Biological Dentistry Webinar

Welcome everybody from Indian Association of Functional Medicine's 3rd academic session. We promised in the beginning that with every session, the depth and the scope of the knowledge, you know, we will share with all of you, it will increase. and I am confident that you agree with this till now, and after today's session you will agree with it even more. I am very, very happy to welcome Dr. Gerry Curatola. Sanjay Sachdeva and Dr. Alok introduced me to him, so I thank them also for this valuable introduction. So Dr. Gerry is the founder and executive director of Regeneration Dentistry. The leading biological dental practice in the US. Hopefully I will be visiting him in July if everything goes well, and I'm looking forward to that, Dr. Gerry. So, Dr.— thank you. So Dr. Gerry established the biologic dentistry program for the American Center for Bioregulatory Medicine and Dentistry. He's listed in the Guide to America's Top Dentists. The leading physicians of the world, the top dentist of New York, and he's the recipient of the Acton Medal from NYU for outstanding contributions to the university. A pioneer in oral microbiome research and dental toxicity, Dr. Gerry is the inventor of Revitin toothpaste, the first nutritional and prebiotic toothpaste. And again, I am really excited to try it and use it and benefit from it. For— and then share it with my patients and make all of us healthy. Dr. Gerry, The Mouth-Body Connection explores the bi-directional relationship behind oral health and systemic wellness. We welcome you, Dr. Gerry, and I'm very excited to hear from you what you have to share. And before I give you the floor, I want to introduce Dr. Alok Chopra. So Dr. Alok Chopra, I think I met him He's a cardiologist. I think one of the first cardiologists to set up a very, very intensive center in Delhi. Very innovative, very futuristic. I met him for the first time 3 years back at Daivam when he was heading Daivam. And then I met him few months back and what I've realized about him is he is a holistic doctor at the real core, and he really practices what he preaches. Cooking has become his passion, and whatever I've eaten which he's cooked, I can tell you, you all must get an invitation from him and try it out. You— the moment you eat one bite, you know it comes from his heart. And I think that's what all of us need to do if we want to stay healthy and happy. Welcome, Dr. Alok, and I am hoping that post Dr. Jerry's presentation, you will ask him some really, really, really instigating questions which he also has to think despite so much experience and number of patients he comes with. Thank you. And Dr. Jerry, the floor is all yours now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That was a beautiful introduction. I really appreciate it. And Alok, it's so great to see you. I was going to put on one of your wife's jackets this morning, but it's too hot in the apartment because I love her clothes.

You know, also introduced to me by Sanjay, and we've had the privilege of being with him in Las Vegas, spending time with him there, and we spent time in Delhi. And I'm thankful to my dear friend Sanjay and my partner to have introduced him. It's really been a nice journey with him, and I can tell you that there have been leaping changes after talking to you, after reading what you've written. It's been a great journey. So Jerry, let's go.

Thank you. Thank you. So, um, I'm going to, um, actually start with this, uh, this quote. It was from 1965, René Dubos, who said the— and, and I believe this was the message behind, uh, the COVID-19 pandemic and so many other historical onslaughts of viral outbreaks and, and microbial attacks, um, that the state of health or disease are the expressions of the success or failure by the individual to respond adaptively. And I think those two words, respond adaptively, are part of our human biological constitution that becomes compromised. We have this, uh, divine life force, right? Uh, in Ayurveda they call it prana. Um, in Chinese medicine they call it chi. In Western medicine they call it spirit. and this life force gives us a very divine ability to self-regulate and heal. And I know with all of the doctors on this program tonight— excuse me— that many of you have been amazed by the body's ability to respond adaptively. But that ability to respond adaptively really is compromised by a lot of different things, and Toxicity, chronic inflammation are two of the biggest things. And, you know, I always put this slide in all of my lectures because, you know, it's like oral health is the 800-pound gorilla in the wellness room. Basically, you cannot be well, uh, if your mouth is sick. Um, you just can't. And every functional medicine doctor will echo that, uh, I will echo that as well. So there's some feedback coming from somewhere. Yeah, if everybody could mute just their mic.

Sorry, I request everybody to please mute yourself.

Yeah, that'd be great. Otherwise we'll get some weird feedback.

Yeah, yeah, no, no, no.

So in the United States and in a lot of Western schools of medicine, they unplugged dentistry, uh, from medicine 150 years ago. They said, oh well, if you want to study this little area around the mouth, you know, we're going to take you and send you to dental school. And as a result, we had a real disconnect between medicine and dentistry. And one of my lifelong dreams is to put that back together. That's my Bitmoji on the right, by the way. What? This is not making sense, that dentistry is unplug from medicine. So the father of the mouth-body connection in the United States, um, was a man by the name of Weston Price. Um, if you study functional medicine, he's really recognized as, as the Charles Darwin of nutrition. He wrote a seminal work back in 1939, um, called Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Really interesting. But he actually looked at the connection, and in 19— uh, this paper was 1917. But look at the title of this paper: The Present State of Our Knowledge of the Relation of Mouth Infection to Systemic Disease. And he was laughed at. They didn't get that an infection in the mouth could give you heart problem that we know today, that Porphyromonas gingivalis bacteria have been found in plaques around the heart and in arterial sclerotic plaques. So this connection between the mouth-body back in 1917 was so foreign, yet he was way ahead of his time. So I wrote this book explaining that the mouth is a mirror and a gateway For Disease and Toxicity in the Body in 2017. And there's a sequel coming out this year, a new cover, a new cover without my picture on it. My picture is inside, not outside. But at any rate, when we look at the mouth as a mirror to the body, you know, all of these systemic conditions and diseases on the left have manifestations in the mouth. You know, things like Down syndrome, leukemia, diabetes, tuberculosis, even HIV and AIDS. And we know in Chinese medicine, you know, for years the tongue was a huge diagnostic tool, right? Everything from vitamin deficiencies to, um, you know, microbial imbalances, uh, and overgrowth and And, and even, um, things such, um, such as psoriasis and, uh, skin disorders have manifestations in the mouth. So, and psoriasis is a biofilm imbalance, which we're going to talk about. Um, we know that the mouth is a mirror to the body. We know that there is a meridian tooth chart. It looks like this. Uh, this meridian tooth chart is really interesting. By the way, this is screened in on the new cover of the book, Behind the Mouth-Body Connection, because this really shows you that there are— we've actually found— I mean, Chinese medicine talked about this thousands of years now, but we have actually found neurovascular bundles from teeth to different organ systems in the body. And I like to compare this to the fact that Your teeth are like the circuit breakers on an electrical panel box, you know? So you could have an infection. For example, I had a woman with thyroid cancer in my practice this week, sent to me by her cousin, who's a functional medicine doctor. The first thing we do is look in the mouth. The first thing we do. She had 10 root canals. Root canals are a source of chronic inflammation, endotoxin production. We used to think they were a great thing. I'm gonna talk about it tonight. Hopefully in this short presentation, I can give you what I think are the top 10 sources of chronic inflammation and toxicity. But she had 2 root canals on this upper right side, right on the thyroid meridian, 2 giant root canals. And you know, she had thyroid cancer. She had stomach problems. I mean, the, the— and she had— I told her she had 6 of the 10 top sources of chronic toxicity, which I'll review tonight. Sorry, I just went a little too far. But anyway, the mouth-body connection— we look at the mouth, uh, gum disease in the mouth being related to heart disease, respiratory disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis. And about 6 different types of cancer, which I'll show you. So the mouth is an inflammatory pathway to the body. As a matter of fact, there was a study on inflammation, and the number one chronic source of chronic low-grade inflammation— inflammation is a good thing, it's part of the healing response. We need inflammation. When I treat a a jaw cavitation, a necrotic area or bone in the jaw. We want inflammation. We want prostaglandin production. This is part of collagen production and healing and making new bone and all this type of stuff. So inflammation, when it is in its proper fashion, right? We make a fire to cook food, right? But when you have a smoldering fire that's not being answered, You know, it, you know, like gum disease, is a chronic low-grade inflammation that can ravage your whole body. So when it's operating properly, inflammation is an important part of our ability to self-regulate and heal. When it's not operating properly, it can ravage your body. So we're going to look at top 10 sources of chronic inflammation and toxicity in the body. I started to touch on gum disease. Uh, we're going to talk about jaw osteonecrosis, this idea of these cavitations, which by the way, um, the diagnostic tools of using 3D cone beam helped us as dentists identify, um, these areas that often on 2D x-rays are missed. I'll, I'll explain that. I hope there are a few dentists who came on tonight, but I would love to do a program for dentists, uh, in Delhi, um, with you, with the Indian Association of Functional Medicine. Um, I think there's so much that could be done because dentists are so important to be conscious and awake and assist in truly helping their patients and working with allied health practitioners like all of you in every functional medicine area.

