A New Approach to Oral Health: An Overview of Biological Dentistry

Hi, and welcome to how humans heal. I'm Dr. Donnie Wilson, and today I'm really excited to introduce you to Dr. Sandhya Maldivan. She is a biological dentist and periodontist. So she really specializes in helping people with their dental and oral health from a whole different perspective than you might be experiencing from your usual dentist. And she also is an author and a founder of a natural products company called Orasana they. Thank you so much for joining me today.

Thanks, Dr. Dani. It's a pleasure to be here.

Oh, my gosh. I've known you for a couple years and I always love getting to talk to you. And I know you are just a wealth of knowledge and have helped so many people because a lot of times people have no idea that what's happening in their mouth might have something to do with what's going on in the rest of their body.

Right, exactly. And the other way around, what's happening in their body might influence their mouth. So it goes hand in hand.

I mean, the thing is, like, how did you. Because you're really breaking the mold when it comes to dentists. Like, how. What. What helped you to just be like, there's another way. There's. We've got to expand dentistry into this whole new realm and really help people at a different level. What helped you to see that that was possible?

Yeah, well, Dr. Donnie, what happened is a personal story and personal struggle with my own oral health that led me to the path of becoming a holistic periodontist. When I was young and living in Romania, I had 16 large mercury fillings that were placed in my mouth, some with numbing, some without numbing. So it was very traumatic for me as a child to go to the dentist. And when I came here and I went to dental school, I'm like, oh, you know, these fillings just don't look good. You know, when I opened my mouth, it was just full of silver. I had them removed, but unfortunately for me, I had them removed unsafely. And a lot of mercury gets released when we have mercury fillings removed from the mouth. And I ended up swallowing and inhaling a lot of the mercury particles. And I ended up with chronic fatigue, with headaches, and I didn't know what was causing them. And it wasn't until, you know, I started studying nutrition and, you know, being a naturopathic.

Studies, I learned that, oh, maybe I have mercury toxicity. I tested myself and I was off the charts in mercury toxicity. So I started with a chelation process. You know, that's when I said to Myself, you know, I suffered so much. It's so hard and debilitating to have mercury toxicity and the chelation process itself. And I said, you know, there's a better way. I'm going to change the way I practice and I'm going to be outspoken about people that are interested in optimum health, because whatever we put in our mouth does affect the body and all those toxins do spill over in the bloodstream.

Yeah, you, you mentioned to me, like you about the name of the podcast, How Humans Heal. And I would love to hear, like, is that what is your. When you hear that, How Humans heal, what comes. What, you know, what comes to you? What do you think is the answer to that?

We heal when we create a good environment. So that's what we do as biological dentists, or me as a periodontist. I create an environment in the mouth where your body can heal. I really, truly believe in the miraculous power of healing naturally. So once we remove the toxins, once we remove the infected root canals, once we stabilize the oral microbiome, we heal.

It's amazing, right? And it's. And I, and again, I think that I can't wait for your next book where you're going to even describe this in more detail. But, you know, maybe you can connect the dots a little bit where someone like, like some. When I'm interviewing a patient, I'll say to them, do you have any dental health issues? Do you have any amalgam fillings? Do you have any root canals? What would you say when you're taking a history, how can a person start to consider, is this an issue for me?

Yeah. I love that you're asking your patients that, by the way. And I believe all healthcare practitioners should ask about the mouth, just like dentists ask about the body. It's very, very important. And you mentioned there, do you have mercury fillings? That's hugely important. Why? Because mercury fillings leach in the body, so that leaching in the body accumulates in the fatty tissue in the brain. So people start to have problems. Mercury has also been linked to heart issues.

We know also that the higher mercury level, we got more Candida. So they go hand in hand. The second one you mentioned, do you have root canals? Hugely important for somebody who has root canals in their mouth to have a cone beam CT scan. That's the only way for us to really know if those root canals are infected or infested. Because most people say, well, I don't have any pain, I have root canals, but I don't have Pain. The problem is the teeth are dead, the root canal teeth are dead, so you're not going to have any pain. However, these chronic silent jawbone infections called cavitations that can develop around the root canal treated teeth, and the only way for us to really see if they're there is through a cone beam CT scan. And if you do have them, you're not going to have as much energy as you would like. You might experience some brain fog, maybe some heart palpitations, digestive issues, all kinds of things that happen from undiagnosed chronic silent oral infections.

