#2 Uncovering the Truth About Dental Cleanings

Welcome to the Holistic Dentistry Podcast, the show that gives you the tips and tools to detoxify your mouth for a healthier body. Today I'd like to start a three part series on the top three procedures that can make you toxic in the dental office. That's right. You're probably wondering, what are the toxins in the dental office? And the truth is there's a lot of different toxins. But I want to just bring to your attention the three things that are very common procedures in dentistry. And I want to start with cleanings. Along with regular brushing and flossing. Professional dental cleanings play a very important part in keeping your teeth healthy. And you can hear the dentist say all the time, just make sure you come in every six months. Or if you have periodontal disease, come in every three months. Some people avoid getting their teeth clean at the dentist because they think it will not be only painful, but it might actually harm their teeth. How, you might ask. You know, with those scrapers, the stainless steel scrapers, a lot of times you can have sensitivity, especially the hygienist is too aggressive. And I will definitely be talking more about the different tools that you can use for the cleaning. But what kind of toxic ingredients are being used regularly at the dental office, especially if your dentist is not holistic or biological. Let's talk about tooth polish, okay? Because after you get your teeth cleansed with the scrapers, you're going to have your hygienist use a tooth polish. And sometimes you can actually feel that it tastes like something. Cinnamon. They might even ask you, hey, do you want vanilla? Do you want strawberry? And the fact is that those flavors are actually artificial. But besides that, what other things are in a tooth polish? You can find all kinds of ingredients. Tooth polish typically actually is made out of sand. It's pumice, light gray, highly siliceous material produced by volcanic activity. Zirconium silicate is actually one of the chemical ingredients that is present in the tooth polish. And it's really this off white mineral that's also sometimes present on abrasive discs or strips. It's frequently used as a component of the dental prophylaxis paste on that little, you know, sandy, gritty tooth polish. What's interesting is that in doing this research, I realized that manufacturers generally do not disclose the amount of ingredients in their polishing paste. So I really encourage you to go ask the hygienist what's in your polishing paste. Most of them are not going to know the answer because most of the Dental professionals don't actually look at the ingredients to see what's in them. And not because they don't care, but typically they're just busy and they're trusting that, you know, if this product is on the market, that it's actually good for you. However, this is not the case. As you know from the food industry. Right. If you actually go to the store, you're going to find artificial ingredients, chemicals in the foods that you don't want to ingest and you want to stay away from. Even though the FDA might have, you know, generally regarded as safe. That particular ingredient, zirconium silicate, is actually an abrasive irritant for skin and eyes. You do not want to get it on your skin, but yet what do we do? We put it in a polishing paste and we're going to polish your teeth and gums with it so your gums could get irritated, because gums are skin. What I found from Wikipedia on zirconium silicate is that chronic exposure to dust can actually cause pulmonary granulomas, skin irritation and inflammation. However, there are no known adverse effects for normal ingestion. Why? Because nobody really studied this, but we know this is an irritant, yet it is commonly found in the tooth polish. And why do they add it in there? It's just because it's abrasive and it really helps to remove the stains. If you stay until the end, I will actually give you some tips on how to avoid all these chemicals. So. So that next time you go get a dental cleaning, you know exactly what your dental hygienist is putting in your mouth, which you should. Some people regarding zirconium silicate are actually genetically predisposed to zirconium toxicity. And this is because certain genes belonging to liver detoxification pathways that normally deal with zirconium detoxifications have been deleted. In these cases, a genetic test can confirm and a specialized nutritional program can help the individual with this toxicity. This particular gene is called the MTHFR. And these SNPs can be a different variety, could be single or double mutation, and it can affect the way you detoxify. But let's see what other ingredients are in the tooth polish. Silicon carbide. Silicon carbide is another chemical that's added that can irritate the eyes and the nose on contact. Repeated high exposure to silicon carbide may result in chronic disease of the lungs and a decrease in lung functions with shortness of breath, wheezing or coughing. So Especially for those of you that are, are asthmatic. And I know I have some patients that actually come and they, you know what, after my last cleaning, I really didn't feel well. And the reason is some people think, oh, you know, you stirred up the bacteria. I don't think that's it. I think probably the reason is maybe some of these chemicals have actually