So, Jerry, we have few dentists on board, and actually we have 51 people now listening to you live, whereas I've got many messages saying they would hear the recording later. So I'm sure this topic has interest, and all of us really value this topic a lot.

That's fantastic. So when we look at, um, this Mercury fillings are one of the largest sources. There's more mercury waste from teeth than coal-fired power plants. There's more mercury waste from teeth than— Vaccines are a quick number 2. We use thimerosal and all of these preservatives in vaccines, which really were a source of chronic low-grade mercury toxicity, what we call trace amounts, which really puts your immune system on alert, but it's toxic. So there's been very, very close correlation of dental amalgam mercury fillings and Alzheimer's disease, the progression of Alzheimer's disease. One of the areas that's often not looked at is this idea of non-precious porcelain fused to metal crowns and some of the alloys like nickel chromium, and, um, nickel chromium and aluminum chromium and, um, uh, some of these other really nasty, uh, metals. Nickel is often found in PFMs, these porcelain fused to metal crowns. Metal implants— this is really kind of shocking because we used to think that the bone grows around metal implants very quickly and it was a way to give people a third set of teeth, and so billions of implants have been done around the planet. But histologically, we've seen titanium particles embedded in livers and kidneys and lungs and brain, uh, and that titanium, uh, many of these implants have alloys of titanium that are not that good, but titanium metal particles will— I'm going to show you some studies that just came out in July 2021. Root canals, notorious, notorious, notorious. There is a clinic in Switzerland founded by a mentor of mine, Dr. Thomas Rau, who's probably the father of biologic medicine. And the first thing he would do if someone showed up with autoimmune disease or cancer, prostate cancer, breast cancer in women, he would immediately see if you had root canals, and he would tell you to immediately remove the root canals, which 25 years ago seemed radical. You know, if it was infected, I would say yes. But the more studies that I've done, the more research I've done, I realized that root canals are the only thing we do in the human body where we keep something dead inside you. We don't do root canals on femurs. We don't do root canals on gallbladders. We don't, you know, but root canal teeth, we thought of teeth as inert. In actuality, teeth are like sponges. There are thousands of dentinal tubules that are mostly organic. Bacteria can harbor in those dentinal tubules, actually 3 strep bacteria across in each of the thousands of dentinal tubules. So your teeth are like sponges. They're sponges that can hold all kinds of microbes and bacteria, and they do become, um, very virulent when they're chronically entrapped inside a root canal tooth. In addition to the fact that root canal teeth not only are a direct microbial source of microbial infection, but they are also a source of chronic inflammation. Um, I'm sorry, I'm getting over, uh, a cold from— given to me by my grandson. So, and, uh, we understand. Yeah, you understand. Uh, so we look at BPA, bisphenols. You know, we look at plastic water bottles and all of that, but people are walking around with tooth-colored fillings. Most of the original BPA composite was, um, you know, bisphenol A, um, glutamic acid methacrylate, what was called BisGMA resin, and it was loaded with BPAs. They actually did a hyperactivity study in, uh, over 400 children with dental sealants with this BPA, and there was a huge high statistical correlation between children with, uh, sealants in the grooves of the teeth, which we thought was a kind of a good, uh, preventative procedure, uh, you know, and I was around when sealants came into vogue in the 1980s I was just a young dentist right out of school in 1983, and we were doing these like crazy on children, and the— and with the idea that, oh, we can prevent, um, cavities in children if we put these, uh, tooth-colored resin, uh, it's like a flowable resin in the groove of the tooth where cavities so often form. Uh, number 8 is a huge problem, huge, huge problem. Obstructive sleep apnea and airway disease. It's become a major focus. I would say 25% of our practice has been focusing on obstructive sleep apnea. It affects over a billion people on the planet, and it puts you at risk, as Alok and many of you know, you know, as a cardiologist, you know, heart attack, stroke, early dementia, high blood pressure, I think a lot of people that got into trouble with COVID had obstructive sleep apnea or upper airway disease. By the way, 85% to 90% of obstructive airway disease is a compromised upper, what we call upper airway resistance. And a lot of that is because in the mouth, the tongue sits further back, the arch is malformed and narrow, there's a high vaulted palate. and we'll talk about that. But there's lots of manifestations in the mouth that makes a person a sitting duck for obstructive sleep apnea. TMJ dysfunction and occlusal disease, jaw and bite problems, are just another source of inflammation. And then we'll talk about some harmful oral care products, which has also been a big focus. So in gum disease, 85% of adults 85% of adults over 35 has some form of gum disease. Everything we've been doing is wrong. The link between gum disease to systemic illness, well-established. Past approaches, the idea of kill plaque, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, is not only ineffectual but harmful. This is an interesting slide because it talks about You know, the differences in men and women with, you know, you look at impotence in men, 3 times higher with gum disease. Puberty and menstruation increased gingivitis due to hormones. So this bi-directional thing. Cancer, 14% more likely to develop cancers, and a direct link between gum disease and the onset of type 2 diabetes. So lots of interesting things, but this is the one— this is to— this was back in, I think, 2019. I came across this in a journal that chronic inflammation as a link between gum disease and cancer. And so chronic inflammation is no joke, and we're looking at this as a precursor to oncological changes in cells. And I talked about this, Time Magazine did a report on inflammation and found like the body's number one source of chronic low-grade inflammation by far affecting billions of people on the planet is gum disease. So I often have patients come in and go, yeah, you know, when I brush my teeth, my gums bleed a little bit, and they think that's normal because they think they're brushing too hard. When in actuality, you know, I tell them, well, you know, when you comb your hair and your scalp was bleeding, would you think that was normal? You're just combing too hard. No, your gums are not supposed to bleed. It means that there are changes in, in, uh, you know, inflammatory changes in the mouth that allows for, you know, the first reversible sign of inflammation in the mouth is called gingivitis, and then When it becomes more non-reversible and we see destruction of the bone around the teeth, that's called periodontitis. But this went back even further. And, you know, my favorite— uh, not my favorite, but one of the most popular thugs— it's not a favorite, but Fusobacterium nucleatum is the most— one of the most, uh, commensal bacteria in the mouth. It lives there. There's tons of them there. They, uh, There are 6 to 10 billion bacteria in this microbiome. But when Fusobacterium— pardon my expression— gets pissed off, you see changes where this— it actually carries other bacteria past the blood-brain barrier. Fusobacterium nucleatum was the number 1 bacteria found in colorectal tumors. So it goes all over, and, um, and