And most dentists are not going to do that type of a CT and, and may not ever discover that this is happening.

Right, exactly. So I really encourage everyone with root canals or missing teeth to get a cone beam CT scan if they want to be in optimum health. We have about maybe 20% of dentists today that have access to a cone beam CT scan. And especially a lot of the biological dentists have access to that. And really to get that thorough kind of exam. My recommendation is to find a biological dentist in your area. And the IAOMT.org that's the International association of Oral Medicine and Toxicology has a great.

Registry of biological dentists based on anyone's zip code.

And it's really worth it. I agree, because I can't tell you how many patients wear. They're coming to me like some of the symptoms you just mentioned, fatigue, brain fog, maybe even other like digestive issues or chronic infections, autoimmunity, hpv, which we'll talk a little bit more about HPV in a second. But coming to me saying, and they've been to every kind of practitioner, they've done all kinds of tests and they've tried all different things and they still don't feel well. And it's sometimes when we start asking these questions, we go, wait a minute, how's your, what's happening in your mouth? And we then, you know, find a dentist that can do this testing and say, hey, there's something here that needs attention. And once they solve that, it really can be transformational in their health. It's, you know, then we have to do the recovery process. But what I'd love to ask you is what happens next? Let's say a person finds out they have a cavitation. What's, you know, because there are some next decisions they need to make about what they're going to do. What, you know, what do I do when I have a cavitation and where do I go from there.

Yeah, good question. So cavitations can happen either in an area where a root canal exists or where a tooth that had a root canal, or maybe just a normal tooth, a wisdom tooth, for example, got removed. Then in the process of healing, microbes got inside the jawbone and created this, like, cyst, like area where they're living in. So in the area where, let's say wisdom teeth were removed and there's a cavitation, we have a couple of options. Either to inject it with ozone. And why ozone? You know, I love ozone because it kills any microbes, parasites, fungus, bacteria. But it's great for human cells. It actually helps to prime the immune system. So if the cavitation is small, we can inject, oh, ozone in that site. If the cavitation is larger and it's, let's say, around a root canal treated tooth, my recommendation would be to remove that root canal treated tooth. That's the most predictable way to clean the cavitation that exists past that root canal into the jawbone. The less.

Desirable option would be to maybe get a root canal retreatment, meaning go back through the tooth, try to clean the canal in hopes that the bone will heal. But that's not very predictable. And I believe there's still a lot of bacteria that's being left behind, even.

To the right back in the same.

Situation in a couple years or maybe sooner. Exactly. And I've had patients that have gone to two or three retreats and they still have symptoms and we end up removing the root canal treated tooth. And I have to tell you that I myself had a root canal treated tooth from when I was 14 years old, living in Romania. And I didn't really realize it was a problem. Later on, once I became aware of the dangers of root canals, I understood, you know, my gum always bleeds around this root canal treated tooth. And then I started to discover once I started using a water flosser that it developed the smell. And this was, you know, already into my 30s. And I said, you know, there was nothing wrong. When we were looking at the CT scan, there was no problem. Everybody said, oh, you know, this is fine. And I'm looking at the ct, I don't see anything, but my tooth is turning black. And a lot of people can actually just look in the mirror where you have a root canal treated tooth or maybe just look at your teeth. Are any of the teeth turning black? That's a problem. It means they're getting infested with bacteria. So I made the decision to have my root canal tooth removed and.

I was getting some heart, weird heart palpitations, and those stopped. After I had that tooth removed, my heart palpitations stopped and I had more energy.

My digestion got better because interestingly enough, that particular molar was on the meridian of digestion. So I actually started feeling better. I'm like, oh my God, why didn't I do this sooner? But I didn't know. So in a way, you know, from all the struggles that I had with my oral health, I learned it a lot. So now I can advise people better what to do and, you know, what's the most predictable and healthiest thing to do?

What is your take on implants? Because a lot of times when someone has a tooth removed, then they start going, okay, should I have an implant? And, and I know this, you know, this is sort of the decision pathway that often dentists walk people through. So what should people know about this idea or a decision about do I get an implant and what type of implant?