gotten and irritated either the lungs or your immune system, the body, that you're not feeling well. Also the silicon carbide, which is added potentially to the pace that your hygienist is using. It has been studied as a possible lung carcinogenic. So you have to ask yourself, do you really want to polish your teeth with something that's a potential carcinogen? I don't think so. Especially for those of you that are going in every three months. So ask your hygienist what is in the tooth polishing paste and this would be great education for everyone. Aluminum hydroxide is another ingredient that is commonly present in the tooth polishing paste that you get at your dental office when you get your cleanings. And aluminum hydroxide is one of these things that of course, you know, a lot of us are trying to avoid. Aluminum. You know what aluminum is in deodorants and now you can find aluminum free deodorants. Unfortunately, when you go to the dental office, you know, you're not even thinking about asking, okay, can I see if you have aluminum in your tooth polishing paste? And what's the problem with aluminum hydroxide or tri hydroxide? I found this article in the National Library Medicine from 2022. So it lists here that exposure to aluminum hydroxide can cause seizures, osteomalacia, encephalopathy, which is basically swelling of the brain. They're well documented toxic effects of aluminum hydroxide. The primary side effects of aluminum hydroxide include hypophosphatemia, constipation, anemia, and obviously we're talking about larger quantities here, but why add another chemical into your body? And what's the problem with the mouth? The mouth compared to your skin actually absorbs a lot more. For that reason, we have a lot of medications that when you put under your tongue, they get absorbed in your body within 30 minutes. Nitroglycerin is, for example, one of those chemicals or drugs that when you have a heart attack, helps with the vasodilation. So we know that if you're actually getting a cleaning with different chemicals, those chemicals will enter your bloodstream. You might have also heard that, you know, regarding this floss glide Floss. There was an article to show that people that use glide floss regularly had an increase in pfoa. Basically the same Teflon ingredient as you have in pans. Because you know as you're flossing with Teflon tape underneath your gums, what is actually happening. That Teflon gets transferred into your blood through the gums. So yes, things that you put in your mouth, chemicals will absorb into your body quite readily. We already know this. So that's why I'm going through all these ingredients because I highly encourage you to know what products are being placed to clean your teeth so you can avoid them. Back to aluminum hydroxide due to its ability to stimulate the immune system. There have been observed cases of persistent granulomas. What are granulomas? Granulomas are actually little tumors. As a periodontist, I removed quite a few granulomas from the mouth because they do form at the gum line. And granulomas can form for different reasons. Could be a reason for from a chemical as you see here, but also from hormonal. During pregnancy you can get a granuloma. Definitely try to avoid chemicals in order to prevent any kind of granulomas or like tumors of the gingiva. Aluminum hydroxide is a medication that is used in the management of treatment of acid indigestion. It is in the antacid class of drugs. Patients may also receive it to treat chemo induced oral mucositis in the form of a mouthwash. What is chemo induced oral mucositis? Basically is inflammation of the lining of the mouth, the cheeks, the roof of the mouth. Everything becomes inflamed as a result of chemotherapy from cancer. So of course, aluminum hydroxide is not the only medicated mouthwash that we can use in the case of cancer. We definitely have more natural ingredients such as aloe vera based mouthwashes that we can actually use to prevent oral mucositis. However, aluminum hydroxide is not only used as an antacid, but also as a mouthwash. Additionally, it is approved for use as an adjuvant in numerous vaccines due to its ability to increase your immune system to kind of eat up the vaccine and trigger this immune response. So with that said though, even in vaccines you can actually avoid aluminum hydroxide. You have to ask for aluminum free, also mercury free. But vaccines, topical aluminum hydroxide creates this acidity over the area and that acidity actually can create irritation. It does deter bacterial growth within the wound. So maybe because of this, you know, it's antibacterial. Maybe that's why it's being used in the tooth polish. However, we have other things, such as xylitol, which are more commonly used. And actually, we do make tooth polishes today that include xylitol in it. But let's go over to artificial colors and flavors. As I was mentioned earlier, when you go to the dentist, they'll even ask you what kind of flavor tooth polish you want. And of course, they're all artificial. Unfortunately, the problem with artificial food additives is that they're tough to avoid. They're everywhere. Found in most foods in the grocery store, from the cereal all the way to desserts, you know, to your main course. You really have to read the labels to avoid the artificial food colorings. And some of them are just used for color, but some