Biological Dentistry with Dr. Teresa Scott

Welcome to the Wellness Dentist Podcast. Join biological and cosmetic dentist Dr. Katie to as she explores holistic wellness through trending ideas, real stories and patient experiences. This podcast will inspire you to make healthy lifestyle choices and take charge of your dental wellness. And now, your host, the wellness dentist, Dr. Katie To.

Welcome to the Wellness Dentist podcast. Hi, I'm Dr. Katie to and it's my huge honor to have. Not only that, my mentor, my partner, my best friend, my CE partner in crime. We always go CE together so much. How husband was like, why are you guys really taking ce? Just having girl trip. Dr. Teresa Scott, she's here with us to share so much information about biological dentistry. And I'm telling you, get some tissues out. Her story is emotional and true story and survival story. And I love always listen to a story so many times, but this time she's going to share that with us. Dr. Teresa, can you share with us a little bit about yourself and how did you find biological dentistry?

So for me, I'm Theresa Scott. I started down the biological route because when my daughter was born, my youngest, she was allergic to every single commercial formula out there. And I was unable to breastfeed. I was already really, really sick at the time and didn't experience anything getting any better for conventional medicine has really failed me in the worst ways. So anyway, when she was born, she was seven weeks early, allergic to every single commercial formula out there. And she was projectile vomiting and the doctor was like, okay, we need to put her on the nutramigen, the broken down protein formula and acid reflux medicine. There was something inside of me that basically said, you know what, I'm not gonna put her on the pharmaceutical train. This stops now. And so I did some research and found the Weston Price foundation, the homemade baby formula. And of course, you know, the pediatrician was having a bird because she said, you know, oh my gosh, that's going to cause intestinal bleeding, et cetera. And I was like, wait a minute, Babies have been born for thousands upon thousands of years and formula's only been around for about 80. And so they've survived and they didn't always have wet nurses, you know, so how did they survive? Right. So I did a whole ton of research, found the Weston Price Foundation. It turns out Weston Price was the father. He's considered the father of biological dentistry. Right? Yes. And what it is is the guy was a total geek, an absolute geek. And he loved studying anthropology and he loved trying to figure out the why of things. And so because he was such a strong anthropologist in his avocation, because his vocation was dentistry, he studied the 14 longest lived societies on the planet to find out what they had in common. And he found out that basically what they had in common was a diet that was rich in saturated fats, rich in probiotic foods. There was nothing processed, and their diets were really relatively low in sugar. So basically the opposite of our modern diet. And so he took pictures of all of them. Had broad, wide faces, big smiles, straight teeth, pearly white, no real issues. And no heart disease, no diabetes, no nothing that, like, Even back then, 100 years ago, they knew people had heart problems and they had blood sugar problems, et cetera. They had none of the modern diseases. And so at that point, that's what I first discovered about him. Well, in that learning about him, I learned about the Weston Price foundation, run by Sally Fallon Morrell, right? And she had a recipe for homemade baby formula made with raw cow's milk. Now, there's three different recipes. Raw cow's milk one, the raw goat's milk one. And then for people who truly, truly have a casein allergy, casein protein allergy, they have a bone broth based one, a broth based one. So there are recipes for even those children who have that true allergy. But anyway, I discovered it. We found the raw milk formula. And from about the second month of her life, my daughter, we put her on it, and it was like she thrived the second we put her on every other commercial formula, right? It was automatic. It hit her stomach and projectile vomiting. And then we gave her the baby formula, the homemade baby formula, and it was like, okay, life is good now. You know, she did really well with it. So that was kind of what started me on the down the crunchy granola path, you know? And it took me three years of studying personal crunchy granola stuff, realizing, wait a minute, if that's the case, then why not this? If that's the case, then why not this? If that's the case, then why not this? And so three years of that, I went into essential oils. My health started to improve a little bit. But what I noticed most was my children's health was dramatically different than what it had been prior. And so at that point, I was like, okay, the more I learned, the more I realized I don't think I can practice dentistry anymore the way I have been, because I think I'm hurting my patients. And that was a biggie for me because I didn't go into this to hurt my patients. I went into this to help my Patients. And for me to discover that not only did I think I was hurting my patients, but I was also hurting myself. I was like, okay, either I find a way to marry what I do with what I believe, or I quit dentistry.