it's nasty. It's a really powerful anaerobic bug. Um, it's kind of like the bully on the street, but you know, when the neighborhood is self-policed— and I'll talk about that, about the changes in, uh, in healthy gums, gingivitis, periodontitis, and advanced periodontitis. So this progression here, and I often say this is, um, these are brownstones in Brooklyn, New York, these pretty stone buildings, all well kept. You know, everyone— the trash is put away and the sidewalk is clean and it's all maintained. And I often say, you know, when I, when I was a little boy, you know, these— a lot of these places turned into this, which is, you know, a ghetto. So how do you go from this to, uh, to that It's not, you know, one bad person came into the neighborhood. It's not, you know, Fusobacterium flew in, drove up in a big bad truck and started wrecking everything. It's about the terrain. And that's why functional medicine has a lot of respect for the naturopathic doctor's premise for years and years, which is it's not about the seed. It's not about the bacteria, it's about the soil, it's about the terrain. So we hear this a lot about the terrain now. Um, and so in the mouth, that terrain, when it is in this blue circle, um, this terrain is, uh, like those pretty brownstones. And if you go to the right, you see a terrain that's out of homeostasis or balance. That's where you see the red gums. Go from pink gums to red gums. And you see this layering of this thick, sticky, smelly plaque. And those red squigglies are spirochetes show up. So you have this beautiful, mostly aerobic biofilm, which we call the microbiome, the oral microbiome, turn into this crazy jungle on the right, which is like, you know, lions, tigers, and bears, oh my. But look to the left. I want everybody to look to the left of the slide too. You see there's no film there. It's a desert. That's what a lot of oral care has been doing. It's been stripping the microbiome, kill everything. So what happens is when you kill, you know, everything, what, you know, it's like working in your garden. If you use a pesticide on, you know, to get rid of the weeds, you kill everything. The first thing that grows back are the weeds. You know, they, it's not the, uh, the beautiful flowers that you had and everything else. So understanding the nature of the oral microbiome is essential for oral health, and I've spent 20-plus years studying this. So your own microbiome is, as we know, it's, you know, made up of a lot of different things: water, salivary proteins, curvicular fluid, immune complexes, minerals, vast numbers of microorganisms. Actually, we have about 800 to 900 I'm doing a 50-patient study, double-blind clinical study with my toothpaste, Revitin, versus the leading toothpaste in the United States. And it's a true double-blind. Even there's 5 investigative doctors that are clinical practitioners that are working with this. And we are going to use a new digital DNA system called Cosmos ID. It's a company in the United States. We're going to identify, um, species of, of microorganisms in the mouth that haven't really even been charted up to this point because the technology has gotten so much more advanced. So we're going to be looking at inflammation, we're going to be measuring C-reactive protein in the mouth, and we're going to be doing systemic blood draws of C-reactive protein because I developed, uh, I spent 20 years developing a toothpaste that reduces inflammation by as much as 65% in 14 days, and I'm still trying to get it out there, Alok. So hopefully we'll, uh, we'll make headway. I, uh, I, I brought it to India a few times. I definitely want to, uh, get more to all of you there. I wanted to give everyone on this program a tube just to use, just to understand this a different science. The reason why Revitin works is because it respects the science of what I'm talking about right now. So there are 4 types of inflammatory mechanisms and pathways. You have the direct effects of oral infectious pathogens, and they go 2 ways. They can go into the circulatory system through bleeding gums, but they can also— we used to think, oh, if they go through the digestive tract, right, the oral cavity to into the GI tract that it gets killed by the hydrochloric acid of the stomach and all that. Well, that's very interesting. We're finding out that that's not really true. We have found oral bacteria with people with colitis, especially severe types of colitis and Crohn's disease. The second way is inflammatory response to oral pathogens. That's always a major pathway. We see this dysregulation of the inflammatory mechanisms. Then the inflammatory effects on vascular integrity. As we know that we actually see a deterioration of the endometrial lining, especially, Alok, as you know, a big focus in cardiology has been this problem of inflammatory effects on vascular integrity, but probably one of the most interesting mechanisms and pathways that have been identified, the newest, I would say, when I say the newest, over the past 10 to 15 years, we've looked at the effects on gene polymorphisms to a more pro-inflammatory genotype. So I was talking about two pathways that pathogens in the mouth go into the body, and here you have it. You have a digestive tract or the bloodstream. And so we have oral bacteria-induced intestinal inflammation. How do they get past the digestive tract? And they have found Porphyromonas gingivalis, Fusobacterium nucleatum again. And Klebsiella pneumoniae, and ulcerative colitis and Crohn's, as I pointed out. One of the interesting things is, you know, very popular, you know, gastroesophageal reflux disease is really big. What do a lot of people take for gastroesophageal reflux disease? They fix it the wrong way. Functional medicine fixes it the right way, but they go to their doctor and their doctor gives them Prilosec I don't know what the brands are over there, but they're protonics that turn off the stomach acid. And so what happens when you turn off the stomach acid is you get some really nasty pathogens from the mouth able to get past the stomach right into the digestive tract. We see a loss of biodiversity of the microbiome in the gut, and I know, Priti, you, you have been very involved in treating that as well. And especially with the gut. But this is a really interesting connection because we never thought, we always thought it was the bloodstream. We never thought it was the digestive, you know, digestive tract, 'cause it dies in the stomach, right? There's tons of hydrochloric acid, pH is ridiculous. But we've actually, they have taken bacterial plaque of the tusk of a mastodon frozen in a glacier. And they have put it in a petri dish at body temperature, and they saw bacteria flourish. And they called them persistent bacteria because when they're under attack or they're in an adverse environment, they secrete a protein shell. They actually hunker down and secrete a protein shell. And then you put them in that environment, it's like they open up again. So very, very interesting.

Um, very interesting, Dr. Jerry. And I have seen significant results by just improving Improving the pH of the stomach.

Yes. Yeah. And because we thought, you know, we were— again, you know, there's so many approaches we would take thinking we were doing something good and we were making the problem worse. So, and people didn't get better, you know, but those protonic drugs, which are over the counter here, and I'm sure in India as well, billions and billions of dollars of those Go every year. People take them like, like, uh, baby, baby aspirin, you know. They take them like, um, uh, uh, you know, candy, you know, vitamins.

So if you do a webinar for people between 30 and 60, it's hard to find even one person who has not taken those drugs, antacids and all, you know, which is very, very, um, sad.

