48: The Health Risks of Traditional Dentistry and How to Avoid Them with Dr. Kelly Blodgett

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Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Keeping Abreast Podcast. I AM your host, Dr. Jen Simmons, and today we are going to uncover a topic that is long due to. For uncovering. This is gonna trigger some people. This is gonna make people feel angry, betrayed. The fact that so much of it has gone unspoken for so long is going to really create a lot of deep seated feelings in people. But that's okay, because that's what we're here and that's what we're about. And we're about making tomorrow better than today. And this is one way that we're gonna do it. So I am delighted to introduce you to Dr. Kelly Blodgett. Dr. Blodgett is redefining the modern dental experience to one that is a 100% positive experience. And I know a lot of people have a negative association around dentistry and especially modern dentistry. I'm not sure that this is going to help most people with their experience, but let's hope. And we are going to talk about holistic and biologic dentistry and all that it encompasses. He has a weekly podcast. He has toxic Tuesdays, wellness Wednesdays, he has an amazing social media platform, and I'm just delighted that he came to spend some time with me here today. So, Dr. Blodgett, welcome.

Thank you. I sincerely appreciate you having me on. And this is going to be a lot of fun. And I love what you said. I mean, we're bringing things to light so that people can be empowered to make better choices for their own health, which I think is awesome.

Yeah, absolutely. So I want to start off by defining what holistic dentistry is or biologic Dentistry, because most people haven't even heard of that, don't know what it means. And there, I think there is, like, a lot of room for interpretation there, because there are people that call themselves holistic dentists or biologic dentists that are still doing pretty traditional, conventional things. So what is holistic dentistry or biologic dentistry?

Yeah, boy, you bring up such a good point. So, you know, we could. We could go to Webster's Dictionary and look up biological. We can look up holistic. But in terms of how that is practiced from, from one dental practice to another, it's going to be totally different. So for the sake of clarity, you know, when I'm offering my opinion on what I think that means, you know, this is Kelly Blodgett's version of what I think holistic and biological means. So, you know, I think as it.

Helped so many of my patients, that I trust Kelly Blodgett's version.

Thank you very much. You know, I. I think that one of the things that people feel in the things that I share is the humility and the truthfulness. And, you know, like, we're all learning, you know, even those of us who are quote, unquote, experts are learning. And what my practice's version of holistic and biological will look like a year from now will probably be, you know, progression from where we are today. But, but generally speaking, for those people who have never heard of biological dentistry or a holistic approach to oral health, in my simplistic view, it's moving from the traditional approach of symptomatic care. You know, you have a hole in the tooth, you drill it and you fill it. But you don't really consider why the. The whole developed in the first place to looking at a systematic view where the first step is really to gain an understanding of what is going on with your body such that your teeth or your gums or your jawbone are experiencing symptoms. So we create a ton of time in our practice, and we've learned to do this, you know, by practicing it for 25 years. We find that when we give ourselves a couple hours of time with each new patient, lo and behold, we're able to create enough space to bring about the issues that led to their mouths and probably other parts of their body, raising its hand to say, you know, I'm experiencing these symptoms because of these issues, whether it's nutritional, you know, belief systems, stress, you know, whatever. So it's more of a systematic approach.

This is like what we talk about, root cause medicine.

Yeah, exactly.

You're you're literally practicing root cause medicine in the mouth. Just like functional medicine, doctors are practicing root cause medicine in the body.

Yep.

I really want to get into why oral health is so important. I mean, obviously everyone wants beauty, beautiful teeth, they want a beautiful smile. And we get it from an aesthetic standpoint, but it goes a lot deeper than that because your mouth is a reflection of your overall health. So can you make that connection for us so that people understand why oral health is so important?

Yeah. How much time do we have, Jen?

We have all the time you need because is really an important issue.

Yeah. Thank you. Well, if we. It depends on which perspective we want to consider first. We want to look at, you know, physiologic or energetic or, you know, what have you. But I would say, like, just from a anatomical and physiological standpoint, let's think about from which cells do our teeth originate. You know, so when a human being is being formed, the cells that create your teeth, you know, come from the same cells that develop your central nervous system. When we look at, you know, millennia old charts of Chinese, ancient Chinese medicine, and looking at connections of energy, we see that each tooth in the mouth is connected to various organs and systems in the body. And I've seen this firsthand, of course, for years. I was observing it but not being aware of it. And thankfully, we understand now that there are connections. For instance, your wisdom teeth. Millions of people who have, have those teeth extracted because, you know, of this idea that, I guess, I mean, believe it or not, some people believe it's like it's just a rite of passage.

Passage.

I was, you know, yeah, I'm 18 years old, I gotta. I've literally had people say, am I due for my wisdom teeth out? I was like, that's a human body part. Right. So. But they're connected to your heart meridian. Interesting, right? Yeah. And the number of people who have those teeth taken out with very little to no Support around understanding 1. Is their body ready for surgery to begin with? I mean, it's a bone surgery. How many dentists are doing a blood draw to understand what is your biochemistry telling us about your body's ability to heal, you know, nor are they commonly being supported with any type of grafting material, such as lprf. You know, you're using your own healing cells, a concentrated version of your own healing cells to expedite and, you know, create a more predictable healing scenario. Because if these areas of bone don't heal well, they can lead to chronic sources of infection that bog down your energy and your Lymphatics. Matter of fact, I just helped a woman this two days ago, Tuesday. 30 years old. 30 years old, bilateral breast cancer. And she has three wisdom tooth sites that are what we would call cavitation lesions. When I opened them up, Jen, you. I will post this as a toxic Tuesday post. Literally balls about a centimeter wide of black, waxy material in the center of her jawbone. You know, and I think, like, this is just the. The obvious expression of it. How many millions of people are suffering maybe even on a subclinical level. They just know their energy doesn't feel well. And the one place nobody considers is the mouth.

Yeah, yeah. And there's a lot of connection, direct connection between disease states and dysfunction in the mouth. So can you talk about some of those connections? I know you spoke about the wisdom teeth being on the heart meridian. So we can certainly understand how a chronic infection in the mouth, and, you know, that is in the literature, we know that people with gum disease, with oral disease, are more prone to cardiovascular disease. That's in the literature. And people. People understand that connection, at least on a surface level, they understand that connection. Yeah, but there are other disease states, namely breast cancer.

Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, and that's kind of twofold. I would say if we look at the energy meridian charts, there are specific teeth that are connected to the breast meridian. But that aside, think about the lymphatic drainage system. So everything in the mouth, you know, the gums, the teeth, it's all going to be drained through the same, you know, cervical chain of lymph nodes and lymph chain. And interestingly enough, I posted a study that I had come across last year that was showing that lymph systems where we should have these backflow check valves that prevent, you know, stuff from going backwards when they are exposed ongoingly or chronically to microbes. Our own genetics will deprogram those backflow valves and. And they disappear. And then you have these open tubes that can just backflow anywhere. And it's interesting because I've observed this in people's mouths, whether it's in their jawbones, whether it's in their, you know, gum tissue, literally, like black tubes of stuff where their root canals are draining this stuff, their cavitation lesions are draining this stuff, and it's just awful. You know, it's. I'm glad that you are as fired up about this as I am, because.

You know, I tend to be a fiery person.

It's become our norm that. It's almost like if the medical system doesn't have symptoms to manage and prescribe pills for, how are people going to make a living? Right. But in reality there are ways to make a living and actually helping people to recover and regain their health. And, and that's what we're doing here in my practice. And I, and I think that most really well intended biological dentists are looking at root cause issues. Those root canals, cavitations, titanium implants, and not to say that all root canals are going to cause a disease state, it's not to say that all titanium implants are going to cause a disease state. But if a person is at risk and one, how many dentists are actually establishing, you know, bio individual risk, it's not common, even though that scientific data is available to us through a bio comp test, easily found by doing a blood draw. So we have the ability to gain an understanding of how to specifically per patient help them get healthy. But to your point that the information is really not getting out there quite yet.

So go back to if a patient is at risk, what does that mean? How do you know if you're at risk?

Right, so let's say, you know, here's a prime example in my practice, let's say somebody's curious as to whether their titanium implant is causing any, any health risk. One, one thing I might ask them is, and this is particularly helpful for women because most women have had earrings, not all, but you know, most women have had their ears pierced. And I would say, you know, have you ever had, if you put cheap earrings in, are your earlobes okay? And if they say, oh no, they get red, they get scratchy or itchy, you know, it's like, okay, so generally speaking, we could say probably nickel is not going to work for you. So all titanium implants, dental implants have components of nickel. So if you're sensitive to nickel, but you're putting in implants that contain it, you can, you know, that would be silly, right? So if we expand that to something like this biocomp test, where the test looks at, I don't remember, it's something like 80 elements on the periodic table to see how sensitive is that specific person's body and compare that to the tens of thousands of dental products on the market, you can actually get a list of materials that, some of which will be least reactive for you, some of which will be moderately reactive, some of which will be highly reactive. So if I wanted to put, you know, install dental materials because think about it, right? Nutrition, we can change tomorrow if I put something in your mouth, dentally, God willing, that's going to be in your mouth for maybe even the rest of your life. It better be compatible with your body.

So are you telling me that implants are routinely placed in people's mouths without doing any investigation to whether or not they will tolerate them or they're good for them or they're compatible with them?

Yes.

That's frightening. Why do you. Do you think that most providers don't know about the biocomp test?

I do think that's the case just as much as it is. Most dentists have never heard of a ceramic dental implant, as scary as that might be. But ceramic dental implants have been around for 25 years.

So let's back up and tell me, why are you so enlightened? What happened? I mean, if you're telling me that most dentists just place these titanium implants without questioning as to whether or not it's good for the patient, it says to me that there's an education problem.

Yeah, for sure.

Where, where did this system break in that. Are you. Are you a unicorn who just somehow got awoken to the fact that. That I don't know what we want to call it. Conventional dentistry is fraught with harms.

Well, I think we're at a. An interesting place in time. I was thinking about this just the other day. You know, 200 years ago, I'm going to. I'm going to lean into mercury fillings because it's such an obviously stupid thing to do in today's day and age with the technologies that we have. 200 years ago, when mercury fillings were brought into dentistry, conscientious dentists of the day were like, you know, we get that we don't really have any great options, and people are having more and more decay because of our processed food diets. Right? But, I mean, mercury, you know, putting mercury in somebody's mouth, I mean, they knew about Mad Hatter syndrome, you know, people playing with or, you know, working with mercury, and it would lead to neural degeneration. But at the time, like, what other options do they have? And I think that similarly, 100 years ago, when root canals became more common, what other way would you have to replace a tooth? Right. It was challenging. The bridge technologies of the day was horrible. So I think it's fair to say, well, I mean, in health care, I think we're always trying to do our best, given what we have. I'm going to, I'm going to take the high road. Right, let's make that assumption. The the challenges as new technologies come out. And so I made the comment that, you know, ceramic implants, for instance, which are from one side to the other, completely oxidized material, they are not chemically reactive with the body, generally speaking. So why wouldn't we be using those? Well, the companies who make those, you know, they start small. They don't have massive marketing budgets. The companies who do make titanium implants have insane. I mean, the, the kind of money that they put out to train dentists and market to them, it's incredible. And so they just keep pushing that agenda. What I think is, is favorable. Again, I'm going to. I like to, like, have the sunlight come out here, Jen. You know, we're seeing some of those big companies, Nobel Biocare, Strauman, some of the larger dental implant companies, starting to make investments in, like, buying. Buying portions of ceramic implant companies. And I think that's a favorable sign. You know, just as like 20 years ago you wouldn't have found organic food at Walmart, today, you know, it's like, oh, there's a whole section for that. So I think that as, and thanks to people like you who are creating a platform to create awareness, human beings can now who listen to this go to their dentist feeling empowered and say, you know, I heard about these options, a biocomp test, you know, ceramic implants, whatever. You know, maybe extracting a tooth would be healthier than doing a root canal. What about that? And if the dentist says that's all a bunch of hooey, it's probably time to go find a new dentist. But they might open a door for that practitioner that leads to thousands of patients being better served because of what we're doing here today. So let's, let's hope that's the case.

Yeah. So what opened your door?