of them are also used to enhance the natural properties of that chemical substance found in that particular food. There's been a lot of research on artificial food additives, and some health risks that have been demonstrated are allergic reactions and food hypersensitivity. So, for example, you eat something that has food coloring, and all of a sudden you get little rashes or itchy skin. But it doesn't come right away. Maybe it comes an hour or two later. All of a sudden you get this itchy skin. It might be from that artificial coloring that you use. Worsening of the asthmatic symptoms. So it's possible that using chemicals, if you're asthmatic, that your immune system is already triggered and it will react to food flavors, including the ones in the tooth polish. You can get abdominal pain, diarrhea, and vomiting. That's a more on the extreme side of, of health risks that are involved with food flavors and colorings. Artificial additives, they're just that they're artificial. They're not derived from nature. For example, most vanilla extracts are made from vanillin. Vanillin is produced in a lab, and I highly encourage you to avoid this. Oftentimes you're going to get, like, desserts, pastries that have vanillin, definitely don't use it and go for the real thing, which is vanilla. Some preliminary research on mice suggests that the consumption of artificial sweeteners may lower gut bacteria diversity and theoretically lead to digestive problems. That's one of the problems with using these artificial additives and sweeteners, including the coloring. So I highly encourage you to avoid any kind of artificial coloring. And what is the remedy for that when it comes to tooth polish? They actually make tooth polish without flavor. And let's face it, you don't need any artificial flavor if you really want your teeth polished with polishing paste, which is made out of silica, then you can definitely get one without flavor. Now, when it comes to children's health, you know, some sadly, whenever your tooth go, your children go to the dentist, the hygienist typically just polish their teeth. And the only thing they use, especially at a young age, is tooth polish, which a bunch of chemicals and some kind of artificial flavor. What's interesting is that we've had several studies to show that artificial food additives, food colorings, can lead to hyperactivity, adhd, even ASD in children, which is autism spectrum disorder. Definitely highly recommend that you remove any artificial coloring from your children's food, not just the tooth polish, just from these studies alone in order to help them decrease their ADHD behavior. And unfortunately, there's a steep increase in children with ADD and ADHD all over the world and mainly because of the food choices that we're making today in our food supply. And if you can at least minimize the exposure to those food additives and colorings in the dental office, why not do that? And by you asking your dentist or hygienist, hey, what's in that tooth polishing paste? Give me something that doesn't have anything artificial in it. And by the way, there are manufacturers that do make tooth polishing without any additives, completely natural. However, most dentists don't offer that. Highly encourage you to go ask your dentist what they're using and request natural products. So that way more and more dentists can actually stock up on natural tooth polishing powders. You let's go over some of the ready to use prophy paste that are out there. Some of them are called pro care powder. It's like this feldspar pumice. Some of them are called Clin Pro. Prophy paste with perlite. And Clin Pro actually also has a lot of fluoride. I will be mentioning that a little bit later on in the show. Aluminum silicate. It's called pack dent propaste. Then we have this zircon paste with a zirconium silicate that I mentioned earlier. Proxyl Sparkle is another brand, has a xylitol in it which is actually healthy. It's antibacterial anti cavity, great for children. One of the ingredients that might surprise you that's commonly probably present in the tooth polishing paste is gluten. That's right. You might not know that a lot of these polishing paste have gluten and it's not even listed on the label. Oftentimes you'll have the hygienist read the labels. Gluten is not on there. But when you actually call the manufacturer, they'll tell you they use some gluten because they want to thicken the paste. So the thicker the paste, probably the more gluten has in it. For those of you that have celiac, obviously you want to avoid or gluten products. You want to find a place that has gluten free. Cleanings, as crazy as this might sound, is actually very important because it can make you sick. As I was telling you, the mouth is the opening of the GI tract and if you have gluten in the tooth polishing paste, it will actually get absorbed through the gums and it will trigger that immune system reaction. Ingesting even a small amount of gluten from dental or lip products can make a celiac or gluten intolerant person very ill. Check with your dentist, I would say, at least a week before your scheduled cleaning, and ask them if they verify that the products they're about to use on you are gluten free. It gives them enough time to actually order you something that is gluten free. For those of you that don't know, celiac disease is an autoimmune condition caused