Yeah, it's dangerous. It really, you know, can wreck wreck the gut. So we look at stratification of the microbiome in the mouth. What I was showing you was the oral microbiome is very intricately connected to the immune system. And so dysregulation in the immune system comes when the microbiome is out of balance, or a loss of what we call homeostasis. And then we see disimmune conditions like allergies, asthma, autoimmunity, but it's really about making peace with your microbes. This is the stratification. I'm gonna give you all of these, this unique interaction between the oral microbiome and your immune system. Really, and this became very, very much, I started speaking a lot about this as a topic by itself during COVID and talking about how do you make your immune system stronger? How do you strengthen your immune system? Well, you gotta make peace with your microbes. And there's a lot of these things. So jaw osteonecrosis, this is really, really fascinating. Um, 86% of people that have their wisdom teeth taken out a conventional way in the United States and India and Europe, all over the world, it's like, you know, you anesthetize the patient, you remove the tooth, you scrape around in there, and then you bite on a piece of gauze, get a blood clot, and then see you later. And we think the bone fills in. What we know right now is that it's an unhealed hole in the jawbone, mostly by an extracted tooth, you know, or a root canal creates these too. It's a silent infection, chronic illness causing chronic inflammation. So what does it look like? Here's an x-ray. Looks like, oh, you know, there's a little bone on the top, a tooth was removed. This is a schematic on the left of what it looks like. And that's what it looks like when we open it up. It's like literally a hole. So what's the significance of that? That's a perfect Petri dish for all kinds of nasty pathogens. Lyme spirochetes, Candida, mold, parasites, lots of parasites. When I treat these and I culture these, I see lots and lots of parasites. Lyme disease is a big thing in the United States. You know, a lot of speculation it was developed as a bioweapon. At a place called Plum Island, goes back to the US-Soviet Cold War, and they found a way to use a tick to do tick-borne illness. And so a lot of suspicion. But anyway, when they were working there, the winds blew up to Lyme, Connecticut, which is right across the Long Island Sound, and all these people started getting sick in Lyme and Lyme, Connecticut. That's how the term Lyme disease came about, um, because of these, uh, really, uh, incredible tick-borne illnesses, uh, that, uh, Borrelia and, uh, babesiosis, babesiosis, and, um, there's like 7 different types, uh, and it was really gain-of-function research that was going on as far back as the '50s and '60s. Which I have a home on Long Island, I lived on Long Island, I've had Lyme disease twice. And, you know, it— if you don't address it properly, a lot of people walk around with chronic Lyme disease and it is debilitating. But Dietrich Klinghardt, a well-known functional medicine doctor from Germany, he said the mandible is like this magnetic point for Lyme spirochetes to, uh, to, to accumulate. And so in these holes, um, we often see, uh, all kinds of Lyme spirochetes, uh, because they look for opportunistic places to hide. So the patient can never really recover, uh, when you have a lesion like this. Um, you know, root canals are another source of cavitations. You know, here's a root canal on the left that is like, oh, that's not a good root canal. Let's redo it and do this big— you know, look, we got a really beautiful fill. Dentists would look at this. They look at root canals like an artwork. Oh, look, we got a beautiful fill in the canal. And then you reflect it back, and that's what the tissue looks like. So 3D is a really important technology in dentistry now. Two-dimensional x-rays are, in my opinion, with the exception of looking at interproximal decay and different little, you know, caries and teeth. Um, 3D, uh, 2-dimensional x-rays are worthless for these types of things. So this is a biopsy of a mandible with a cavitation. This dark area here is where you can see the bone didn't heal normally. There's also very often these can progress. Um, this is called a NICO lesion. I want to see if I have another slide. Yeah, this is called a NICO lesion, neuralgia-induced cavitation osteonecrosis, where the cavitation can actually cause the destruction and death of the mandibular nerve. People with this problem— so this is someone maybe who got their wisdom tooth extracted, or it looks like a tooth behind the bicuspid extracted that has a vital pulp— these people will come in and beg you to rip a healthy tooth out because they have this pain that's indescribable. And the dentist will, thinking he's doing something good for the patient, take out this healthy bicuspid. The patient is still in the same pain. And then they're saying, oh, it must be— a very big misdiagnosis is trigeminal neuralgia. Um, and I had my cousin when I was in high school, I remember this, She had her wisdom teeth removed around 18 years old. After they removed, about 3 months later, she started getting these weird pains in her jaw. And the dentist, the local dentist, just started pulling teeth on her. She was a model, she was beautiful, and pulling teeth, pulling teeth, pulling teeth. And then they were like, well, it's trigeminal neuralgia, we'll just sever the fifth cranial nerve. She actually had, uh, the, uh, the, the surgery to sever, uh, the nerve to the mandible, which is, which is to me criminal, uh, when it could have been very commonly— I look back and I'm like, she probably had a Nico lesion from a wisdom tooth extraction that never healed. But they didn't have 3D technology back then to see it. The term cavitation was coined by an American orthopedic surgeon in the 1930s. Um, he came up with a word for, you know, a hole in the jaw. The cavity is dental caries in a tooth. He's like, well, cavitation is a word, but it's generally referred to as jaw osteonecrosis or cavitation osteonecrosis. So again, the upper left picture is a two-dimensional x-ray We looked at using MRI initially, but really the standard is this, um, cone beam CBCT. By the way, look at this front tooth. On a 2-dimensional x-ray, you couldn't see this lesion in this central incisor, but now in 3D, you can see everything. So I routinely diagnose this. and we can measure and do all kinds of things with the CBCT. When we see 3D, we see sagittal views, cross-sectional views, occlusal views, that we can literally identify, uh, all of these. So I created a protocol for treating these. We use a laser that has an erbium wavelength of light erbium YAG, was interesting because it was developed to help grow bone back around, um, periodontally involved teeth. So teeth that had gum disease that were loose, you can actually grow certain bony defects back by stimulating mitotic division of the osteoblasts with this erbium wavelength of light. So I adapted it for cavitation surgery We take the blood, we spin it down, and we use something called PRF, platelet-rich fibrin, which many of you probably know about. And this has been a great advance in, in dental surgery because I had a cavitation treated on Friday. That's why I'm speaking a little, a little weird. But I had a cavitation right here, and I had a metal implant removed. When I get to the implants, I had a metal implant back near my third molar and on a cone beam it was discovered it was there, and I'd been putting it off, putting it off. I had it done on Friday, and one of the, uh, surgeons in my group used PRF, and he used the laser. So he used the, uh, we have another laser called the Fotona. We used PRF and some bone grafting, and And that's basically, that's a hole, that's what it looks like. We make this sticky bone and we make these membranes out of PRF, and we actually use some bone mineral, a bone grafting material that acts as a scaffold for your body to make bone. But anyway, back to me. On Friday, I had the surgery. Friday night, I was, I was actually having dinner and enjoying a glass of wine, and he used ozone, you know, so there's There's a lot of ozone that's used with this laser. Laser actually generates ozonated water, but we use ozone gas, and we use bone grafting, and he closed it up. So with the exception of a few stitches in the back of my mouth, I felt perfectly fine. I had virtually no swelling, no pain. I did not take a pain medication, and this was treated. So it's a pretty effective protocol. Let's go on to amalgam. I don't want to slow things down. I want to kind of keep things moving. We all know about this. Amalgam, even when I was in dental school, seemed barbaric. I was like, wait a minute, we're sticking something that's 52% mercury, you know, 2 inches from the brain. And I would, you know, even when I was sticking it 2 inches from the brain, really? So it's, a lot of people think, oh, it's a silver filling. No, it's a mercury filling, 52% mercury. Only 26% silver alloy. If a dentist calls it a silver filling, that's fraudulent misrepresentation because it's a mercury filling. And, or either call it an amalgam or call it what its greatest element is. The greatest element is mercury. I was talking about, you know, dental amalgam and the source of mercury vapor And so, you know, you have food, fish and seafood, but look at dental amalgam. So there's mercury vapor and there's elemental mercury. This is interesting. You're all going to have these slides, which is great, but the biologic damage from amalgam is twofold. You have mercury vapor, which I was talking about, passes through your cell membranes right across your blood-brain barrier. So if you do a blood test for Mercury toxicity. Mercury doesn't stay in the bloodstream. It goes right into the cells. Very difficult to assess the level. If you come up with high mercury in your blood, you are really, really, really toxic with mercury. So even hair analysis, you know, provocative urinal. I used to be a big fan of doing provocative urinalysis to try and get a reading of, you know, what mercury they have, but Even provocative urinalysis can be dangerous because we're forcing the mercury out, but if the downstream elimination pathways aren't open, you're just redistributing. So mercury is leaching in your saliva, it's being swallowed. A lot of people have GI problems that have a lot of mercury fillings. They have a lot of GI problems, a lot of gut problems. And, but your brain is the primary target for heavy metals. So we see destruction of the neurofibrillary bundles, amyloid plaque formation, and by the way, this slide, I really found this interesting. I'm sorry it's so small, but on the left are the symptoms of mercury poisoning, and on the right are the symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. If you look symptom for symptom, they're identical. So, you know, inorganic mercury has been shown to cause the same biochemical hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease.