Jesus Christ opened my door. So I. When I was 21 years old, I came to Christ. Not against my will, I freely chose it. But, boy, I'd been fighting that for a long time in my life. And I was two months from becoming, you know, getting my degree in psychology, and my wife and I, we were dating at the time. We were both supposed to start a master's program in counseling. And as I accepted Christ and was praying for God to show me his will in my life, I heard him calling me to become a dentist and to reverse the negative stereotype of dentistry. And so, so it took me six years from that point to become a licensed dentist. And I probably spent the first 15 years of my career thinking that by bringing in more Advanced technologies, that that was going to be the gateway, you know, if I had a less invasive way to do something, if I had a more comfortable way to do something, you know, and of course, these are all great things as well, but the part that was missing was the biological component. So I, you know, 25 years into this now, there's three primary things that I've looked at. One is psychology, which I already just, you know, inherently appreciate. Like it's a human being that I'm serving. It's not a mannequin to drill and feel like a piece of wood. So the psychology, the technology, those are great. But it wasn't until we incorporated the biology about a decade ago, looking at things like bio individuality, looking at, you know, material sensitivity, like, why would one material like a crown ceramic for one person be well tolerated for another? Not. So that's been this journey that I've been on now for, geez, 31 years, trying to create a space where first and foremost, the feelings and the goals of that unique human individual that we are serving is considered first. And then looking at how do we uniquely do things that are bio individually appropriate for that person in a way that is succinct. So, I mean, the amount of technology I have in my practice is ridiculous. You know, we're able to replace rotten teeth, you know, dead teeth, infected teeth, root canals, whatever, in a single visit using guided technologies with ceramic implants, ceramic crowns, all in one visit. So it's all kind of coming together. It only took a quarter century to get here, Jen. I mean, that's the beauty, right? Oh, I mean, all joking aside, I feel like the next half of my career will likely be helping other dentists to see how much fun we can have doing this, how many lives we can positively impact doing this and literally fulfill the calling on my life, which is to, when people think of going to the dentist, it becomes this thing like, oh my gosh, it's like going to the spa, you know, it's like, it's so positive. I love it. They love on me. I get things that support my health. How cool is that?

Yeah, it's amazing. Do you train practitioners?

I've just started doing this. I mean, I've been teaching technology things for 20 years, but in terms of helping dentists, I mean, imagine the mental constructs that we have to break down in order for a practitioner who's probably saddled with debt, you know, I mean, dentistry's overhead is ridiculous. You know, you think about to set up a naturopathic clinic, let's say you need a table, you know, like a little comfortable chair and a table. I mean, the dental chairs we use are insanely expensive. So what I want to offer people, and I'll actually be starting this fall, 2024, training dental practices that want to learn this stuff, how to run a practice that's profitable, run a practice where people are only going to be healthier. Which means we need to lean into our healthcare brethren, you know, our functional nutritionists, our physicians, our naturopaths, our acupuncturists. Look at how do we build in supportive therapies, pimp therapy, light therapy. Right. Things like that. So that's the goal, is to start spreading this energy and knowledge and caring heart for what we. How we get to help people.

Yeah, I think it's truly amazing. And I know that in teaching practitioners, you're going to impact thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions of people, because this is the way that things need to go. Because I really do believe that your oral health is a reflection of your overall health, and you cannot have one without the other. And unfortunately, my practice, I'm at the end of the road for people who have had chronic oral issues, but they're totally unrecognized. Most of my patients who come to me with breast cancer, they have had either metal amalgams in their mouth for decades or they've had root canals. Almost all of them have had wisdom tooth extraction. And so I would love to start to talk about all those separate areas, but first, do you believe that there is a direct connection between issues in the mouth and breast cancer?

100%, absolutely. I mean, I've. I've seen it with my own eyes, particularly with the women who, you know, maybe they've been told, like, you know, you have a stage four breast cancer. You know, it's like doom and gloom. And, you know, by the grace of God, they're like, I will not accept that. I know my body was built for health and I'm going to clean up everything that I possibly can. There is no greater joy for me than receiving the email or text from somebody for whom I've removed their root canals and whatever other junk they had in their mouth. And, you know, it might be a year later or so. And they say, you know what I just saw my, my physician, they. They tell me it. My cancer's gone. Which I'm like, well, yeah, I mean, your body cleaned itself up, and kudos to you. So, I mean, absolutely. We see this all the time in our practice, but partly it's because we're aware and we're looking for it.

Yeah. And it's one of the first things that I have people do when they come into my practice is go see a biologic dentist. Because you can eat perfectly, move perfectly, think perfectly, sleep perfectly, detoxify everything around you. If you are being poisoned by your mouth, you cannot heal. There's no path to healing. And that is usually the thing that everyone needs to turn things around. So I want to first tackle the metal amalgam thing, because people ask me all the time, you know, I have a few. I just have a few small metal amalgams left in my mouth. They're not a big deal. My dentist said they'll just take them out. I don't need a biologic dentist. Is that true? Is it not true? How do we safely remove amalgams from the mouth? And let's start off with, why do we have to remove metal amalgams in the mouth? Well, what do I say to that person that says, I just have a little tiny one left?

Yeah. So. And I love the way you asked the question. I love words, and I love how we use them. So nobody has to remove their mercury amalgams. But if you want to be healthy, they're not congruent with health. They are constantly off gassing. So if your goal is, I want them, I want my best state of health, meaning I want to not experience symptoms, I want to not be on medication. I want my body to thrive the way God intended it to be, then we have to remove things that are roadblocks or chronic, chronic sources of toxicity. So, you know, if we had a compact fluorescent light bulb drop in the middle of my, you know, office, the EPA standard is, all right, clear the building, open up the windows, and we might be talking about, you know, oh, you know, one or two milligrams of mercury, one or two milligrams. The standard dental filling mercury amalgam filling has approximately 500 milligrams of mercury per filling. So it's. It's highly common. Like, you know, on my. On my Mondays, which are the new patient days in my practice, it's highly common that I'll meet somebody who has four mercury fillings, eight mercury fillings. And, you know, so they can have literally grams of mercury in their mouth that is constantly off gassing. And if you want to accelerate it, have a hot cup of tea, have a hot cup of coffee, anything warm. You know, I mean, that's just straight up chemistry we all learned in high school. If you increase Temperature, the rate of the reaction increases as well. So these things off gas and you inhale it and you swallow it. So, I mean, this is. And again, to my point, about 200 years ago, when they first came on the dental market, conscientious providers knew what kind of a risk that presented. And again, in all fairness, they didn't have any better options. But. And of course, people want to eat their quickie, easy processed food. You know, we're not willing to make the lifestyle choices oftentimes that prevent us from being in a situation where we be told we need a filling, but it's toxic. So, I mean, and not only is it toxic for the patient, they have a limited amount in their mouth. Think about the dentists, the dental assistants who are work, you know, like, oftentimes by the dozens. They're removing per day and almost always in an unprotected environment. So, you know, in our practice, we have as an example, an aerosol management vacuum called an IQ air system that has specific mercury filters in it. And since I'm talking about filters, I mean, this is just. I've got to mention it. So in my water suction, outgoing lines, and this is true for every dentist, you have to have a mercury separation system. Why? Because our communities understand you can't put that toxic crap in the, in the river water, but it's fine in your mouth. I mean, how, how crazy is that?

I know, I know. It defies all logic, yet it happens routinely. I mean, I hope there's not anyone still putting mercury amalgams in people's mouths, but I don't know.