Yeah, I'm glad you asked that because I'm an implant specialist. So I actually teach other dentists how to place ceramic implants. And I've been placing implants now for 20 years. In the beginning of my career, I was doing a lot of titanium implants. And now more and more I'm shifting towards ceramic dental implants. And I myself ended up getting an implant in the air where I had a tooth removed. And I have to tell you, it's the best replacement for missing teeth. And I would do it again. It feels like the strongest tooth in my mouth. But there's a lot of people that are worried about them saying, oh, you know, is titanium a problem? It can be in people with autoimmune disease. So those of you that have autoimmune issues and titanium can exacerbate just like mercury can exacerbate autoimmune issues. Ceramic implants we've had now for over 20 years as well. And a lot of the studies come from Europe. The current company that I'm using today has 20 year studies that they're successful.

90% success. Looking at tens of thousands of implants.

We see healthier gum tissues around ceramic implants than we see with titanium. We believe the reason for that is because titanium still has a low grade electricity that it gives a little electrical current, and electrical currents in the mouth are not good. And especially when you have, let's say, a mercury filling in a titanium implant next to it, that's a lot of electricity going between those two different metals. So it's good to remove mercury fillings, not just for the toxicity but also for this low grade electricity that it creates because it really steals your life force. We call this galvanic current. And galvanic current in the mouth has been really well documented in our science and literature. We know it exists, but a lot of people either ignore it because like, oh, you know, what's a little battery in your mouth? It's not good. It's really not good. We are created from energy, so we need to make sure we utilize that in a smart way.

I'm so glad you're saying that because I can't tell you how many patients I've seen who have titanium implants and I've identified that they are, have their immune systems actually trying to protect them from the titanium. And now they're in a situation of like now what do I do? I have these titanium implants that I'm reacting to, you know. And so I'm so glad that ceramic implants are a thing and that more and more dentists are offering them and that you're training them how to use the ceramic implants because it's, it's to me as well. I've seen it make a difference. Now I feel lucky because I never had any amalgam feelings. I never had a root canal.

My teeth have been, they're all my teeth and they've all been healthy. But I really feel so grateful. I have to thank my father for that. My father was a pharmacist and from a very young age he had me paying attention to my teeth and my dental health. And I have had a biological dentist for over 15 years. So I'm so glad that I had that information. But that's why I'm also glad to be interviewing you. For anyone out there who is not aware of this on that, that it can make such a difference in your health to work with a biological dentist who can help guide you like you are including like say when someone is going through a dental process. A lot of times antibiotics are recommended in the, for the procedure. And I. It's one of the things where, you know, here we are talking about healthy microbiome and then here comes these antibiotics and it's like this contradiction. And so a lot of times I find myself guiding patients. How can we, at least if we have to use antibiotics, help you recover from the antibiotics and sometimes even being able to avoid antibiotics if possible, using herbal antimicrobials or like ozone for example, you mentioned as an antimicrobial. I love ozone.

Tell me more. Like, just so people have a sense of like, there's other possibilities of navigating these dental experiences in a way where we can minimize the damage and optimize the recovery.

Absolutely. I'm glad you brought up the antibiotics because a lot of people ask me, especially when I remove, let's say, some infection from their jaw or root canal treated tooth, do I need antibiotics? Actually, no, because I'm using ozone, so that's hugely important. It sterilizes the site. And secondly, we use a process called platelet rich fibrin or prf, where we actually draw blood, we concentrate the growth factors and immune cells in a small clot and we place it back in the mouth where the tooth or the infection was coming from. And that will protect the site from infections. So I really minimized the amount of antibiotics that I'm handing out to patients by utilizing ozone in the form of water and gas and platelet rich fiber and therapy.

Oh my gosh, that's awesome. That's awesome. And ultimately, when it comes to like say our children and young adults who, you know, or even if, yes, you're a person, maybe like me, where you, you luckily haven't had a, have to, had a filling or a root canal yet in terms of preventing health issues or even preventing periods like the gum, gingivitis and you know, because that can also really, you know, be an issue even if you don't have fillings and root canals. Like, I'd love to hear you talk more about this, like, how do we prevent issues? How do we optimize our microbiome to protect us?