So very interesting slide, Dr. Gerry.

Yeah, I just, I, you know, I copied this from the World Health Organization, but, um, which I was kind of interested that they even put up. Um, but yeah, no, the World Health Organization been trying to get rid of dental mercury. Dentists have been slow. The, the American Food and Drug Administration finally banned dental amalgam for pregnant women and children. I'm like, what about everybody else? An interesting fact is that the American Dental Association had the original patent on dental amalgam, and it goes back to the 1800s when the American Dental Association was formed. And there was something called Amalgam Wars. I actually did a, uh, I did a, uh, I did this movie. I was a producer on this movie. It's really good. You can get it online. Everyone should see this. Everyone should see this. Um, it's called Evidence of Harm, and it's about the whole politics and history, but also a lot of the biology testimonials of people, um, related to, uh, mercury. I mean, it's time to just eliminate this. But what's really important, I went on the Dr. Oz Show, which was a big TV show here in the United States, and I talked about toxic fillings. It was a really, really hot topic. And it's interesting, the American Dental Association sent a newsletter out to every member of the American Dental Association telling them, you know, if you're— if your patient saw this, tell them amalgam is safe. It's been used for 100 years, and, you know, we don't see people dying in the street from dental amalgam. And meanwhile, someone's diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, I think, every 2 seconds. You know, there's an individual diagnosed with Alzheimer's. And, and, um, uh, the other thing they said, oh, if you have dental amalgams in your mouth, show it to your patients. Like, you know, you're an idiot, so show the patients that, you know, you're clueless. So mercury, um, scientists have shown that it's trace amounts that, that cause the kind of damage, uh, that's in Alzheimer's disease. It's not like tons of mercury. That's why vaccines are so bad. With, uh, thimerosal. You know, I'm all— I'm not anti-immune. I'm not, uh, you know, look, immunology is, is life-saving, okay? Um, there's so much that we need to know, and I'm not against, um, vaccines per se, but I am very for vaccine safety, which I don't see. And I see people involved in the vaccine business that don't belong there. Like Bill Gates. He's— that's not a humanitarian thing. And I know he's persona non grata in India because of what he did with his polio vaccine. And we won't even start to talk about the experimental vaccines that have been used in COVID and the kind of, uh, spike proteins and all kinds of nonsense that we really need to, as functional medicine doctors, help our patients with. Um, uh, something just came up here. I'm going to try and— is this showing up on— oh, there we go. Okay, so, um, the, uh, Calgary, Canada found exposure to mercury caused the formation of neurofibrillary tangles. So there's direct correlation here.

Okay, uh, Dr. Jerry, we have to speed it up a little. Yeah, thank you, because we have passed Yeah, what was that, Preeti? Uh, sorry, I said, Dr. Jerry, can we speed it up a little? Yes, yes, passed over our time. We are getting a lot of questions also.

Yeah, I know, because we're all going to sit here tonight and say, oh my God, I got that in my mouth. You have what in my mouth?

I agree, I agree.

Clean up ourselves, everybody. For all the doctors listening, you need to clean up your mouth. And we need to train biologic dentists to safely remove this because that was the point I wanted to make, right?

And I've got a lot of questions also for you.