They absolutely are. Matter of fact, I'm seeing a patient next week. You know, she. She went to a dentist. She has, she has like, Oregon health plan insurance. And she went to her Oregon health plan dentist and, you know, she had a tooth that had chipped. And he's like, well, we're gonna have to do a mercury filling because that's what the Oregon health plan pays for. And she's like, I don't want mercury in my mouth. And he's like, well, that's all that we can do for you. Now, obviously, they could do something else. They just choose not to. So she, she's choosing with her own money to come and have me manage it in a way that's biocompatible. And I think kudos to you. Right. To invest your own time and money for the sake of your health long term, I think is commendable.

So what does safe amalgam look like for people? So that they understand and they can go and have an intelligent conversation with their provider saying, listen, I want my amalgams out, but I want to be safe for me and I want to be safe for you.

Yep, absolutely. So step one, this is, I mean, I'm going to go to the highest level I can because I think your patients deserve this. Yeah. Number one, go get a biocomp test because you're going to have to replace that filling with something. And you know, God willing, it lasts years if not decades. Make sure it is something that is compatible with your body. It might cost you, I don't know, 300, 400, 500. You know, in the big scheme of things, not a lot. Okay. That way you can find out what would be the best material for your own biochemistry. Start.

There's an investment in your health, right?

Absolutely.

Something in your body that you're not compatible with, you might as well be filling yourself with poison.

Absolutely. Yeah. So secondly, find a dentist who is certified by either the iaomt, the International Academy of Oral Medicine and Toxicology or the iabdm International Academy of Biological Dentistry and Medicine, respectively. Those two groups have what's called the SMART protocol or the protect protocol. They are identical, same, same protocols. And my team presents each patient who is having their mercury fillings removed safely with a list of. Here are all the things that we are going to do to help protect you and protect us. And there are like I think two extras on there. If somebody wants the full, the full Tyvek wrap suit, you know, because people who are claustrophobic do not do well with that. So we want people to be able to have choice, you know, but things like a non latex rubber dam, absolutely a must. The mercury suction, IQ air system, absolutely a must. You know, a lot of water cooling, high speed evacuation suction, all of these things are critical to reduce the amount of mercury in the aerosol that's created in dental clinics.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And if your dentist is saying you don't need all that, work fast or I, whatever your dentist says, or I do this all the time, it's not an issue that, that is, that is the time that you need to walk away.

I would, I would highly encourage and empower people to honor their autonomy. Get. I love it. You know, speak with your feet, I love it. Get up and walk away. And you know, in love. In love because they are doing what they do believe is best and that's okay, but you don't have to accept it.

Yeah, absolutely. Let's move on to you talk about cavitations, you talk about root canals. Can you. Can you start to unpack for us? Why are so many root canals done every year?

What.

What is the purpose of that and what should be done instead?

Yeah. Wow. So at the. At the root of all this, I believe, and this goes back 100 years to Weston Price, you know, I'm just kind of banging his drum a little more. This is a nutritional issue. Most, you know, a nutrition and lifestyle issue. As you know. I mean, most human beings, at least in our country, are eating diets that are high in calories and low in nutrients. And if you don't have the building blocks to create great health in your body, every system is going to be suspect to breakdown and your mouth included. If we look at how people live these days, too, right? Like, go buy a Starbucks any morning or afternoon of any day of the week, and there's a line out the door. People got to have their sweet Frou Frou drink. Not. Not that they're gonna, you know, slam down. They'll be sipping on it for two hours, three hours, four hours, even worse. Oh, my gosh. Absolutely. Because that time of exposure is risk bathing your.

Your teeth. Right.

Yep. So I think one issue and reason that we see so many root canals.

Which, by the way, there's no sugar in my coffee. I just want you to know that.

Absolutely.

I drink it black.

Yeah, There you go. So when teeth are melting down and all we do is drill and fill many of those teeth, one, they might be too infected to keep in the first place. If that's the case in my practice, I'm going to say, well, you could do a root canal. That's one option. Here's the upside. You get to keep your tooth. It still looks like your tooth. You can chew on it like a tooth. The downside is it's going to chronically expose you to microbes that your body's immune system will have to manage ongoingly. How long until all the, you know, the organ systems that are connected to that, too, start to experience symptoms? We don't know. What kind of a risk game do you like to play with your health? So we have those. We have those conversations. And sometimes people might choose a root canal for a finite period of time. Well, I'm going to save up for three years to get my, you know, so I can afford the ceramic implant. Okay. Again, autonomy and freedom of choice. However, getting back to language, what does it typically sound like in a dental practice? Oh, you got a big cavity. You need a root Canal.

Yeah.

End of story. Right.

There's no discussion, there's no partnership, there's no. Yeah, absolutely.

Sadly. Right. The other issue, and I think this is a really important one to mention, let's say the person who we were just talking about, they have six mercury amalgam fillings. They're like, you know what, I get it. I'm going to set a plan. We're going to remove these. I got the biocomp test, I'm ready to do it. And the dentist goes in there, best of intentions, they re stimulate these teeth that were already offended once upon a time. And we understand that the damage to teeth is cumulative. So we put in this burr that's spinning at 200,000 RPMs into the tooth. And if you heat that thing up, you know, it's kind of like you can only poach the egg once, you know, if you kill that nerve. And after the care, you know, the tooth is chronically sensitive, you know, what do you do? So they come in and oh, my two still hurts. They adjust the bite. My tooth still hurts. Let me give you antibiotics. My tooth still hurts. I mean, all this stupid stuff. Yeah. Well, it looks like you need a root canal, nothing else. And so, you know, I think it's just important. It's important and I want people to understand when a tooth is experiencing symptoms, it's telling you something. Not it's not telling you I need a root canal. It's telling you there's a problem here. I would like for you to investigate it and figure out. And it's possible the tooth may be dying and it can't be saved, or it's possible it might require some sort of treatment that will bring it back to health. Go figure, like the rest of the body. So working with someone who's willing to slow down and take intentional time to consider, how do we help? This tooth is really important to help keep your teeth because obviously, you know, these beautiful pearly whites are in our mouths for a reason, not just because we look good when we smile. I mean, it's neurologically important. Chewing wise, it's important, you know.

Yeah. What are some of the options for people? I mean, I spoke to a woman yesterday, she has six root canals in her mouth. What are the options for people who have old root canals?

Yep.

And when I say old, I mean anything that happened before yesterday.