Yes. I'm glad you brought up this microbiome and optimization microbiome, because a lot of people think microbiome, oh, the gut, the stomach. But the oral microbiome is just as important, especially when it comes to gingivitis periodontitis. Periodontitis is just the next step after gingivitis when people start to lose bone from letting the microbiome build up. So we need to control the microbiome layer, meaning the biofilm. Some people might be more familiar with that term. So the biofilm lines the gums, the cheeks, the tongue, under the tongue, the back of the throat. And I think the biggest misconception is, you know, for dentists especially, you go get a deep cleaning and the only thing they clean is around the teeth. What about the rest of the 99% of the microbiome? So what happens is get gum disease right away again, because it grows right back in the pocket. So I think is really treating the whole mouth, not just scaling around the teeth is hugely important. And in our practice in Beverly Hills, Dental health and wellness, we create this full mouth disinfection where we could take the microbiome that is pathologic or causing disease, you know, gingivitis periodontitis. We basically wipe off the tongue, the cheeks, the gums, underneath the gums and get every like, we call it a reset of microbiome. And then what people can do at home is maintain it through three easy steps. Number one, of course, brushing. Hugely important. Second is water flossing or string flossing. Although the latest recommendation in science shows that water flossing does a better job than string flossing. And thirdly, is going to be using a chewable probiotic. It's like a candy basically that we let dissolve and we, you know, wipe it. We take our tongue and then after we dissolve it, wipe the outer surfaces of the teeth and the cheek to just help spread it out. And what we see is that when people start using a chewable probiotic that have had gum disease or bleeding in the gums, that their bleeding actually stops. They build less plaque. Their tongue, if it was coated white, now it's like a nice pink color. So we really see good changes with using a chewable probiotic.

And you mentioned candy, but it doesn't have sugar. That's right. It's like it tastes sweet.

Yes, exactly. So we actually, as part of the Orasana line, I'm the owner of Orasana. I started as a passion for me to create natural oral health products that actually tastes good. So I really worked hard at creating a good tasting trouble probiotic. Prior to this, I was using a company from Canada and their probiotic was very chalky. And my patients like, you know, this is not good. You have something else. We don't really want to take this. So they didn't want to take it. So that's what I said. Okay. I found a lab in Wisconsin with a great chemist and helped me create a vegan certified chewable probiotic in the Orasana line. And actually, you know, especially for kids, they love it. We test, we taste tested in the kids section because they said, wow, wow, this is good. How many can I have? So we knew we had a winner there with the taste.

I've done a lot of detoxes over the years and many of them made me feel a lot worse. Not only that, but I've had a lot of patients come in and tell me how after doing A detox.

They have a stomachache and headache and.

They can't sleep and they're feeling anxious and I'm like, I can't just recommend that my patients do a program that's going to make them feel worse. So I finally decided to design my own detox program. It's a 14 day detox program that's not like other detox programs out there in several ways. One is that I'm focused on helping you to get the toxins out in a safe and effective way using nutrients, antioxidants and supporting our natural detoxification pathways in the body. Also I'm helping you to decrease your exposure to toxins by learning the ways that you've been exposed to toxins and how to change your day to day lifestyle to decrease your toxins over time. And I'm helping you to look not just at chemical environmental toxins but also emotional and energetic toxicity. And yes, it's possible to accomplish all of this in 14 days. I have so many patients who have done the 14 day detox and report back to me how much better they feel. And I think it's also because I help people you to know what to eat, you are getting adequate food that tastes good plus protein shakes that I developed that are good for your body, that your body knows how to use these nutrients and take them in and use them to help you safely detoxify without feeling worse. Also I help you to balance your blood sugar levels, get better sleep sleep and introduce things like meditation, biofeedback and other types of stress recovery into your.

Day to day routine.

So I just am so excited about it.

I want to make sure you know.

About this 14 day detox. I'm going to put the link, you can find it at drdani.com forward/detox-program but I'll also put the link below so you can find the 14 day detox program at Dr. Donnie.com I look forward to guiding you through this detox so that you can actually feel better on your way to better health.