Very powerful.

And so I decided to make the change. And so in 2012, I committed to becoming a biological dentist. And that sort of was like, the beginning. And every year, I took on something, right? So the very first year, I took on periodontal disease, I took on the root cause of periodontal disease, the link between gum disease, heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. Right. So Bale Doneen was my thing back then.

Love it.

Oh, my stars. That first year, it was all about the Bael Doneen method and so on and so forth. And then the second year, it was mercury. Right. The third year was fluoride. The fourth year was ozone. So every year I've taken on something new, and then I've committed to that. The fifth and sixth year were airway, because that was. That's a really huge, huge subject. And so just every year, I've taken something on. Kudos to those people who have mentors. And that's why I've committed to being a mentor, because I had to figure it out all on my own. And it takes so much longer to do it that way. And there were no standard processes anywhere. There were no, like, okay, this is what you do. Step one, step two, step three. No, I had to figure it all on my own, and I didn't want that for anybody else. So, you know, Katie and I got together, and that's what we do. We teach other people how to do this. So they're not stuck the way that I got stuck, where I literally had to just take it all on one subject at a time. Which. One subject at a time. There's nothing wrong with that, but I literally had to figure it out on my own. And gosh, it's so much nicer when you don't have to do that.

Yeah. Powerful story. I love that. You making that really strong commitment. Either I'm gonna help my patients, or I'm gonna quit dentistry.

There's a lot of people who go into biological dentistry for the wrong reasons. They think it's about money. I promise you, it's not about money. Now there are people who are just making a butt ton of money, but it's all about sincerity, you know, and people can smell it a mile away. They can smell sincerity. They can smell authenticity. And they either know that you are authentic and sincere and really, really Care or they will smell and know that you're not really there. You know, and in my practice, toothpaste in the bathroom, the cleaners under the sink, I mean, I live in my practice the way I live in my home. That's right. I'm the real deal. I have nothing to hide. I'll show anybody anything. Why? Because I have not to hide. So.

Yeah. So Dr. Theresa is the leading biological dentist in Houston and she been training so many biological dentists. And a lot of dentists come to us and say, you know, I don't want to, I don't have that 10 years because my health or I'm stuck in dentistries and my patient asking for help. I don't know how. And so Dr. Teresa and I, we mentoring and helping dentists to get there so they don't take 10 years to do what we can teach you. And a lot of time, our coaching, mentoring programs are like 12 months. And people don't want to get off the program. They want to keep staying on and get that coaching and that guidance and. Right.

Because remember, it's a book of information. It's so much information. It's not really possible to assimilate all of it in a year. We've taken it down into bite sized pieces and you can go as fast or as slow as you want to, but at the end of the day, even in that, it's not enough time to learn everything. I'm 10 years into this process and I still, still learn every day. So. And you. Katie is like literally the CE queen. She blows me away with the amount of learning that she does. So it's not about like, okay, this is the end of your journey. No, no, it's biological. Dentistry is a journey just as much as dentistry is a journey. Right. Life is a journey. Everything's a journey. So I don't ever pretend to know everything, nor will I ever pretend to know everything. I have some perspectives, you know, because of my own health journey that have made me have a unique take on things. But at the end of the day, everybody's on a journey. Yeah.

So when I share my mercury toxicity story, people thinking that maybe just you having that. Well, you know what, Teresa went through the same thing and she actually still going through the process of getting rid of mercury in her body. So Theresa, share with us a little bit about what you've been doing for the last decade to try to get the mercury out of your system and you still. Because every one of us are unique individuals. Exactly. And that's the reason Why? I would say the conventional. So the modern medicines are not really a one size fits all because all of us have different unique DNA where we also have different flaw mthfr. We talked about the betox pathway. So share with us what you've been doing for all these years. Help to lower the mercury level. Beside that, you're practicing biological dentistry. That helps protect you, protect your patient and your team members. But what do you do for your health journey to get rid of that mercury?