Yeah, that's right. That's right. I love it. So, so let's think this through. If someone wants best health and they're telling me I have, by the way, this is what we experience in my practice every day. We get emails from people around the world. I have six root canals. I would like your help. You know, how do I manage this? The first thing we do is we gather some information so I can see where are they? What are our options? What I share with them is the non negotiable part of this is you have to remove that chronic source of infection if you want health. Now, notice I don't say you need to remove them, you don't. You could keep them and you can stay sick. That's an option. Okay, but you've got to remove those teeth if you want health. How we replace them is going to be based on your, your health goals, your timeline and your financial budget. So if somebody says, well, I'd really like implants, you know, I'd like ceramic implants to replace all those teeth for six teeth, easily they're going to invest somewhere around 60 to 80 thousand dollars to restore their mouth. So you know, like we try to start with that on the front end. Now I help a lot of people that choose to do that. They don't all they, some people are like, well, could we get the dead stuff out? Is there something we can do in the mid, you know, in the middle of that and then in two, three years, five years, get the implants? Absolutely. If that's your goal, we can make a plan that will help you get there. So one thing that is important is to maintain the spaces. If you don't replace teeth with implants immediately, you know, create some sort of retainer, create some sort of removable, non metallic, removable partial denture, something to hold the space and create biting surfaces so that you maintain your smile, you maintain the position of teeth. And that allows you to then choose implants in the future if you want them. But, but clearly people could go the rest of their life having no teeth at all. You know, as a matter of fact, I helped a woman probably three months ago now from Michigan. She had had four titanium implants placed in her upper jaw. Two on the right side, two on the left side. And then she had a full upper, what's called an all on four denture prosthesis. I'm not a big fan of these things. Imagine you put four implants and the bone attaches to them. And then you tighten down this metal bar that has pink, gummy, you know, acrylic stuff on there and some teeth. How are the sutures of your skull that are designed to move and flow with all your cranial motions they're locked up. And what's interesting is she experienced five years of chronic pain. As soon as I. Oh, yeah, it's horrible. As soon as I unscrewed that prosthesis, you could just see and feel the energy like a vice on your head. It's exactly what it is. So now, I mean, we ultimately just took out the four implants. You know, she was allergic and sensitive to nickel, by the way, which didn't help, so which was causing her skin symptoms. So anyways, we get the implants out, we help her body to heal, we make her a denture that fits and looks nice. And she's able to chew with that now. She feels great. She doesn't have any real upper teeth. She has an upper denture and it's not. It's not optimal, of course, but you know what? She's able to smile and chew and feels awesome. I'd argue that's a heck of a lot better than keeping a bunch of titanium or root canals.

Yeah. And being sick and being in pain. Right, right. I mean, there's no path to health if you're in pain.

Right.

There just isn't. Because pain is the ultimate suffering, and you cannot be healthy when you're suffering. You know, it's interesting because nearly everyone that comes to me with a suppressed white count, I know it's because their body is chronically fighting something in their mouth.

Yeah.

It's either in their mouth or in their gut.

Yeah, yeah. And it is all one thing, really.

Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

So I would love to get into the fluoride story.

Yeah.

Because I have been fighting this battle for many, many years with the dentist wanting to give my children extra fluoride treatments and with the fluoride toothpaste. And what. What's the story behind fluoride?

You know, there are a lot of schools of thought on that from, you know, kind of the conspiracy theory thing of, you know. We do absolutely know. By the way, if we go. If you and I sat down at our laptop and we looked at PubMed and we typed in fluoride, comma, IQ, we would see that those communities that experience increased levels of fluoride through supplementation have decreased levels of iq, period. Like, that's what all the studies show. So why did human populations decide to start putting it in municipal water supplies? I honestly, I cannot tell you why. Here's the soapbox on which they stand. You know what, Jen? We're going to put this in the water and it's going to stop all decay by golly it's going to make teeth so strong. Well, here we are, you know, decades almost. Coming up on 100 years later, probably 80 years later now, do we still see decay so rampant? Absolutely. And again, getting back to the nutritional piece, has anything significantly changed in our nutritional system? No. In fact, if anything, it's gotten worse.

Worse.

Absolutely right. Yeah. I will say this. If you and I were, you know, as the, the geeky scientists that we are, sat down and we took some teeth and we added fluoride to the enamel, we could actually prove that in fact, fluorapatite, which is fluoride attached to the appetite crystals of enamel, does in fact make the enamel more acid resistant than hydroxyapatite, which is our natural enamel. So, and what that means is hydroxy appetite will start to lose mineral in under normal circumstances at a PH of about 5.5 Floor appetite will take a pH of approximately 3.5 to 4 to start losing mineral. So that's the whole soapbox is, oh my gosh, we're going to make teeth so strong, it's going to be awesome. You know, nobody will get decay. And I suppose maybe there's some truth to that. If you could somehow isolate enamel away from the moist oral mucosa, that's then going to absorb all of that fluoride that you just put on the teeth. So today, like when your kids are at the dentist and they're like, well, we're just going to put on a varnish, you know, and it's even better than the trays because, you know, they, they can have it on their teeth for the next 24 hours. All that time with their oral mucosa, their cheeks, their tongues that are rubbing up against these teeth are absorbing that into your bloodstream. You know, isn't it funny? We give people nitroglycerin under the tongue. Why? Because it gets into the body immediately like an iv.

Yeah.

And so we do that with fluoride and it's no problem.

I have plenty of, I have plenty of supplements that I tell people to deliver under their tongue. I mean, I'm having them take their vitamin D under their tongue, take their B12 under their tongue because that's how it's going to get absorbed. Even if your gut isn't working, your.

Absolutely. So in Portland, Oregon, where I live, you know, somehow, despite all the other crazy things that our city decides to do, we have managed to still not be a fluoridated community, which both impresses me and surprises me given the stance of many things in Portland. But It's a choice for communities to decide whether they want to have fluoride or not in their water. I mean, wouldn't it be silly for us to say, you know what, people seem pretty inflamed these days. Maybe we should put a little ibuprofen, you know, just a little bit every day a little bit Ibuprofen would be fine. And it's like, no, that's absolutely ludicrous. Yet we're doing it.

I'm waiting for Ozempic to hit our water supply. Oh, I mean, we do have an obesity crisis.

Yeah, yeah.

Why aren't we putting that in the water?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. So I recommend that one of the investigations that people get is a cone CT of the mouth.

Yep.

Can you explain what that study is, what it does, the value of that study and why people should, who, who needs that study and, and why people should know about it?