I'll definitely put a link in the show notes so people can find it and I love that concept that if we can teach our children these concepts of, you know, use these tools to help prevent these issues from developing because hopefully then they can avoid things like gingivitis and cavitations and and yet as you're describing, even if someone gets to that point then you can help them through it successfully so that they can then recover from it. And including I wanted to mention, I help a lot of patients with mercury toxicity because, you know, it's. As a naturopathic doctor, my training, I trained with Dr. Walter Crinian at Bastyr University, which is very rare to even be able to get that training from him in environmental as well as mercury toxicity and how to help with appropriate chelation of metals, for example. And so it's just to tell those of you who are listening that say you are, are wondering, hey, maybe I have a metal toxicity defer. To me, the first question I ask is, do you have metal in your mouth? Because it's not the way to know if you have metal toxicity is to do a urine test with a chelator like dmsa. But it's not going to be an accurate test if you still have metal in your mouth. So we're going to need to first, you're going to need to first meet with a biological dentist like Sanda, have the metal safely removed from your mouth without creating a toxicity like she experienced. There's ways now to remove those, those amalgam and metal fillings so that you don't get exposed. And we can support you with supplements to make sure you don't get toxic from the process. Once the metals out of your mouth, then we can appropriately do a urine test for metals using DMSA as a chelator to find out if those metals are in your tissue. And then I can help you safely get them out of your body without you feeling worse. So just so you know, that can be sometimes part of this process, right, Sonda?

Yeah. And I love to ask you a question based on what you said, this is very interesting. Like, what do you, what do you prefer? I'm curious, is it oral chelation or IV chelation?

I, I prefer oral. I mean, I don't offer IV in my clinic, but even if I did offer IV in my clinic, I still prefer oral DMSA because it's something that then a person can do safely at home and it does provide accurate results. And it's, it's, it's lower cost and yet still gives us good information. So I've just found that it, it does require that I prepare a patient beforehand. I need to make sure they have certain nutrients on board for at least two weeks before we do oral dmsa. And I really teach them how to do the testing so that they don't feel worse and they can, you know, that we can get the information we need. But I find that, hey, using oral DMSA for the testing and for the treatment has worked great. On this way because sometimes with IV chelation, we run into issues where patients can get very nutrient depleted and end up with feeling worse before they feel better. And I'd rather match the chelation to the patient. And sometimes if we need to go slower, I'd rather go slower so that the person, we can maintain their nutrient levels and help them through the process without feeling worse is my, is always my strategy. So that's why I've preferred oral chelation over iv.

Yeah, this is very good actually because, you know, I tried IV chelation, it made me feel so sick. So I prefer oral myself, especially for myself, you know, I'm in a dental environment, so I'm probably, even though as careful as we are, there's probably some mercury in the air. So, yeah, I, I tried to do some oral chelation on a regular basis.

Yeah. And it's. So it's definitely, you know, if anyone's listening and wondering about this, feel free to reach out to us so we can help guide you. It's important that you work with someone who has that experience and training to guide you because this is something you're going to need to do carefully. We don't, the goal is, we don't want you feeling worse or having toxicity increase in the process. It should be a process where you, you feel better. And, and, and that brings me to, you know, just, you know, first of all, I wanted to see if you, if you happen to have an example case you might share of someone who went through this process with you and you got to really see what was possible in terms of that feeling better.

Definitely. And actually, for people who are interested to listen to some of the testimonials of our patients, we have on our Beverly Hills Dental Health.com we have a few videos there of our patients that have gone through it. But one of the examples that comes to mind is Angela and she actually gave us a video testimonial. She's a Reiki practitioner and when I first met her, she was very sick. She, she was only 90 pounds. She couldn't eat anymore. The only food that she did not have an allergic reaction to was meat. She had like mast cell activation and you know, she would get. She ended up in the emergency room several times with tachycardia. She really didn't know what was wrong with her.

And.

When I did her cone beam CT scan, I discovered some cavitation areas as well as the root canal treated tooth.

So I scheduled her for a procedure. You know, she did very well through the procedure. And when I actually, you know, it's interesting. The cap came off, I think, the day of the procedure, and underneath that cap, it was full of mold. And now one of the things that people don't know that in the mouth being a moist, warm environment, mold loves to grow underneath crowns. Wow. One of the things that has happened time and time again, removing crowns over teeth, and it was full of mold underneath. So this, you know, Angela, after I treated her for cavitation, extracted the root canal, treated tooth, she slowly started getting better. Like a month later, she actually was able to clean our house and, you know, walk her dog, things that she couldn't do before. She was really, really suffering from chronic fatigue and started to incorporate more and more foods slowly. Of course, she was also under the care of a naturopath. It wasn't just the dental, but the dental was a huge aspect of her healing. And I think it wasn't until we addressed, you know, the oral infections that she really turned around and really started to see healing happen. And really, you know, this was. I want to say it's already been a couple years, and now she's back to being a Reiki practitioner. You know, she's feeling better and back to her normal life. But it did take. It does take a few months. If nothing happens right away. I know I have some patients that, you know, I treat them for cavitation, like, oh, I was hoping I would feel better, like, the next day. Well, it doesn't work like that. The body still needs that healing time. And it's important. You know, it's this holistic approach where we work as a team, medical, dental, to be able to get someone to the finish line, to optimum health.