Okay, so for those who don't know, I'm a stage four cancer survivor. I was given a year to live and a 1% chance of survival December 1, 2015. So I'm six and a half years in now to my journey. And I did not do chemo. I put myself into remission with IV vitamin C in 90 days. And ever since then, I mean, I did do focal radiation because the metastasis was in my hip. But everything else has been holistic. And as I've shared before, conventional medicine has failed me in the literally the most miserable ways every single time. It has done nothing but traumatize me. It has made me very, very leery of anything conventional. Because if there is a way to have a weird side effect, if there's a way to have a rare complication, if there's a way to in some way be the weirdo that doesn't respond, I'm the one, you know? And it's frustrating because, gosh, it would be nice if I could just do this and this would happen like most other people, right? Oh, you do this and this will happen. No. So because of that, I've had to become that outside the box thinker because I don't fit in a box. So for me, when I got like, I knew I was sick when I went into biological dentistry. I mean, when my children were born, I knew that I was sick. And then three years in, I became biological because I knew that the mercury itself was making me sick, et cetera. So I was very mercury toxic. I'm grateful that I wasn't able to breastfeed for my children because the honest truth is my breast milk was probably the most toxic breast milk on the face of this planet. So there's a degree to which I'm incredibly grateful that I wasn't able to breastfeed, even though I am a huge advocate for breastfeeding. But anyway, we went down that path. And six and a half years ago, I just, no matter what I did in terms of being biological, I still was getting sicker and sicker. And it's because 17 years of practicing dentistry without any kind of protection against mercury. So, anyway, got super sick, did all of that stuff, and I healed from cancer. Life is wonderful as far as that goes. But it's still a journey for me. I'm still doing regular ozone IVs, regular vitamin C IVs. Not every day like when I was going through my cancer treatment, but, gosh, at least once a month, once every six weeks or so, you know, I'm doing something. Ozone sauna, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, PEMF therapy, like, anything natural and so on and so forth. Or alternative medicine. Acupuncture. Naet, which is. I could not pronounce that when I first started. So NAET is an acupuncture technique that. It's a natural allergy elimination technique, which is how I call it, because I could not pronounce Nambudrapat, and it took me several months to finally be able to say it stands for Nambudrapat's allergy elimination technique. So some doctor named Nambudrapat developed it, and it works on the acupuncture meridians in the body that regulate allergies. Literally fabulous for me, where, like, allergy shots did nothing. NAET has really worked well for me. Clearly, I'm sensitive, which is great, but in terms of chelation and so on and so forth. Yeah, no. Every time I try to chelate, even now, my cancer numbers go up. And so I'm like, nope, not doing that. You know, because my cancer numbers. The thing with cancer is everyone has cancer. Everyone does. I want to make that really, really clear. Because people think, well, that means you're not cured. I'm like, no, I'm actually within the normal limits in terms of all of that. But everybody, at every point in their life, they've got cancer cells in their bodies. Some people just have more than others, and some have just gone out of control. So when I try to chelate, when I try to. Cause my body hangs on to mercury like white hangs onto rice. Like, it's frustrating for me because I want to get rid of it, but clearly my body's like, no, no, no, no, no, you're not ready. And so it hangs onto it. So every time I've tried to chelate, and believe me, I've tried nano zeolite, I've tried the EDTA chelation, I've tried literally every way that I could to detoxify, and my body goes, no. What part of no don't you understand? So I'm still working on that. And eventually I'm gonna probably detox, mostly from, like, just time and the very gentle ways that I do it. My body loves ozone, so that's mostly what I do nowadays. And ozone does help boost your immune system, and it does help to detox the body and glutathione, you know, So I, for example, never take Tylenol. I have not taken a Tylenol at all since they gave it to me in the hospital for my cancer for post op surgery. Because Tylenol depletes your glutathione. My body needs every bit of glutathione it can take. It's your body's master antioxidant, so it helps you detox. And if you don't have it, you don't detox. And very clearly, I have very little of it. So I try to get as much as I possibly can naturally, et cetera, because your body's supposed to produce it. But as usual, my body does not.