Yeah, great question. So in my opinion, any person who is seeking best health and goes to a dentist who does not receive a 3D cone beam CT scan, it, like, how, how can a dentist looking at a three dimensional human being judge the health of tissues that are two dimensional? It's crazy. So for 16 years now, we have had 3D cone beam CT technology in my practice. As soon as it came on the market, I bought one because I'm like, this makes perfect sense. You know, the advantage to those people who are curious is that let's say I want to look just over the tip of one root in your mouth. You know, let's say it's a molar and it has three roots. This molar has three roots with a two dimensional image. There's no way to, you know, take out just that portion with a 3D cone beam scan. I can look, you know, any which way I want to. And for those concerned about radiation exposure, which I think is important, you know, I mean, we all want to reduce our risk of radiation exposure as much as possible. There's no more radiation exposure than having the traditional two dimensional dental panoramic X ray. So for the same amount of, you know, effectively the same amount of radiation, wouldn't it be more helpful to see things in three dimensions? So thankfully, that's an area where I'm seeing more and more dental practices investing because, I mean, it's just so obvious. I mean, I remember going out 15 years ago to talk to endodontists, you know, root canal specialists, and I would all my, all the root canal specialists in my area, I was like, hey, if you ever have A patient where you'd like a 3D cone beam scan? I just spent $100,000 on this machine. You know, I'd be happy to do that for you for, you know, like 100 bucks or whatever. It's cheap, helpful. I'm not kidding you. Every one of them said that we, that's not necessary. We don't need that. Fifteen years later, everybody owns one, right? Because one, they've gotten cheaper and two, you can't argue with it, right? It's like literally old dogma has to die off. Sadly.

Yeah.

But yeah, it's such a benefit. Not to mention the ability to be able to pull plan. Like whenever I'm placing implants for people. It's all pre planned and digitally guided so that one scan provides so much data about your nasal space, your, your paranasal and para. Oral sinuses, your temporomandibular joints, your, you know, the first like C, C1 through four of your neck. Like you get to see all of these things in a high quality cone beam CT scan. So it's. I would encourage every person to get to a dentist. I do most of those. When I see something that it's like, okay, that's a little different, you know, then I send that to a radiologist. We work with a group called beam readers. But what's interesting just again, our ability to see things is limited by our own understanding. So for the fun of it, I took a patient that I knew had cavitation lesions in their mouth based on their history, which I shared with the radiologist, and I sent them the exact same scan. Now, I also had the advantage of doing surgery on them, and I sent their sample to a DNA lab which showed like, you know, massive chronic infection in their jawbone. When I sent it to them, their opinion was there was no significant findings. Now, if we're not training providers to look for things that exist, but it's not part of the traditional educational system, then what value is there in sending it to a quote unquote specialist? I'm not saying that there isn't a value. I'm just questioning it because their ability to diagnose is limited on their own understanding.

Yeah, I agree with you 100%, which is why I caution people that not only do you need a 3D cone beam CT scan, but it needs to be read by someone who understands oral pathology because most dentists do not.

Yeah, well, and one thing I would add as well, in terms of our diagnostic systems at my practice, and this is something we've been developing for the last four years is utilizing. It was originally called EAV Electro Acupuncture. According to volume I have studied under Dr. Simon Yu of St. Louis, Missouri. He calls it acupuncture meridian assessment. But it's essentially a way of measuring energy flow along different acupuncture meridians of the body, including the teeth. So if I'm curious about the health of an area that either the patient says, yeah, I had this wisdom tooth extracted, I had a dry socket. It was horrible. But everything looks quote, unquote normal on the 3D cone beam scan. Well, let's test it energetically. And I mean, it's not rocket science. I mean, it's literally an ohm meter that's allowing us to, you know, we are energy. I guess we got to start there, right? We're walking, talking embodiments of energy, so we can measure that. And it's fascinating what we're able to see by using energetic assessments as well in combination with the other steps that we do. So.

As we've spoken about, I'm the end of the line. I was the end of the line when I was the surgeon. I'm the end of line now as an integrative oncologist. And my goal, part of my goal of this podcast is, is so that people don't need me.

Yeah.

So let's talk about who is at risk so that they don't have to get this far, they don't have to get a breast cancer diagnosis to then pursue their health. Who is at risk? Who needs to be alerted that they might have a problem in their mouth and that they should go seek this care now before they get the fatigue, before they get the heart disease, before they get the breast cancer diagnosis. Who is at risk?

Yeah, good question. The start to that answer in my mind is not in the mouth. It's actually people who have gut dysfunction either. Let's say your norm is that you poop twice a week. Your body's not taking out the trash. Okay. Or you have chronic diarrhea, or it's an intermittent, you know, bouncing back between both. If your gut is not working, nothing's going to be working. So we got to start there because the, the. Now, in all fairness, the person who has three root canals, each of which is on some part of the meridian of the gut. Well, is your mouth causing, you know, is that. Is that leading to this imbalance and why your gut's so dysfunctional? But to get back to more of the dental focus things, the. The things when I'm looking At a cone beam scan and photographs that are going to, you know, be read. Exclamation points would be mercury fillings, metallic based crowns, meeting gold crowns, even metal crowns where porcelain's been baked over the top. Or let's make it just even more fun, metal crowns that are glued on top of mercury fillings. You know, I mean, just direct battery right there. Yeah. Titanium implants. So almost all titanium dental implants are going to have not only the metal implant, but there will be a metal retention screw and there will be a metal abutment, all of which are dissimilar. So more metallic and energetic disruption root canals. Definitely a point of risk. It's a dead body part. If your finger were dead, and I've made a couple posts about this in my toxic or Toxic Tuesday series. If you had a gangrenous finger, there's no way that you and I could convince somebody it's healthy to keep it. Hey, look, the shape, it's just like a finger. No problem, right? It's dead. It's got to go. I'm sure in medical school they talk to you, you know, like, if it's dead, it's got to go. You know, apparently teeth are the exception to that rule, I guess. I don't know. So that. And now the other thing to consider as well is an imbalanced bite. So let's say somebody finishes orthodontic treatment and their bite doesn't fit right, or they go in and get a filling or a crown or. And their bites off. Don't, Please do not accept that. If it feels like that doesn't feel right, get into your dentist and demand like, you know, lovingly, of course, you know, can you please help me balance this out? The analogy I like to use with people about imbalanced bite. If I, if you and I were going out on a five mile hike and as a joke, I threw a little pebble in your shoe. Can you imagine all the. You'd have to twist? And I said, oh, sorry, Jen, we can't stop. We got to keep hiking. We got to, we got to meet somebody. Let's go. Oh my gosh, the fatigue from that imbalance. And we see that in people's heads. Like, my TMJ is killing me. My jaw joint, you know, my, my muscles. And it's like, well, have we looked at, is your bite balanced? Because if it's not, you will be accommodating in all sorts of strange ways. So those are all things that I would be considering. And by the way, if I see A say somebody sends me a panoramic X ray, even a two dimensional X ray, and I see like there's four crowns in that mouth. I can almost guarantee you the bite's going to be off. It's just the way that it is because most people have teeth fixed one at a time. It's just a little off here, a little off there, a little up and then eventually it's like nothing fits, you know?

