Dr. Katie ToThe Wellness Dentist, CEO and Founder of Center for Wellness Dentistry and Wellness Dentist Institute.

I Was Scratching Myself Bloody at Night — My Profession Was the Cause

5 Aug 2026 · 1 min

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In this personal testimony, Dr. Katie To, a dentist, describes a severe, chronic occupational health crisis that she and many of her dental colleagues experience. She recounts relentless skin rashes that cause intense itching, leading her to scratch herself until she bleeds nightly, and the necessity of cutting her nails short to manage the damage. The skin condition is accompanied by brain fog, persistent pain, and debilitating insomnia, leaving her exhausted and unable to function normally at work. She emphasizes that these symptoms are not isolated or short‑term; they represent a long‑standing, often unrecognized battle that many dentists endure without proper acknowledgment or connection to their profession.

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What a lot of people don't understand, and they think, oh, this has happened to me too, but they never make the connection. Oh my God, I have that skin issue too. I have this problem too, but nobody ever connect that for them. And a lot of dentists are also the victim of the profession. And rashes, I was mentioned the brain fog, the pain. I could not sleep. I scratched myself. I literally had to cut my nails short and scratch myself and bleed myself at night. And I go to work looking like that. Can you imagine not being myself, not be able to sleep? And I was hopeless. And by the time that I figured things out, I realized that this is a long battle. It's not something takes 6 months or a year.