come on June 30 in Colorado, where progressive Manny Rutinel faces establishment-backed Shannon Bird in the Democratic primary to take on Republican Rep. Gabe Evans. Like Valadao, Evans is a top target for Democrats. And like the California race, the Colorado contest hinges on questions about who is most electable in November.

Democrats try to unite around their nominee

Valadao finished first and Villegas second in California’s primary, in which the top two candidates move on to the general election.

When early voting began about a month before the primary, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee took the unusual step of publicly signaling support for Jasmeet Bains, a doctor and state Assembly member who had lined up support from a bevy of elected officials, unions and health care groups.

“Dr. Jasmeet Bains has fought on the frontlines of health crises and built a track record of delivering for the Central Valley,” DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene said in a statement at the time. She did not criticize Villegas, but the public support for his rival was a powerful signal to Democratic donors and activists that the party believed Bains was a stronger candidate. Congressional leaders and the party apparatus they control rarely wade overtly into contested primaries for open seats.

The decision to back Bains infuriated many on the left, who saw it as another example of Washington insiders being out of touch with both the Democratic base and disaffected voters who helped power Trump’s victories.

“I think the moderates are wrong. People don’t want status quo, pro-corporate candidates,” said Joseph Geevarghese, executive director of Our Revolution, a progressive group that grew out of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. “They want people who are going to shake things up.”

Now that Villegas won, Democrats in Washington now insist he’s a strong candidate who is well-positioned to defeat Valadao. They point to the grassroots support that propelled him through the primary and the combined 59% that the Democrats got in the primary, significantly more than the 41% who voted for Valadao, though many more voters will turn out for the general election.

If the snub created tension between Villegas and his party, both sides buried it by Wednesday and presented a united front. California members of Congress, including some who had backed Bains, issued effusive statements, and he was magnanimous in return.

“We’re all in to elect Randy and flip this seat,” said Anna Elsasser, a spokesperson for the DCCC, the arm of the Democratic Party focused on winning House races. The district is “a must-win seat for the House majority, and we are confident in winning with Randy as the Democratic nominee,” she added.

In Philadelphia, a significant number of educators have raised concerns about the inflation of grades, arguing that the current policies prevent them from failing students who struggle with basic literacy and numeracy.

According to a report by the Philadelphia Inquirer, many teachers admitted to passing students who either did minimal work, lacked comprehension of the material, or were frequently absent from classes.

Some educators reported feeling pressured by their principals to avoid failing students, noting that when they attempted to assign failing grades, their decisions were often overturned by higher-ups.

While some teachers indicated they could fail students when justified, they also highlighted the excessive bureaucratic requirements involved in justifying such grades, even for those who rarely attended classes.

This situation is reflected in the state’s testing outcomes, which reveal that only 33 percent of students meet the reading benchmarks, and even fewer—less than 25 percent—achieve the math standards in the city’s schools.

At the same time, the School District of Philadelphia’s four-year graduation rate in the 2024 – 25 school year was 84 percent, up from 69 percent 10 years earlier.

‘I don’t know of anyone who’s been able to keep anyone back, and we’re just setting kids up for failure,’ one middle-grades teacher told the outlet.

She added that she, too, has ‘a bunch of kids in my class that have F’s in reading, and I’m probably going to pass them – I’ll bump it up to a D and call it a day.’

Teachers across Philadelphia claim they have been pressured into passing students who can barely read or write. A teacher is seen pointing to a board during a lesson in 2015

Pennsylvania state test results show just 33 percent of students in the Philadelphia school district met standards in reading and less than a quarter met standards in mathematics

Officially, students in Philadelphia public schools can fail courses or be held back a grade as long as they are offered appropriate interventions and support, district policy states.

It says the district is ‘committed to excellence in student accomplishments and recognizes the contribution of a district-wide promotion policy moving all schools to models of achievement.’

Monique Braxton, a spokeswoman for the school district, also told the Inquirer its policies ’emphasize that student grades are meant to accurately reflect their academic performance and progress toward learning standards. 

‘Schools are required to provide and document appropriate interventions and progress monitoring when students encounter academic challenges,’ she noted.

Braxton added that the school district ‘remains steadfast in its commitment to maintaining high expectations for students while ensuring they receive the necessary support to achieve success.’

But the middle-grades teacher, a veteran of district schools for three decades, told the Inquirer how it was easier to give F’s or retain students who did not meet learning standards when she was first starting out.

The unidentified teacher said a ‘subtle shift’ began in the early 2000s, with former President George Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act. 

‘When the pressure was on the schools to show promotions and graduation rates, and the district was so focused on showing data, it’s shifted grading and now it’s a joke,’ she claimed.

One veteran teacher said there was a ‘subtle shift’ in the early 2000s, with former President George Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act

Philadelphia then changed its grading policy in 2017, lowering the minimum score for a D from 64 to 60.

District leaders said at the time the move was made to standardize grading procedures and prevent students from giving up if they performed poorly in the beginning of the year.

But even back then critics had worried it would water down the standards.

The school district insists that student grades should accurately reflect their work and their ability to grasp concepts. Philadelphia Schools Superintendent Tony B Watlington Sr is pictured

Now, the middle-grades teacher said she has a student ‘who’s done no work all year, and we’ve done everything and they’re just going to push him forward.’

Another teacher who works at the high school level claimed there is a ‘push right after grades are due’ at the end of the year – when administrators ask the educators: ‘Is there anything you can do to bump these up?’