So, Dr. Theresa, your compassion, authenticity, your real life story, survival story, really attracting not only tons of patients to your practice because they follow you, right? They driving distance to see you, but also a lot of dentists come to you and say, how can I do this? I don't have the cancer survival story. I don't know of a hair. Mercury toxicity. They don't know it yet.

They don't know it yet. If they don't know a test, you're mercury toxic. I promise, if you go to a.

Functional doctor and as soon as you find out and you put it on your form that you're a dentist, they would be like heavy metal testing for you, please. So you definitely want to check that out. So you notice that a lot of dentists want to go down this path because, lucky, they don't have cancer diagnosis yet. They really want to be well, they want to be able to be there for their family and for their patient and the team. What number one advice you have for dentists that look at biological dentistry and say, oh, my God, it's overwhelming because I didn't learn any of that in dental school. How do I get started on the journey?

So the same way you get started on any journey, right? One step at a time. Average dentist goes into biological dentistry. They start with ozone, mostly because ozone is easy to learn, easy to implement, and they don't have to have this horrible story. They can just go, oh, it boosts your immune system, blah, blah, blah, blah. It kills bacteria, and you can literally visibly see it on a microscope. You do the ozone. You have all these horrible things on a slide. You take the ozone, you know, you do the ozone insufflation, ozone rinsing, whatever, and then you do another slide, and everything's dead. So it's very visible, easy to use. And then that's where you start. And then that's when you go learn from the IAOMT and the IABDM. You take their Biological Dentistry 101 class. You go to one of their meetings. The IABDM has it online, you know, and you take the class, and then you really listen. Trying to make sure that you listen with an open mind. Cause what happens is what we were taught in dentistry, you have to unlearn some of what you were taught, sometimes an awful lot of what you were taught. So you have to go into it with the perspective of, okay, if Dr. Katie, if Dr. Theresa, if some of the other biological dentists that I love and respect have this story, then maybe there's something there to it, you know, and maybe I need to learn. And you go into it, and you listen with an open mind, and you try to look at the research that is available already that has been honestly covered up or muted by our profession, by our conventional dentistry profession, because they don't want us to have to change. They don't want to admit, for example, that mercury is toxic. Because if they do, it's an entire profession that must change. And so it's happening at the grassroots level. Those of us that got sick, because I promise you, most people don't go into this without having gotten sick. So those of us that got sick are trying to spread the message. And our goal is to really try to spread it, like Katie and I are doing. We're like, okay, we know that we got sick. We know that we got better. We'd like to prevent you from getting sick. We'd like to make sure that you can give birth to your babies and not have fertility issues. You can give birth to your babies and not have all of the problems that we had. I had infertility for 20 years. Katie had struggles with fertility as well, you know, and it doesn't have to be that way, but 50%. 50% of female dentists struggle with fertility. That's a problem.

Yeah. We actually did that study in our own group of female dentists. And the answer is just heartbreaking. People go through so many rounds of ivf, iui, and nothing. And they were told that they could not have children.

And they're trying to tell them it's genetic. And the Conventional world is like, well, it's genetic. Well, it's this. Well, it's that if it's profession related, it's not genetic. We're toxic. And it's not easy to detoxify, but it's possible to. And here's the other thing. Conventional dentistry would tell you that biological dentistry is one woo. It's not woo. It's just freaking good dentistry. Yeah, we do crowns, we do fillings, we do extractions, we do basic dentistry.

We so do cosmetics.

It's good. Yeah, it's good. Basic bread and butter dentistry, you know.

Yeah, Wellness dentistry.