Yeah, I completely agree. It's gotta be because likely that chronic infection has caused other imbalances in the gut microbiome, and it oftentimes is causing chronic inflammation. So then the cortisol levels are off, and we need to be helping the adrenals to recover. And, you know, so it's like, it's a. We need to have a comprehensive plan. And then, yeah, the person gradually starts feeling better. Like you said, you're like, oh, I could walk the dog today, and I didn't have a complete allergic reaction. That's a win, you know, and we start gaining little by little.

Yes. Yeah, I agree with you.

I wanted to ask you about HPV virus because I specialize in helping women and men who are testing positive for hpv. Usually we is that they did a pap smear for women and they thought it came back as HPV positive and maybe abnormal cells. And a lot of times they ask me, does this mean that I might have HPV in my oral area? And the thing is, is especially in the United States, it's not tested. Most dentists are not testing the oral area for hpv. And so I wanted to get your take on that. Like, what are you observing and what can people. If people are testing positive for HPV on a Pap test, should they be thinking about their oral area as well?

Yeah, this is hugely important because HPV orally is linked with 70% of the mouth and throat related cancers. Wow.

70%.

70%, exactly. And it is important, especially people suspect or they were diagnosed with HPV vaginally. It's important that we test the oral.

And it's a pretty simple test. It's a swish and a spit, swish with some saline spit in a test tube. And within a couple of weeks we actually have results. And why is it important to know? Because if somebody has HPV in the throat or in their mouth, then as dentists, we know to constantly check on a regular basis for lesions or like, do a cancer screening to make sure that everything's good. And maybe there's also some things that we can do in terms of increasing the antioxidant level, having better nutrition in order to, you know, avoid triggering cancer. So it is important to test for.

That because unfortunately, a lot of people don't know until they get cancer.

Yes. And unfortunately, I have diagnosed oral cancer in my practice. Luckily, all the patients that I've diagnosed survived because we diagnose it early enough. And this is another reason why it's so important to have regular dental checkups. Because if you don't and we diagnose the cancers too late, it's. It could be very debilitating. Sometimes, you know, these treatments involve, like, cutting out a piece of the jawbone. And it's, it's very difficult to, to live like that.

Yeah. And so if any of you listening have tested positive for HPV, definitely connect with Dr. Sand and I about that. And let's make sure you're, you're. We know if it is existing in the oral area, so we can pay particularly attention to that. And to just mention that. What I find is, because my approach to HPV is to treat the whole body, as you were just saying, Dr. Sandra, like, you know, we want to be looking at, hey, is there nutrient deficiencies? Is there even. Is there toxicity that's making you susceptible to this HPV virus? Is there you know, is I've had patients with, with HPV and abnormal cells who found out they had a cavitation. And once they had that tooth removed and the cavitation dealt with, the HPV went away vaginally and the abnormal cells went away. It's like they're interconnected. And so, so to just point out, like, it's, again, it's so important to be doing your oral care, even if you're. You're thinking, oh, this is my cervix. What does that have to do with my mouth? That virus is affecting, potentially affecting both areas, and it's only there because you're vulnerable. How are you vulnerable? Maybe you're vulnerable because of a chronic infection in there. Maybe there is something like, even a mold toxicity, not just mold in the crown, but mold in the body. Right. That's making a person susceptible.

Exactly. That's a very interesting case you shared about hpv, how and how it shows you how everything from the mouth to the body is really correlated.