The teacher said administrators will then ‘push [students] along because they want to see them graduate or pass.

‘There’s all this pressure from the district to increase the graduation rate – there are so many layers to it,’ the educator lamented.

‘I know it happens in a lot of places. It’s not just our school. But this year it was huge margins and huge numbers.’

At times, administrators themselves change the grades, the teacher said, describing how a student’s grade once shot up without any explanation.

‘This student had a 50 yesterday. How did he have an 82 today?’ the teacher asked, rhetorically. ‘This was a student who didn’t turn in any additional work and missed 63 of 84 classes.’

Another student who was moved on without doing the required coursework even admitted it, the teacher said.

‘Even he was like, “Yeah I didn’t deserve to pass. I don’t know how that happened. But I’m excited to graduate,”‘ the teacher claimed. 

The School District of Philadelphia’s four-year graduation rate in the 2024 – 25 school year was 84 percent, up from 69 percent 10 years earlier

 A third teacher said he has failed students who do not earn passing grades, but understands why some teachers choose to give D’s instead of F’s.

He said with a full course load, teachers do not have the time to document a pattern of contacting guardians, giving extra time for work, breaking down assignments, allowing extra credit or extending deadlines.

‘Who has time to do that when you have 30 other kids?’ he asked, rhetorically. ‘And the system is inherently causing laziness from teachers also, to just shut up, pass them and you don’t get grief.’

The issue isn’t just limited to district schools either, a fourth teacher said, explaining that she most recently taught at a city charter school where some of her middle grade students were still at kindergarten reading and math levels.

‘The gap was huge,’ the teacher said, incredulously. 

‘The school’s explanation is that there’s a school-to-prison pipeline and the older [the] students are, the less likely they are to graduate,’ she said. ‘But they’re not meeting standards. The gaps are huge.

‘It was very shocking to me how they would just pass the kids,’ the teacher continued, noting she is a mother and ‘I want my kids to be prepared properly.’

But the grade inflation has already affected former students who have moved into the workforce.

UC San Diego reported in November that roughly one in five pupils entering the school could not write at an entry level standard

The middle-grades teacher said she also works in the service industry, where she sees firsthand the effects of passing students who have not earned passing grades.

‘We see people who don’t come to work on time, they can’t take orders, they can’t use a computer or figure things out, and this is why,’ she said. ‘They’re not being held to standards for all their years in schools.’

The high school teacher also told how after graduation one former student ‘lost the first three jobs he had because he didn’t go to them.

‘He had to learn that lesson in a much harder, more adult way and he could have learned that in high school,’ the teacher bemoaned.

It is also affecting students as they go off to college, with UC San Diego reporting in November that roughly one in five pupils entering the school could not write at an entry level standard. 

About 20 percent of incoming students to the California university had to be placed in analytical writing courses after failing to meet the requirements of a writing placement exam, which forced them into specialized courses called ‘AWP’.

Other universities across the US, including some of the most prestigious institutions in the country, have also struggled to deal with surging grades but lower standards.

Harvard has proposed capping the number of A grades, following a report warning that the university’s generous grading system was undermining its academic integrity.

A potential change in grading would see Harvard offering a select number of A+ grades, which is a mark higher than the school’s current maximum of an A grade.

At Harvard, more than 60 percent of grades awarded to undergraduate students are currently As, which university bosses called ‘too compressed and too inflated.’

However, Harvard’s report also found that its students were ‘working as hard as they ever have – if not more’ on their academics, relative to previous generations.

Two court clerks in Utah have been arrested and labeled as “self-appointed ICE vigilantes” after allegedly assisting an undocumented immigrant in evading an immigration enforcement officer, according to recent court filings.

Lauren Morrow, 26, and Jennifer Joma, 27, were charged on Wednesday with interfering in an ICE operation at the Logan City Municipal Justice Court, as outlined in the documents obtained by The Post.

In April, an ICE agent arrived at the courthouse to execute a warrant. Upon learning of the officer’s presence, Morrow and Joma reportedly began scrutinizing court databases to check the immigration status of individuals scheduled for hearings.

The clerks are accused of escorting a Guatemalan citizen out of the courthouse through a back entrance, successfully helping the individual avoid apprehension, as stated in the court records.

Afterward, the pair allegedly celebrated their actions by waving at a surveillance camera, with Morrow even making a crude gesture, the documents claim.

Joma and Morrow then continued to search records – finding non-citizens on the court records who ICE might want to arrest.

They allegedly intercepted the ICE target, and two women, one of whom was from Mexico, and they were taken into a backroom and smuggled out of the courthouse.

Meanwhile, the judge went into his office and left his door open, which obstructed his vision. Another clerk, who hasn’t been named in the documents, shut his door.

Then, Joma allegedly put the three migrants in her car and drove away from the courthouse – before returning.

Morrow was questioned about the whereabouts of the migrants but was tight-lipped, the documents said.

Both women face charges of conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens, harboring illegal aliens, and obstruction of Homeland Security proceedings – offenses which carry up to 25 years in prison.

Joma was also slapped with a charge of transporting illegal aliens – which carries a five year prison sentence.

John Huber, the ex-US Attorney for Utah, said the plot was the first he’s seen in the state.

“This is a time when people are on edge wherever you are on the political spectrum, and this issue of immigration enforcement gets people’s attention,” he told KUTV.

“I think a lesson to be learned here is that federal authorities are serious and that it’s no laughing matter to engage in conduct that rises to the level of a federal felony. This is not a joke.”