But it's more about addressing root cause. It's more about figuring out what caused the problem in the first place. Not just if a person comes in with a, an infected tooth, right, you don't look at them and just go, okay, well, you need a root canal. The question is, why did the tooth die? Right. If the tooth died, what made it die? What can we do as dentists to make this your last dead tooth? Not, oh, well, okay, this is going to happen. And if it happens again, we'll do another root canal or another extraction or whatever. Because at the end of the day, that's just, you know, what's the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over, expecting a different result. That's insane. And that's been how we've been trained in dentistry. We've been trained to do the same thing over and over, expecting that we would get a different result. And yes, sometimes we do, because maybe the person got lucky with one thing or another. But at the end of the day, when you look at the big picture, root cause matters. So let's address why the person's tooth died. Let's address why the person is getting decay. Let's address why the person is getting periodontal disease. Let's address their airway. Why do they have sleep apnea? You know, let's figure something out. And if along the way we get to do lovely cosmetic work, you know, then at that point we get to do lovely cosmetic work. That's a perk, right? It's an absolute perk. And you get to do the lovely cosmetic work in a way that will last because you addressed the fires in the first place.

That's right.

As opposed to some of the cosmetic work that's done out there, which is all about this. And they never look at the back, they never look at the root cause. And so that stuff falls apart. Our goal is to make it so that the work we do Lasts, doesn't fall apart and the person's body likes it. What a novel concept.

Yeah. And so I love the advice that you said, take one step at a time.

Yeah.

Because you cannot, you know, doing all 10 things because if you do everything, you're not going to good at anything.

No.

It's kind of falling apart and especially.

And it feels overwhelming. Yeah.

When you're implementing in your practice, the person that help you to implement and integrate in your practice is your team and it will get overwhelmed. So that's the reason why with our guidance, we want to make sure you implement well, integrated, well, one thing, then move on to the next. So you can be confident, your team can be comfortable and your patient can feel that too.

Yeah. And I will tell you, everyone who goes biological has team members who will fight you. Find it out early, replace them with people who are open minded. It will happen and it's okay. It's okay. Like you've gone through it. I've gone through it. Everybody that I know has gone through it. Where they have the team members that roll their eyes. Right. You know, and then they'll start saying things behind your back. Those are the toxic team members anyway. They're not there to support your view. And it's your dream. It's your practice, your view, your dream, your practice. Those team members need to be supportive of that. If they're not supportive of that, regardless of whether it's that or whether you're taking on, I don't know what other. Say for example you wanted to get better at root canals and you have patients who, and mind you, I'm a biological so I don't like root canals. But say you have team members who are like I hate root canals and then they start fighting you on that. There's always going to be someone who's going to try to fight you on something. Those are your toxic team members. Find ones that are willing to support your vision and not try to fight you on it and play against it. You know.

So now we have a lot of our patients actually listen to the podcast and they so excited and so happy to find dentists like you. Of course through the IBDM listing to IOMT that we are accredited and then certified in smart removal or demotivity removal. But what advice you have? Because I know that you not only just talk the talk, you walk the talk. Especially nutrition.

Yeah.

You make nutrition not only good, but fun. I love to go looking for snack with you because not only they healthy but they good. We actually just came back from Whole food last night because we like, we need some good healthy snack and drink, something that really you enjoy, but it's good for your body, good for your soul. So when you have patient looking for biological dentists and they want to get well, what is your number one advice for them? Where to go looking for these dentists and how do they get success on this journey, which is not easy, but if they've committed to it, what number one advice for them?