It really is. And I just hope that, yeah, anyone listening can then feel hopeful, that, like, you know, you're not. You don't have to just be afraid and, and doing nothing, that there's. There's things we can do to help you to identify it and address it and get beyond it. So that, that's really the goal is so that you can be living your passion, doing what you love, without constantly being fear. Speaking of fear, a lot of people are afraid of the dentist. Maybe you could just help us. Like, like, how do you talk people through, like, getting to the dentist and not being so afraid of it.

Oh, my God, you're so right, Dr. Donnie. I mean, it's just like so many people are afraid, apprehensive, and I can think of one, one patient, he was so afraid, he couldn't even sit down in the dental chair to talk to me. I had to talk to him literally, like in the waiting area. He was that afraid. But, you know, he made it through. And now, now after he's treatment, he can finally come get a cleaning without being totally knocked out. And there are people like that out there. They have had significant dental trauma. And unfortunately, our cells have memory and it's not something that we can. You can control logically if you have this fear of the dentist. So we totally understand that. There's nothing to be, like, embarrassed about. We deal with people like that all the time. And there's great solutions. I think one of this solutions is definitely, you know, I love, like, Brain Tap, for example. That's a. It's a great way to help get, you know, the mind more in an alpha state. We do have in our practice at Beverly Hills, it's a viperacoustic electromagnetic infrared bed. It's kind of the same, like, braintap technology, where it just puts your brain in an alpha state and it creates this sense of relaxation. We can use also something called Lovella, which is purified lavender oil. It helps really to take the edge off and calm people before their dental appointments. CBD oil is good as well. These are more of the natural ways to do things. But also if somebody is really has a strong fear, we have great anesthesiologists that I work with. They're called mobile anesthesiologists. They basically bringing down anesthesia and can actually put them on to sleep for the entire length of their procedure. I've been working with anesthesiologists now for 20 years.

That's so awesome. Oh, my gosh, I'm so glad I asked you that, because it's. Because it's like, let's not let the fear stop you from getting help with what's happening in your mouth.

Absolutely. And the mouth, you know, is such a unique place because it's the inside of someone, and I think it's such an intimate area. So really, I think it takes a lot of trust, you know, that the patients place in us to care, you know, for. It's like seeing the inside of them. So I think there's a connection. So it's even. I think for that reason, people also have a hard time.

Revealing that part of them. And a lot of people are like, you know, I haven't been to the dentist in a long time. I'm embarrassed. My mouth is terrible. But, you know, there's really no reason to feel that way. You know, we're there and we signed up to be dentists for that reason, you know, to help others go through this and. And re. Establish optimum health.

Oh, my gosh, you're reminding me that actually before I realized I wanted to become a naturopathic doctor, I really thought I wanted to be a dentist. I was like, at a young age, I was. I was shadowing my dentist, my orthodontist. I went to like, even, like, early training for, you know, dental students. And I was like, that was where I thought I was headed. I forgot about that until you just said that. I realized I really was into it from. From a young age. And I'm still so excited to talk to you. In fact, I, I don't know if you, if you mind me asking you this. I, this is another topic that's, that's close to me personally because I also have joint hypermobility, Ehlers Danlos syndrome. And I find that my patients who have hypermobility tend to have a lot of tmj, jaw issues, dental issues, and that they sometimes are in that category of people who have dental trauma. Because sometimes it's having your, your mouth open for long periods of time, it really triggers pain in the jaw. And so they, you know, it's a conundrum. I need the help, but I'm in pain when I go in there. And I'm just curious of your. If you can speak at all to joint hypermobility and dental health.

Definitely. I'd be happy to. You know, with the joint, it's such a special joint, the TM joint, because it moves in many different directions and it's kind of like it's the suspended. It's a special joint in the way the ligaments are just holding the entire mandible. And with the hypermobility, it's easy to overstretch this joint. So especially if, let's say you're going to get wisdom teeth removed or you're going. Exactly. To remove mercury, it's important that we don't over open the jaw, especially in somebody with high probability. They could probably open it really wide, but then it can create actually popping and clicking. So I think it's important to help the muscles to be relaxed so they're not pulling and also inform the dentist. And it's really, you know, once somebody's asleep, it's hard to tell how open you are and really ask the dentist, hey, can you give me breaks? And it's okay to take a break, or oftentimes, you know, we could take a break through the procedure and say, okay, let me give you a break so you can stretch your jaw. Light therapy is hugely important. I find that very helpful in terms of relaxing the jaw and preventing this ligament problems in the tmj. And if somebody is having TMJ issues, they can actually use light therapy every day. On the outside, there's all kinds of units. Today. I like a company called Light Stem because they actually put the effort to get the FDA approval for pain and inflammation. So a lot of my patients use that for the TMJ problems. But also, you know, there's some collagen peptides that help with joints and joint rebuilding. There's some great studies with that. And these are some of the Things I think people can do to. To help with tmj.