by the small intestine sensitivity to gluten, a type of protein found primarily in foods containing wheat, rye or barley. It is estimated that about 1 in 150Americans suffer from this disease, including many individuals who are currently undiagnosed. They basically eat wheat products like pasta. Let's say they go to an Italian restaurant and then they don't feel good for two, three days. They have brain fog, they have bloating, they feel very tired. You most likely have a gluten intolerance or possibly celiac. The primary symptoms also include diarrhea, constipation, abdominal pain, bloating, and also weight loss. Aside from GI symptoms, a person can also experience malabsorption of nutrients, headaches, iron deficiencies, skin issues, even osteoporosis and joint pain. If you don't manage these kind of symptoms, it can eventually lead to infertility and intestinal cancers. So pay attention to your symptoms and try to clean up your your life. Gluten is not only found in the tooth polishing, but can sometimes be found in cosmetic products, medications, supplements, skin and hair products play doh and these dental care products such as the tooth polishing other abrasive particles used in commercial prophylaxis polishing paste are aluminum oxide natural, which is alumina. And that's actually not as bad as hydroxide. Aluminum oxide is actually a ceramic. So there's ceramic particles. The aluminum cannot actually escape from that ceramic. Silicon carbide, aluminum silicate, silicon dioxide, carbide compounds, feldspar, zirconium oxide, boron. Calcium carbonate is not as bad as, as you know, calcium carbonate is not really absorbed in the body, is part of the calcium supplementation that is available on the market. However, I don't recommend it because it really doesn't do anything for you. Gets very little absorbed in our intestinal tract. So besides that, let's talk about fluoride. Right after they're done polishing your teeth. What comes next? A fluoride treatment. And it's just so common for any dental office that is non biological to offer you fluoride. And we're talking about even at a young age, right? You're not even 10 years old and you're getting these trays, I still remember trays with these foamy fluoride that has different flavor at all, of course artificial. And then they put it in your mouth and they put a little suction there and you're salivating because of the flavor and you're trying not to swallow the fluoride. But if you're a young child, you're going to swallow some of this fluoride. So what's the problem with fluoride? The problem is that it's toxic. It's really been used in dentistry for way too long and it's been put in the water. And I highly encourage you, those of you who haven't watched fluoride gate the documentary, to watch it. So you are educated about how fluoride ended up in the water. The association that I'm a member of IAOMT actually talks against the use of fluoride. Fluoride is really used to inhibit demineralization and enhance remineralization. But it can also remain and absorb, be absorbed on the, on the tissues in your mouth, the cheeks, the tongue. And then it's also released in the saliva slowly. And you're swallowing that. We know that too much fluoride, especially the one that comes from the water, can lead to dental fluorosis or skeletal fluorosis. What's the problem with this? It can damage the bones and, and the joints long term. But the fluoride that really we're talking about at the dental office, which maybe you're getting, you know, once every six months, might cause a stomach ache. But also as it is absorbed, especially in growing children. We actually have a study that came out looking at children between 5th and 8th grade, and they noticed a lower IQ. The higher the fluoride in the body, the lower the iq. So the other thing, you know that we have better solutions today. For example, the Orasana probiotic mineralizing tooth powder with calcium hydroxyapatite is actually better at mineralizing teeth than fluoride. So, for example, when you're using the calcium hydroxyapatite, which is the same structure that the teeth and bones are made of, we know that this gets absorbed in the tooth structure. So switch from fluoride to calcium hydroxyapatite in order to avoid toxicity, especially in your children. The fluoride uptake by mineralized tissues is more efficient in growing children and progressively declines with age. Retention of fluoride in the mineralized tissues of the body is reversible, but fluoride is released back slowly when the fluoride in the blood actually drops. Also, fluoride crosses into the placenta and is found into the placental and fetal tissue. So definitely during pregnancy. Avoid any kind of fluoride treatment at the dental office. But also drinking fluoridated water. Excessive ingestion of fluoride may cause toxic effects. And it is important to know that the major source of fluoride toxicity remains oral hygiene products. According to the fluoride poisoning data collected by the American association of Poison Control, toothpaste ingestion remains the main source of toxicity, followed by fluoride containing mouthwashes and supplements. So you don't have to use a toothpaste with fluoride, especially if you have children in the house. Use something with calcium hydroxyapatite to help fight against cavities, and especially start using probiotics that have been shown