For the patients who. Absolutely, yeah. So here's the thing. I'm absolutely certain that as a patient you can smell authenticity. You can tell when someone is absolutely like there and their heart is in the right place, even if they're more at the beginning of their journey. And then you can tell the ones that are not people are pretty smart, right? As far as that goes. So if you're looking for a biological dentist and you would like to like, save yourself a whole bunch of heartache in terms of who is and who isn't, or at least who appears to be on the right path, here's a couple of things that I tell my own patients. When they're moving and they're looking for somebody else for the iabdm, look for somebody who is a certified biological dentist, okay? But look at their journey. Because if they're just there and they're members and they're paid members, but they haven't actually taken the time to take the test, you know, and present the case presentations to prove that they know what they're doing and they're doing it well. So to become a certified biological dentist, literally all it requires, right, is to take some classes and take a test. And part of the test is actually an audio visual presentation. You have to actually have done. Is it two, Two cases? Two safe amalgam removal cases. Two of them, not just one, two. And you have to present the patient's history, you have to present the before and after pictures, the during pictures, the process that you did, make sure you have all the equipment. Why? Because there's a ton of dentists out there, unfortunately, who are unscrupulous, who will say they do something. So it takes effort and energy and money, right? To become a certified biological dentist. Now, for the iaomt, they have smart, certified and accredited dentists. But here's what I'm going to tell you. You want someone. The IAOMT has something on their website that shows how many meetings a dentist has been to pick somebody who is smart, certified, accredited and has been to a minimum of two meetings. But obviously the more Meetings, the better, right? Not everybody can go to meetings. It's expensive. You know, we as dentists, I have to choose between. I take 150 plus hours a year just like you do, and we have to choose between where's our money gonna go for continuing education. So you want somebody who cares enough to go, I have yet to make it to an AOSH meeting. For example, it's American Academy of Oral Systemic Health. I want to go, but there are so many other things for me to do that I've been like, okay, I've gotta pay attention to those things first. But Ayash is another organization that really, truly supports that Oral Systemic Health link, et cetera. So you want somebody who's truly committed. Look at their social media, look at what they say. Because you can smell authenticity. You can smell it when Dr. Katie talks about it. You can smell it when I talk about it. You know, when someone knows what they're talking about and when someone is like, oh, so do your research. Don't just go, oh, they're right there. They're in a website. I can go to them and do.

Your research, ask questions. And I always tell patients, there's so many good provider out there for you. So when you are seeing the provider, you do have that gut feeling that this person is the right fit for me. We have patients that come to Teresa and say, that's it. She's going to help me with my oral health journey and my airways and my mercury toxicity and my root canals. You, deep down inside, have that gut feeling. I would say lean more into it, but the more you lean into your gut feeling, the stronger it get every time. And you would be able to make the decision without regret. So this is a very important journey that you take on to get well to the wellness. You've been on this journey or you're starting this journey, There's a reason why you started journey. Things happen for you and not to you.

Yeah.

And all of us having that experience that we just not wake up one day and say, well, let's be practice biological. Yeah, we either practice biological or we have to quit dentistry. It does come down to that.

So, yeah, and there's. If you're disenchanted with dentistry, if you're having questions about why are you doing this, then it's worth asking yourself, are you really helping your patients? And if you take a really deep look into your heart, am I really helping my patients, you know, or do I feel like I'm looking at the same thing over and over and nobody gets better.

And to patients that listen to the podcast, I can tell you my number one advice is it's not an easy journey. Because it's easy. Everyone is doing it. There's a reason why you need discipline. You need some accountability, and you need to take that responsibility for your own health. We are here to be your guide. You are the hero of your journey, especially your wellness journey. So beside eat well, drink well, I mean, water, and then sleep well, you are as good as taking necessary step to get there. Eliminate toxicity that you have in your body, your mouth, for example, and then have that positive outlook in life so you can get well together.

Yeah.

And Dr. Teresa, thank you so much for your valuable information. I do have one last thing. Go ahead. Yes.

To add, and that is biological. Dentistry is not cheap. So I don't want you to go into it thinking, okay, does somebody take my insurance? It's not cheap to do for us. It's not cheap to get for you. And I get that 100%. Money doesn't tell you what you can do. It tells you how fast you can go.

I love that. Especially you're going through your cancer journey.

Exactly.

Doing that yourself.

Exactly.

Dr. Teresa, your story, every single time I listen to it, it give me goosebumps. I love it and I love your enthusiasm. And then how you sharing your story not only from your own experience, but with the impact that you can help other dentists to find a way to practice healthier and safer, not just for themselves, for the team.

Better and better. Exactly. It's good dentistry. Always good dentistry.

And that's the list. We can tell the patient we do no harm, we do good dentistry, and then we do better from there. So I'm always saying, know better, do better. And again, thank you for your time.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you for tuning in. And please follow us and subscribe to our podcast. We have amazing guests coming in in the future episode. And you have a wonderful day. Be well. Bye. Bye.

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