You do not just go in and stick a dental drill in a mercury filling. You make a cloud of mercury vapor. It needs to be removed in a safe, careful way. Look up SMART protocol, S-M-A-R-T, with the IAOMT, iaomt.org. They have international branches. There is an Indian branch of the IAOMT as well. So we look at this here, we talk about, oh, the metals in these crowns are okay. No, there's cadmium, lead, all kinds of things. They even use, uh, uh, to reduce the coarse, uh, nickel chromium base metal is used. Nickel chromium— nickel is a carcinogen, okay? Arsenic contamination, uh, lots of— I'm not going to belabor this, but porcelain-fused metal crowns, the metal can be toxic. Yes. So all ceramic, that's the way to go. All ceramic. Here's a hot topic, very big topic right now: titanium implants. Titanium implants are, uh, you know, we used to think the bone grows around them really fast, that's good. It's actually an inflammatory response. When you stick metal in the body, the reason the bone grows so quickly, it's, it's like scar tissue bone. It's sclerotic bone. It's not vascular bone. That's why we see peri-implantitis like this with dental implants. For the dentists who are on here, take a good look. You've seen all of this around your metal implants. So this study came out in 2021. The unfavorable role of titanium particles released from dental implants. Uh, yep, goes— uh, here you have the lungs, the liver, the kidneys. It goes all over. So you're going to have these slides, you can look at it. And I don't want to sit here tonight because it's now— it's nighttime there, it's morning here. Uh, I'm going to move faster. Pretty, thank you for putting the fire under my butt. I like telling stories, so But anyway, here's what we have. What's interesting, the causes of release of these metal particles is chemical corrosion, surface wear. Those are the two big ones. But saliva is a weak electrolyte, stimulates an electrochemical cell in the oral cavity, forms a potential difference. That's why you see this. All right, here's another big one. These are, these are the big ones. Uh, root canal. Okay, we used to think tooth is infected right here, uh, and we do a root canal and this magically goes away. And no, root canals can make you sick. Uh, and, and the ones who say root canal is safe, they go, enough of the tissue is removed. Not— there are thousands of tubules that cannot get penetrated. There's a central canal that gets treated. Improve substances to fill the tooth. There's no other suitable options. We've got to keep a tooth. Um, I believe that a really expertly done root canal on a sterile tooth that breaks is good for about 7 years, and then you should start thinking about a ceramic dental implant. So these are the guys who say— dentists who speak out against the safety. Say there's no way to completely remove all the dead tissue. True. There's no way to sterilize the tooth, thus leaving bacteria in the tooth. True. The materials used in the hollowed-out tooth leak and cause problems downstream. Also true. So the American Association of Endodontists states there's no evidence between root canals— look, the cancer— sure, there are 40,000 root canals done worldwide a year. The average price of a root canal in the United States which does 25 million root canals a year, is about $2,000, $2,500. Um, that's a lot of money, a lot of money. Uh, so there are studies, uh, basically endotoxins and bacteria were present in how many? 30, 40, 50, 90? No, 100% of the samples. High values of endotoxins present in a root canal 7 days after chemo mechanical treatment. Uh, chronic asymptomatic inflammatory lesions that dentists always say, oh, it's nothing, it's scar tissue around the tooth, um, around the apex of a necrotic pulp, uh, develop unnoticed, uh, and remain so for years. So this is chronic infection. Uh, this was another movie that was out that got a lawsuit from the American Association of Endodontists to pull it off of Netflix. Root Cause. You can look this up on YouTube. Root Cause and Evidence of Harm. I want everybody to see those two movies. Root Cause and Evidence of Harm. Uh, so root canal paths on inflammation, infection, infection in and around extruded root canals, accumulation of cholesterol crystals, cystic lesions where the root canal is done, scar tissue healing on the root canal site. Here's what it looks like around the roots. Chronic inflammatory response. This is actually histological studies on root canals. How anybody could defend root canals or mercury fillings, uh, you know, the tiny cholesterol crystals are irritating. Cholesterol crystals in the form of clefts, they're seen in the CT wall, uh, inciting a foreign body. So it's like a foreign body reaction. So here's cystic lesion where the root canal is done. I take out root canal teeth almost always, and you see this area that you thought was scar tissue, and that's what it looks like. Scar tissue healing at the root canal site. This is one of the craziest treatments that was ever done in dentistry. It's like you have root canals that are infecting the bone. It's like, oh well, let's try to seal the ends. So let's stick mercury fillings in the bone It's called an apicoectomy, and the dentists who are on this call tonight, I'm sure they're getting them out there. They're, uh, they're hearing a lot. I want to get through this. I want to try and get some of your questions. So yeah, here's a double whammy— root canal and amalgam. Uh, and 3D tomography, that's how we really see this. Uh, the tooth on the right, very difficult. It's draining into the nerve and the blood supply. Very difficult to see without a CBCT. And this is written by a friend of mine, Bob Kulatz, who had his license taken away for standing up against root canals. Uh, in the— and it was very brave. Tom Levy is a cardiologist, Alok, and also a, uh, a lawyer. He's a lawyer, he's a JD and an MD. And Bob Kulatz was president of His dental school class the year behind me after I graduated. Very bright guy, but he wrote this book on the toxic tooth and was attacked by the profession. Attacked. He wrote this book like 20 years ago. Tooth-colored fillings, right? Why is BPA a big problem, right? Plastic water bottles in my teeth? Here with a sealant study, 2012 study on 434 children who had their cavities filled with a white composite resin. Now this wasn't— so there's a white composite resin, uh, bis-GMA composite. They develop small but quantifiable drops in psychosocial function. To put it simply, treated kids can become more moody, aggressive, and generally less well-adjusted. Also, this is not the ADHD study with bis-GMA resin. So we want to use— what do we want to use? We want to use BPA-free composite resin. It's out there. So BPA-free composite resin. BPA, bad chemical. We all know what BPAs do in the body, uh, very, very much one of the biggest endocrine disruptors, uh, estrogen mimic, obesity, neurological, lots of cancers, cancers, breast and prostate. Also ovarian. Uh, this is the composite I use, so this is what I think you guys should look before. It's made in Germany. It's called Mirror Fusion. It's BPA-free. It's a whole new molecule for restorative dentistry, tooth-colored restorative dentistry. So I'm sure, uh, you could get that there. Obstructive sleep apnea, big deal. Leading causes of sleep apnea is the compromised airway. The statistics are crazy. You know, you have 75% of severe cases aren't treated. 1 in 5 have mild obstructive sleep apnea. 1 in 15 have severe. 25% of middle-aged men have obstructive sleep apnea. And, you know, this is all the things that obstructive sleep apnea is connected to, right? Uh, everything from, you know, now even truck drivers in the United States have to do a sleep study because of the high rate of automobile accidents. But depression, insomnia, heart attack, stroke, memory loss, diabetes, hypertension. So there's a big connection with hypertension and COVID, and I think obstructive sleep apnea may have been an underlying cause because we knew that coronavirus wasn't really that terrible. It was nasty and hard to shake. I was in Milan, Italy in January of 2020 with a whole bunch of Italians, giving a lecture to doctors in Milan, Italy, and got on the plane back to New York with COVID I had no idea what it was. I just thought it was a bad bug. And it took me about 4 or 5 days. I did high-dose vitamin C, I did a lot of things, but I also took azithromycin when I felt like a tightness in my chest. I thought I had a bronchitis, and I did take azithromycin. So CPAP, this has been like the way, the go-to. This is treating—

Dr. Jerry, extremely sorry, but we are 15 minutes already up our time. A little speeding up is required.

Okay, you want to give me 3 minutes to close?

Yes, 3 minutes and then questions because we have some very interesting questions and they are going to take time.

Okay, great. Uh, so obstructive, uh, you know, it starts at birth. Children are tongue-tied. Um, this is our steps to accurate diagnosis. We do an initial consultation and screening by I have people from all over the world. We do it virtually. And we have them get a CBCT, like I was saying, that gold standard, and then a home sleep study, which we can ship directly to them. It's a disposable home sleep study. TMJ. I'm going through, see, how's this? It's quick. Why is there a poison warning on a lot of toothpaste? Because it's poison. Sodium fluoride has got poison. Talk a little bit about fluoride. Closing up. I'm sorry, I've just completely lost track of time. You could read about Revitin. I'm going to bring some out to you. We did a lot of interesting clinicals on Revitin. Uh, we could do a follow-up, uh, on this, but talking about that, and, uh, I'll leave this up. 5 steps to biohack your mouth. These are— you wanted me to put some action steps in there, so I put this in last night, pretty— yes, thank you. You're welcome. All right, I'm willing to, uh, great, keep it open. All the information is in there. I know I talked longer.

No, no, no, my pleasure, but I didn't want to miss on the time for the question. So, Dr. Alok, please unmute yourself.

Jerry, my one question is that I've seen a lot of association with osteoporosis and dental cavities and discavitation. And everybody in who is using, you know, toothpaste who loves, you know, foaming agents, they love the toothpaste foaming in their mouth. So there is a connection between the nitric oxide, which it may create. I want to understand a little bit more on that because it affects, you know, I've seen people with cancer, I've seen people with progressive heart disease. Based on the fact that they've been using too much of this.

Um, you know, osteoporosis is such an epidemic problem around the world, uh, and we can thank, you know, the introduction— is, is Delhi fluoridated? Did India introduce fluoride? I'm not sure.

Yes, it is there.

Yeah.

So if you look at, um, you know, what a halide chemical like fluoride does. There's over 50 studies on drinking fluoridated water lowers IQ in children, learning disabilities, behavioral disorders. But go down here, decrease in bone density and strength. Fluoride is very disruptive to bone metabolism. One of the things that we find, and the reason why we thought fluoride was a good idea, and I really do think, you know, we went into this right after World War II thinking fluoride is a good idea. But fluoride is actually a made-up word. It's actually fluorine on the periodic table of elements. It's fluorine. Fluorine is the most highly negatively charged non-radioactive element in the periodic table. So when you introduce fluorine to the body, it takes the hydroxy element in teeth and bones, hydroxyapatite, turns it into fluorapatite, 30% less strain, and it seems to affect new bone formation. It inhibits that, so you end up with osteoclastic activity, not osteoblastic activity. So the relation of osteoporosis— and I think you were saying with cavitations—

and the DEA, what about DEA as a foaming agent?