Yeah.

So those would all be things worth considering in order to make sure that we create true health balance in the mouth so the rest of the body can be healthy.

Did you read Breath by James Nestor?

Yes.

Yeah. So what do you think of that in terms of people losing their palate and losing their ability to breathe?

Yeah, you know, I think he covers the topic. Well, I think that Stephen Lin in his book the Dental Diet covers it. Well, you know, it's all this stuff's getting back again to Weston Price 100 years ago when we decided that it was a better idea to have babies come out of the womb. Well, first, first of all, you know, like cut them out, I mean, you know, which sometimes you have to do. And then put them on a bottle. Whether it's due to an issue of convenience or I don't know. But when I look at the, the formation of a newborn baby's palate as the tongue pushes against the palate as it's breastfeeding, like nature designed it this way, you know, that's the way, you know, when they're, I think of it like, you know, babies come out, they're basically like just, you know, totally moldable. So the tongue and the cheeks are God's orthodontist. You know, if we follow the way nature had intended it for us to grow and develop, things will probably work out. Not always, but probably. But we've, you know, we've changed a lot of those things. Like here's, here's the bottle. Free flowing liquid. You don't have to work, you know, to get your nutrition. And the palate is going to form, you know, kind of high and tight.

Tense.

Exactly. And it's like where does your tongue go?

Yeah.

And then how do you breathe? You know, and what if that's the way the upper jaw forms? Then on the north side of that, your nasal space, what's that going to look like? Yeah, it's all related.

Amazing. I want to give people the words to use with their. I have, I have teenagers, 10 year old, I have a 15 year old. The 18 year old is already talking about is it going to be time to get my wisdom teeth out? And I said, someone better give me a really good reason to remove teeth that are perfectly good. Yeah, so tell me about that. Let's talk about wisdom tooth extraction because I recently had a patient who had cavitations in her old wisdom tooth extraction sites.

Yeah. Yep. So let's rewind to that baby that's breastfeeding that creates enough of a palatal vault and enough space within their own bones that all the teeth that their genetics were pre programmed to develop have space to come into their mouth. And I see people, as a matter of fact, I just helped a woman yesterday remove her three mercury fillings. And I was like, wow, how sad is this? The anomaly, she has all 32 of her teeth and they fit in her mouth. You know, and go figure, she was a breastfed child, blah, blah, blah. But anyway, there are, because of the, you know, nutritional issues and lifestyle issues, whatever the way that that human being developed, their teeth will not be in positions that are favorable to toward health. So let's say your wisdom tooth, instead of coming straight up into your mouth where you could use it as a functional tooth, it's going sideways and it's going straight into the back of your second molar. And microbes can get around the top of that tooth, the, the enamel, and yet you cannot clean it because your gums are covering it. I have seen more times than I can count people's whose bones are becoming pathological because of the infection around these teeth that are trapped. So I like to start looking at an early age, you know, how do we anticipate these teeth coming in? With my own daughter, my older daughter is 22. Last year at 21, we took out her two upper wisdom teeth. They grew in sideways, you know, if, and strangely enough, she didn't have any lower wisdom teeth. So it's like, what are you going to do with wisdom teeth that are literally 90 degrees tilted out towards the cheek side? They're non functional. And by the way, teeth that function with each other as we chew, they clean themselves. But when you extract teeth or you have teeth that aren't functional with another tooth, there's no cleansing it, Right?

There's no natural cleansing, there's no opposing tooth.

Exactly. So in her case, you know, they did come out. So there are a lot of cases in which it's going to make sense for that person's health to remove them. My advice is make sure, number one, your body is ready to heal its bone. Typically, we would appreciate seeing Somebody's vitamin D levels at 60 nanograms per milliliter or above. So that the body telling us, yeah, I've got enough capacity here to heal the bone. Same thing with implants, by the way. And this is something I've been doing now for seven years, using people's own healing cells. So all my team members are licensed phlebotomists. They can all hop in, do a blood draw. We can spin the cells. We can use their own concentration of white blood cells and clotting factors and put that in the extraction site so that the bone can heal effectively.

It's such a great point. And I don't even remember my dentist asking for a vitamin D level or even talking about the ability to heal, which is why I think so many people get in trouble after these procedures. Yeah, I would love to talk about what good oral hygiene should look like, what people should be doing, what products people should be using. And what do you recommend for toothpaste? How does good oral care hair look to you?

Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, there's my own personal, you know, approach to it. I would say the. The. The set of tools and skills that I have found to be most effective are things like a mechanical toothbrush or. I mean, it can be a manual toothbrush. If you like taking the time, you know, to use your manual toothbrush, that's totally fine. But I find. Personally, I love my. I like the Braun. The oral B. I just love that toothbrush. I love the water pick. I think a water pick is awesome. You know, I mean, if you want to have some fun and, you know, again, being a geeky scientist, brush your teeth, floss your teeth, and then use a water.

Water pick and see what happens.

See what. You know, I'm convinced it's something that I was kind of resistant to at first. Like, you know, I've been blessed to not have a lot of dental problems in my life. But, you know, I started doing that study on myself, and I'm like, oh, dang. I don't. It was. I haven't eaten flax since this morning. You know, where did this come from? So those are great. Definitely flossing. I met some people who really like doing oil pullings. Like, they'll use, let's say, coconut oil, put some hardened coconut oil in their mouth, let it melt, swish for five minutes, which is, you know, kind of that Ayurveda approach to oral health care. Some people who get really into that, I got to say, I mean, their gums and teeth look really healthy. One thing that a lot of dentists even haven't heard about, that I have found so helpful, particularly people who are either dealing with gum disease or have a lot of dental restorations and root canals or both. It's a system called Perio Protect Trays. I make no money telling you this. I just have found it to be really helpful. It's a customized set of trays where you use a low concentration hydrogen peroxide gel. And you put these trays on your, your teeth and gums for 15 minutes. And as that hydrogen peroxide gel is being activated, it's breaking down the chemical bonds of tartar and plaque and putting oxygen underneath your gum line. And it's just facilitating a really good environment for health. I'm a huge fan.

And then I have to ask you, what about toothpaste? What do you recommend? What do you use?

Yeah. So my advice to people is download the environmental Working groups healthy living app. That app uses your camera on your, your smartphone and you can scan barcodes. And I want to use something that, that on their, their scale of 1 to 10, you know, like 1 being the least toxic, 10 being the most toxic, I want to use something that's a one, maybe a two. So that's, you know, I've, I've tried all sorts of toothpaste. I'm not dogmatically driven to one or the other. I just, but I just want to use products that I know are shown to be safe because again, to our point, like the oral mucosa is going to absorb whatever we put in the mouth. So make sure it's something that's safe. Find a brand and a flavor and something that you like and that's safe for you.