to decrease cavities. The highest proportion. More than 80% of the cases of fluoride toxicity was reported in children below the age of six. Why? Because they're really swallowing everything. So if your child is under the age of six, don't even think about having products without fluoride in the house. That would be my recommendation. We believe that as the fluoride comes in contact with moisture, this results in a formation of hydrofluoric acid. And this acid formation results in burning of tissues due to a low ph. And that's why they have a lot of GI effects. So when you're actually swallowing fluoride, you can have acute effects such as nausea, vomiting, tetany, especially of the hands and feet. You can Even have convulsions. And people have gone into a coma before for too much fluoride. But we also can have chronic effects, dental fluorosis. Those are the white spots on the teeth that actually make your teeth brittle, Hypersensitivity reaction, insufficiency of the renal system, numbness, muscular spasm, birth defect, and even cancer. So I will be doing more shows on fluoride. I think it's an important thing for us to avoid and there's much better alternatives out there today. The last thing I want to talk about that could be a toxin in your dental cleaning appointment. It's a, a toxin called glutaraldehyde. Glutaraldehyde is actually present in desensitizing materials. So let's, let's say you have a very sensitive tooth, you go to the dentist. Oh yeah, no problem. We have a little liquid for that. Why would you have a sensitive tooth? Let's say your gum actually has dropped down, so now you have a little bit of recession. Glutaraldehyde is a very commonly used product also. It is used as a cold sterile in the dental office to disinfect and clean heat sensitive equipment. It can irritate the gums, especially a place in the area under recession. And it can cause severe eye, nose and throat irritation as well as headaches and drowsiness. It is the main source of occupational asthma amongst people in the dental office. Because we have, we used to have a bath that's filled with glutaraldehyde. Then you drop like mirrors in there or certain instruments that you cannot put in a heat sterilizer because they'll melt. And what happens is as an assistant, you go there without a mask, you keep inhaling this glutaraldehyde and all of a sudden you know, you see that you're developing asthma, it's attacking your lungs, you know, your, your artery, watery eyes, your nose is running. You're basically being attacked by, by this chemical. We do have glutaraldehyde free desensitizer in our office. We actually use Admira Protect, it's called, which actually has ceramic particles inside this liquid that we apply on the tooth surface. And these nano ceramic particles infuse in the pores of the teeth. We cure it with a light and it really helps to prevent or get rid of sensitivity pretty much right away. So avoid any glutaraldehyde products. Whenever you have a sensitive tooth, ask your dentist what kind of product are you planning on using. So what is the solution to all this, obviously, we went over how many toxins are in your dental cleaning. The one other product that I want to mention before we go to the solution is basically chlorhexidine. Why? Because those of you that might have gum disease, your hygienist might say, oh, you know what, let me use this chlorhexidine mouthwash in my piezo or my cavitron, which is that that little electric device to help clean your teeth. So they're putting chlorhexidine in there. However, chlorhexidine gluconate is actually toxic. It's used also as a pesticide in the field and it helps to also inhibit fibroblast in the mouth. So in your body, because it's toxic, it kills cells, it also kills bacteria. That's why it's being used. Your dentist might have prescribed you at the pharmacy, especially if you had inflammation in the gums like a whole bottle of chlorhexidine and you start using it and you notice that everything's getting stained. So that's part of the chlorhexidine gluconate. There's other ways. I would highly encourage you to not use chlorhexidine gluconate and use something else such as ozone water or hydrogen peroxide. What can you do before you go to the dentist in order to make sure you get a nice natural effective cleaning? Number one, no chlorhexidine gluconate. Number two, use plain tooth polishing paste. Call your dentist about a week before and request this that you want a gluten free natural tooth polishing paste. Avoid fluoride. So decline all the fluoride treatments and choose to go with calcium hydroxy apatite toothpaste at home. And if your dentist has airflow to clean the plaque by using a natural sweetener derived called erythritol. Even better. In the next show we will be talking about the second most common procedure that can make you top toxic in the dental office. That procedure is actually called a root canal, which I'm sure a lot of you are aware of. But you do not know what kind of materials and how a root canal can make you toxic. So join me on the next episode on Holistic Dentistry. Please make sure you check out the show notes for any links mentioned in the show. Do you have a question you'd like me to answer? Message me on Instagram. Rsanda this is Dr. Sandha and remember, your mouth is the gateway to your health. So take care of it in the most natural and best way. Possible.