Yeah, so, uh, Sodium lauryl sulfate, another bad chemical that is an endocrine disruptor. And, you know, toothpaste, I could do a whole lecture on what's wrong with conventional toothpaste. You know, everything from, you know, foaming agents, yet people like it to foam. So you know what I used in Revitin? It's interesting. I'll show you. I used, quillajia extract, cactus extract. To create a little bit of foaming. I don't have to use a synthetic chemical like sodium lauryl sulfate. Really, we want SLS-free. There was a study at the University of Oslo back in the '90s on sodium lauryl sulfate in toothpaste causing canker sores, canker sores, aphthous ulcers in the mouth. That was from Oslo. So they started coming up with SLS-free I think as far back as 2000, uh, in the early 2002, 2003 became there. But you're absolutely right, Alok, uh, osteoporosis, big problem. We could thank a lot of things that we introduced in dentistry for that, but primarily right here. So by the way, in the U.S., we have a poison warning on the back of toothpaste, uh, you know. And then triclosan was in Colgate Total, if you remember. Triclosan was a really bad non-biodegradable pesticide. Really, that's what it was, and a huge endocrine disruptor. So, uh, any other questions?

Well, I, I have lots of questions, but people are also waiting for sure.

Oh, should I go to the, uh, chat? Let me go to the chat. Let's I'll try to see if I can handle some from the chat.

Dr. Jerry, oh, how effective—

this is a good question. I just— this is the first one that popped up.

Dr. Jerry, yes, with your permission, I will read the questions and maybe you can quickly answer them.

Great, great.

So what are the alternatives to root canals?

Dr. Vijay wants to know, um, if a tooth has an abscess That tooth should be removed. The bone should be thoroughly disinfected. The patient should be prepared for a dental implant, a ceramic dental implant. So I didn't talk about zirconia or biologic dental implants tonight. That could be another topic. I mean, I could have 20 topics, but yeah, I would prepare the patient for a ceramic dental implant, not metal. You got to get out of it.

Yeah. What do you advise for dental fillings?

Non-BPA, uh, composite resin and smaller fillings, and ceramic inlays and onlays. Gold is still a very inert noble metal as well. Uh, gold isn't the most sightly, but those three— ceramic, composite, BPA-free composite like the VOCO material, and gold.

Great. What are the causes of teeth grinding?

Excellent. Excellent question. Teeth grinding is often a parafunctional habit that's aggravated from obstructive sleep apnea. People who grind their teeth and clench, people who have TMJ, may have an underlying obstructive sleep apnea. It has to be with the orthopedic— it has to do, excuse me, with the orthopedics of the mouth. So I really recommend that anybody who's grinding, um, have a home sleep study. See if there's an underlying— we have been treating obstructive sleep apnea with, excuse me, an appliance that expands the maxilla and expands the mandible, and teeth grinding goes away, TMJ goes away, clenching goes away.

Wow.

So that's interesting, uh, interesting, uh, information that's arising from the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.

Great. So, Gerry, how effective is oil pulling?

I, I, you know, oil pulling, it's so funny, I often laugh because I can't get my patients to brush more than 2 minutes. But really, if you're doing classic Ayurvedic oil pulling, it's 20 minutes swishing oil between your teeth. So the advantage of oil pulling is if you have a very imbalanced biofilm in your mouth, oil pulling is very effective at cleaning away unhealthy plaque. However, if you do it as a regular practice every single day, you'll end up like that desert, uh, uh, to the left where I show the oral microbiome. You're stripping, stripping, stripping. It's like charcoal. It's very, very abrasive. But we were talking about that pretty— because charcoal, I love charcoal. I use it when I take mercury out of teeth. I have people take charcoal capsules. I prepare them with charcoal. Charcoal binds to toxins. So in one way, charcoal could be helpful. In another way, using it in toothpaste is very abrasive to tooth enamel and it strips everything.

Dr. Gerry, another question we have is, does inflammation affect tooth enamel? I feel burning sensation and sensitivity for some reason. This is Donge here.

Yeah. Um, the burning and sensitivity, um, I'm trying to understand. Under the tooth enamel, did you have a filling? Or is it just a virgin tooth that has burning sensation under it?

I think he has a general tooth because he's a young guy.

Okay.

Yeah.

So here's what I could say. There are all kinds of microorganisms that can cause sensitivity, sensitivity and burning sensation. Parasites are—

Please mute yourself. Somebody is again unmuted. Sorry, please. Yep. Sorry.

Yeah, yeah, no problem. So let me, let me address this because there's all kinds of sensations that teeth can have, right? Sensitive to hot. Cold, burning, uh, pain on biting. They all, they all signify something. So one of the things we want to make sure— burning sensation and sensitivity could be a microbiome imbalance, and there could be high parasite activity at the gum line.

Exactly.

And that— I've seen parasite activity at the gum line, and you see all these erosions. Sometimes that could be done that could be due to a malocclusion, and it's called an abfraction. But other times we see erosions of people with perfect bite, and, and we, you know, it's often a microbial imbalance.

Yeah. So another question we have is, what does Dr. Gerry suggest for people with titanium-based implant teeth, especially for us in India? Yes.

Okay. Uh, just so you know, I had 4 titanium implants placed in my mouth. I think you got to look at them very closely. I think a lot of it has to do with the purity of the titanium. I actually think that people should be tested, uh, as to whether these implants are problematic. I do not recommend that everybody go out there and get all their metal implants ripped out. That's not what I'm recommending.

What I'm—

what I was bringing this research forward because we don't live in a perfect world. So there are going to be imperfect things that are in our mouth, but we have to look at the whole, not the parts. So we start with the gestalt and we break it down. If you're having a systemic issue and metal toxicity could be at the root cause, then you have to look at the sources of metal toxicity, be they mercury fillings, metal crowns, uh, titanium implants. Um, that, that's one thing. The other thing is, if you are going for a dental implant, the movement in the industry is toward all the major dental manufacturers and implant manufacturers in Switzerland, Germany, the United States, and probably even India are moving toward zirconia implants, ceramic, right?

Yeah.

But if you have peri-implantitis, if you have inflammation around your implants— I see people with metal implants, they look perfectly fine, and I don't recommend them getting it out. But then I see people where implants are breaking down and they have peri-implantitis and other implant problems. Then I would recommend maybe removing that and replacing that in the future with zirconia.

Dr. Jody, Very simple, but 5 healthy habits as per functional medicine for complete mouth and dental health.

Okay, I actually, you know what, one of the things I did is I actually put this up, 5 healthy things. First one is, oh, not that one, sorry about that. I had this last slide, this I did for you. Oh, that's our new center, one second.

Uh, sorry, you must have missed it.

I missed it, right? Yeah, hold on. Sorry, let's see.

Here it is.

Whoops, there it is. I missed it again.

Yes, here it is. 5 steps.

Yeah, I think everyone on this call— because Dr. Heal Yourself— uh, everyone on this call should get a cone beam and do a home sleep study. I believe they're available.

Yeah, yeah, they are available. Uh, I believe they are available.

Yeah. The second thing— I'm just trying to get this off, one second. Um, the second thing is I think you need to remove infected root canals, toxic and non-biologic fillings like mercury fillings, and treat jaw cavitations if you have them. Um, the third thing is if you do come up as mild sleep apnea, okay, but if you're moderate or severe, you need to treat the root cause. There's lots of problems with CPAP devices. Um, one of the big problems with CPAP devices is forced air actually causes the stretching of the musculature in the airway, the surrounding musculature in the trachea. So now, uh, what happens is it's like blowing a balloon up too many times. If you're not using CPAP, you're at a greater risk of an apneic event where you stop breathing and have a possible cardiovascular event or anything else.