I have been telling people who have metal amalgams in their mouth not to do oil pulling. Am I, am I giving them bad advice? I was worried that it would mobilize more mercury and they would absorb it.

I, I don't think so. I don't think any more than, I mean, I think a hot cup of coffee is going to create more problem than oil pulling.

Okay.

Because I don't think anybody's putting boiling hot oil in their mouth. You know what I mean? Like, I think it's more of a temperature driven thing. And we're going to, I mean, if it's coconut oil, you know, which typically people use, definitely spit it in the garbage can, not in the sink.

Yeah, the garbage can, not the sink. That is a very important point because if not, you're going to create a huge plumbing issue. And blame me. So please. Yeah, yeah, please spit it in the, in the trash can. So, I mean, we've covered so many great things today. I don't know if we missed anything. I loved what you said in the beginning, and that's that we're all learning. We're all learning. We're constantly learning. We're constantly trying to do better. And as we've spoken about today, your oral health, health is so very important and it is really the conduit to which your overall health is going to happen. And you cannot have one without the other. So I'm so glad that we were able to have this conversation today. I'm so grateful for the work that you do, for the way in which you help people and for just. For your general approach in allowing a conversation and allowing for options, but for your overall goal of driving health. Because the mouth is not separate from the body any more than the breast is separate from the body.

Right.

We are one system. And if part of that system is malfunctioning, you are not going to operate in the way that you should or in the way that you want to.

Yeah.

And we are. We're not only trying to manage symptoms like you said in the beginning, we're trying to drive health, create optimal health so that people are living healthy, pain free, joyful lives. Lives worth living.

Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, I think about a number of years ago, I read the book Disease Delusion, you know, which such a great. Dr. Jeffrey Bland Disease Delusion. I loved it because, you know, that idea, like we train people to use language that is false. I have breast cancer, like an ownership. I am diabetic. You know, it's like we're associating people's identity with disease states, which is not. It's false. It's a false narrative. We are designed for health and wellness. The. In my mind, I want to look at, well, what's in the way, what's gotten in the way of your body being able to experience the great state of health for which you were inherently designed. And usually there's a reason, you know, whether it's in the mouth, whether it's in the gut, whether it's in the mindset, it's going to be something.

Yeah. Yeah. And this is what I talk about in my book, the Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer. You are not your breast cancer.

Yeah. Amen.

Your breast cancer does not define you. And there are without question ways for you to put your breast cancer behind you. You absolutely have it not be a part of your future, but instead be a part of your past. And it's people like you that are allowing women to put that diagnosis behind them, to dissociate from that diagnosis and achieve the health that they want and they deserve. So, Dr. Blaget, I am so grateful to you for coming here today, for doing the work that you do, for sharing your gift with the world. Where can people find find you?

Thank you. Thank you, Instagram. My handle is at Blodget Dental Care. My website is also blodget dental care.com for dentists. If any dentists hear this and they want to learn more about how I'll be offering my experience in a teaching setting, they can go to Dr. KellyJ. Blodgett.com and check out that website. I am also being that we're rounding out the end of April 2024 here, I have two more cities to go. I'm, I'm out there in the spring of this year, stopping in eight major US Cities. We started in February in Miami. We've hit a bunch of other cities. I still have Denver, Colorado and Boston, Massachusetts. People can find those dates on my website. And my intention is to invite any human being that wants to experience a better understanding of what, you know, how the things in their mouth and the, the treatments they've experienced, how they're related to their whole body health, and to create a space for question and answer that's just open. Everybody is invited to come. This last weekend, I was in Chicago, Illinois. We had as many healthcare providers there as we did lay people, which I was so thrilled to see. Yeah, nurse practitioners. We had another dentist who, honest, she just texted me yesterday. This is such a, an uplifting story. She said, you know, I was thinking about getting out of dentistry. My friend invited me to come to this to see you talk. And she's like, I had no idea of the ways that we could actually help people get better in their health. And she's like, I'm so inspired. I'm ready to get back into this. And I was like, wow, so cool. And I would ask anybody listening to this, please share what I'm sharing out there with everybody you know and love that you want to see experience thriving health. Because the truth is, when I ask people, when I'm out talking to, you know, human beings, when I ask people to stand up if they've had a mercury filling, a root canal, a titanium implant or wisdom teeth extracted, everybody in that room stands up. Yeah. This touches every human being I meet. So it's pertinent and sadly as we talked about at the start, nobody's talking about it. So thank you, Jen, for this opportunity to share with the world truth. I appreciate it.

Yeah. And it's, it's such important conversations to have and we're going to keep having them. What are your Denver dates and what are your Boston dates?

Good question. The have to go to the website. Let's see. Third Denver is the third weekend of May and Boston is Saturday, June 1st. They're both on Saturdays.

Great. So we will make sure that we will put them in the show notes so that people can be sure to attend because I know that it's going to be inspirational and I hope there are many, many practitioners who, who get to hear this and get inspired to do a better job, make the practice better and help the world to be healthier, because it's so important and it's something that we're going to have to do together. This is going to be a cooperative effort without question. We cannot butt heads with one another and say, no my way, no my way, no my way, no my way. We have to do this together in the interest of making people healthier. Because the drill and fill is not going to work any more than the cut and the burn and the drug is going to work.

Absolutely.

Like we have to get people to make themselves healthy. Health is an active process and you have to remove people's barriers to health. And that's what you're doing every day.

Absolutely.

So thank you so much for sharing this time with me and thank you to the listeners. I hope that this was extremely educational for you and that after having listened to this, you can do what it takes to make the changes that you need to improve your health, either to prevent a diagnosis or to reverse a diagnosis. Because we know that health can happen, happen at any age, at any stage. It's Dr. Jen, I'll see you here next week. Bye for now.

Thank you for joining me on this episode of the Keeping abreast podcast with Dr. Chen. I hope you found the discussion informative and empowering. Remember, breast health is health. So by staying informed and taking proactive steps, you have the power to optimize your well being. My team and I encourage you to apply the knowledge gained from today's episode to make positive changes in your life and share what you've learned with others. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe to our podcast and leave us a review. Your feedback and support mean the world to us and help us to reach more people who can benefit from these conversations. Stay connected with me on social media where I I share additional resources, advice, updates and announcements related to breast health. You can find me on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Dr. Jennsimmons and remember, my Jen has two N's. So until next time, remember to stay proactive, informed and confident in your breast health journey. The key to your health is you.

Sam.