I love that. What about like, sleep apnea? You know, this sort of situation. Because sometimes then, right, there's inflammation, there's potentially joint issues, and then it can start affecting people's sleep.

Yeah, absolutely. So interesting, because people that have sleep apnea, and what is sleep apnea is people that basically at night you're not getting enough oxygen and the brain gets stressed, it perceives that, oh my God, you're dying, you're suffocating, and clenching happens. So people start now to clench. So they have constantly. They wake up, oh, my God, my jaw sore. So people that have sleep apnea oftentimes have grinding, clenching and grinding. So.

Sleep is very important to be tested. There's easy ways to do a sleep test. Nowadays we use actually a company called Sleep America. They have the sensor on the index finger and basically in two nights, so we actually know whether somebody has sleep apnea or not. And there's different ways to address it. But my favorite way is really to start to open up the airway. And there's a special procedure called night lace. And night lace is a laser opening of the airway without downtime, without numbing that. All we feel is actually warmth in the back of the throat. And the collar, we changing the collagen structure. We're actually melting some of the fat in the back of the throat to open up that weird way so people can sleep better, decrease snoring and release their jaw. Another aspect that's important to check is for freedoms. Freedoms or attachments are like. Like right here. Like, if somebody lifts their lip, there's a little piece of skin there that's called the freedom. If that's super tight, or the lower lip one, or the tongue one, people will clench. So oftentimes by releasing those freedoms. How do we do it? With a laser, it actually releases the jaw. And there's also freedoms here on the side. And this is great for breathing. If people have really tight frenums under here, it kind of constricts their airway from the nose. So when we release the frenums on the side, they say, oh, you know what? I can breathe better. So all these things are important part of breathing well and decreasing sleep apnea.

And it's all part of what you do as a biological dentist and holistic periodontist. Like, that's like, I hope that I think my mind even is blown. And I'm sure listeners too are like, wow. Like, there's so many solutions that are possible. For a whole wide range of issues. You know, it's like, amazing. Thank you so much for what you do.

Yeah, my pleasure. It's a passion. So, you know, I love to help people live a better health naturally now without all the, you know, chemicals and, you know, that unnecessary things.

Oh, my gosh, it's wonderful. And so I'm going to make sure that everyone knows from listening to this how to get in touch with you, because they can always even come to you in Beverly Hills if they really are not able to find someone near them.

Absolutely. We have people that travel actually from all over the world to see us. And I'm blessed to work not just by myself, but with two other biological dentists who are general. I'm a periodontist. We have a prosthodontist who does advanced jaw reconstructions, and we also have a chiropractor that helps us to, you know, align everything when we do work, just to make sure everything is in the right place because the cranial bones are so important in the bite. So when we adjust someone's bite, it's important to have good cranial alignment.

That's amazing. What an dream team. Especially for someone who's been struggling and looking for someone who can help. It's worth the trip, you know, to get that kind of help. And, and so thank you again so much for joining. And I know that you. They can find you at your website and online and your. Your book and your new book to come. What's the best. What would you say is the best place for people to go?

So I have a podcast called the Holistic Dentistry show. If anybody's interested in learning more. There's also my YouTube channel, Ask Dr. Sanda. Or you could go to our website at Beverly Hills Dental Health.com if you're interested in oral health products. I know you have a link at the bottom for orasana.com we also post a lot of links there and resources about the oral microbiome.

Wonderful. Oh, how awesome. Oh, my gosh. Thank you again so much for joining us here. This is just a wealth of information for everyone listening. So thank you so much again, Dr. Sandha, for joining us today. And thank you everyone for listening in. And please make sure to, if you haven't already, to subscribe to How Humans Heal podcast so you don't miss the next episode. I'll talk to you guys soon.

Thanks for listening to How Humans Heal. If you liked this episode, leave a rating and a review. And for more resources, visit drdonnie.com.