And run away from there.

CPAP— we need to treat airway at its root cause. And I could go through that, I could do a whole talk on that.

No, no, no, no, but we understand that.

The U.S. National Advisory on Airway Health is in my in my group. I could have him come and maybe do a presentation one day, um, to you guys, uh, as well. Um, you want to support your immune system before, during, and after dental treatment. People don't realize when they're having extensive dentistry, it can be very stressful. So things like B vitamins— oh, by the way, you know, omega fatty acids, really important. Uh, kids with cavities don't get enough fatty acids. They don't get enough vitamin D. Um, vitamin, you know, we know D3 and K2, that's what I put in my toothpaste now. Those are the gateways for calcium metabolism, but also enamel remineralization. Um, vitamin C, uh, E, D3, K2, folic acid, these are really important nutritionals. And I know, Priti, you, you had said, can you put in some supplements and stuff like that? I was like, try to— that would open a whole can of worms. I wouldn't even get through. You see, I couldn't even get through what I had to present. I really needed 2 hours, but it's fine. Everybody got a, everybody got a taste at the smorgasbord.

What about alkaline foods?

Uh, and alkaline? Yeah, yeah. So, uh I have in my book The Mouth-Body Connection, I talk about 4 cornerstones of oral health. Yeah, these are 5 ways to hack your body through your mouth, but the 4 cornerstones of oral health were: get the junk out of your medicine cabinet, out of your bathroom, the detergent, toothpaste, the alcohol mouthwash, all of this garbage. Um, and, uh, you really want to, um, use things that nourish and support the natural microbiome. So avoid harmful, harsh, and chemical-containing toothpaste and mouthwash. By the way, there's a lot of natural mouthwash that's very antimicrobial with tea tree oil and all this other stuff, charcoal. And, you know, people know oral care is a mess. It's a mess. The second thing is nutrition, alkalizing, which is Alok, thank you for saying that. Alkalizing, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant-rich. I call it AAA nutrition. Alkalizing because a lot of acidophilic bacteria cause damage. A lot of destabilization of the balance of the microbiome is from raising an acidic level in the mouth. So alkalizing is very helpful. Antioxidant-rich. There was a Japanese researcher in the '70s. That's what started me way back in the '90s. I started research on toothpaste, and the only toothpaste that were out there that were natural were like Tom's of Maine, which was a, you know, a natural toothpaste that had no artificial cover, no artificial flavor, but it had no therapy. It didn't respect the microbial flora of the mouth in any way. Uh, the third one, uh, really, really interesting. These are the last two. Uh, stress management. So stress, when you put— huge. Yeah, put the nervous system from sympathetic— I mean, from parasympathetic to sympathetic, from the regenerative state of the parasympathetic nervous system to the sympathetic state, or fight or flight, saliva dries up, you get decay, you're grinding teeth, you know, uh, your stress is a killer. But stress— the interesting thing is that stress destabilizes microbial— it destabilizes the microbiome, the microbial flora. Stress stabilizes the microbial flora. So controlling stress is essential for the body to be in harmony, to stay in a parasympathetic state, whether it's yoga, meditation, or there's so many great things that came out of India to help with stress.

One last question. You know, when we talk about charcoal not being in toothpaste, is it okay to swill your mouth with it?

With, with what?

Charcoal.

Charcoal? You could swill your mouth with it, yes.

Okay, that, that's an important one.

Great.

I'm going to tell you one thing, and this— I'm not saying this because it's a product I made, but when you respect the microbial flora and you go into homeostasis, you wake up in the morning, you feel like you don't have to brush, because the healthy microbiome in the mouth is a thin, clear, odorless, protective, beneficial film. They've done studies and have found that when the oral microbiome is in balance— like, I was taught, you know, tooth Bacteria cause tooth decay and gum disease. That's what we were taught in dental school. But when you actually balance the microbial flora, the bacteria transport ionic minerals from saliva to remineralize your teeth. Yes, the bacteria fix your—

Dr. Jerry, yes, I need your support. Yes, I have 13 questions and I have 5 minutes, so can we be that quick?

A lot. Great.

So is organic stevia good?

Yes.

Great.

I'm gonna have one word answer: yes.

Okay, great. Between the only— yeah, gingivitis, how to manage from more severe damage like loosening of tooth?

So from gingivitis to the more severe, how to manage it? Make peace with your microbes in your mouth. Great.

And it will improve, right? Great.

By the way, I mentioned the fourth one. I did stress and then you cut me off. Healthy exercise. Healthy exercise, not marathon running, but healthy exercise increases immune system competence and circulatory function.

Perfect. Doc, we see many ADHD autistic kids with foul mouth odor and tooth decay. Can you please help understand the connection?

Yeah, I mean, there's a, you know, unfortunately autism, there's a terrible and very often there's a destabilized microbiome with these patients. We see it whether it's because of their diet that destabilizes it or how it starts. I mean, it's a very, that's a very complicated issue, but they go hand in hand. We see children with special needs and then we see huge destabilized microbiome, decay, malformations, genetic— you know, when there's, you know, Weston Price, whose picture I put up, he was the first to speak about epigenetics in the 1920s. Epigenetics— that what, when you're— when your mouth is not healthy, it affects your DNA in subsequent generations.

Perfect. Uh, I still have a lot of questions, but I think— so something about dental braces, how do you consider that? Is that a good idea to have, uh, braces?

Yeah, yeah, no, I mean, absolutely. Orthodontics, it's very important. Um, in the world of orthodontics, that's all changing. So, um, there are ceramic brackets now. We try to avoid metal, but it's for a short period of time. Orthodontics is very important for overall health, for skeletal health, for breathing, you know, narrow arch, expanding the arch. But there's lots of removable appliances now. And the answer, final answer to that question is there's a lot of therapies emerging that are not the old cemented braces with the wires. A lot of conventional orthodontists still rely on that, but there are things like Myobrace, which is being used in children at a very young age. Guided development of the maxilla and mandible. Guided development, that's where it's at. And, uh, you know, the old idea of like, oh, your teeth come in crooked, we wait till they all come in and then you do braces, that's an antiquated approach. It's an antiquated modality. So the newer modalities are looking at preventative orthodontics, so guided eruption of the teeth and proper growth and development of the upper maxilla and lower jaw, the mandible. Next question.

Thank you, Dr. Jarry. No, we are done with the questions. Uh, the session was to be for 40 minutes and we have spent very interesting 1 hour and 30 minutes with you. Thank you for your time, Dr. Jerry. And one thing I want to say before I leave is— and I allow you to leave— is people are already asking for your next session. So I'll be happy to have you once again.

And, uh, I have to come back now. Now that the world is opening up, I have to come back, uh, because, uh I love India. I love the food. I love everything. I love the people.

It's been a long time. I haven't come.

Yes, thank you. So that means we have a promise from you that next session will be much longer and will be in person.

In person. We could do a live day. We could do so many great things.

Perfect, Dr. Jerry. Thank you very much. I love the information you shared. I love the deep perspective, you know, and everybody— when I say I, I mean all 54 people who had joined us today, which is significant because a lot of them are going to see the recordings later. Um, this was so in-depth that yes, we are thinking a lot, uh, what we need to do for our oral health and systemic health first, and then for our patients.