Biological vs Traditional Dentistry

Hi, everybody, I'm Dr. Sandhya Moldovan, periodontist and nutritionist. Welcome to the Holistic Dentistry Podcast, the show that gives you the tips and tools to detoxify your mouth for a healthier body as we explore together the root cause of disease. Remember, you're not healthy until your mouth is healthy, so take care of it in the most natural way. Hi, everyone. I'm Dr. Sandha, and welcome to my first show on the podcast, holistic dentistry with Dr. Sandha. I am your host, Dr. Sandha Moldovan, and I want to start this podcast with who I am. Why holistic dentistry, and why should you listen to me? Because, let's face it, there's a lot of different holistic dentists out there, and everybody has an idea of what holistic dentistry is. So let me start from the beginning. At the age of 14, I immigrated to United States with my mom and dad and my brother, and it was difficult for me with oral care. I went to the dentist basically when I had pain and I didn't know what floss was, I wasn't flossing, and I ended up with 16 huge mercury amalgam fillings in my mouth. And slowly but surely, I had headaches and pain developed and I wasn't feeling good. I would fall asleep in the afternoon. And of course, I was a sugar addict. That's how I ended up with all those cavities to begin with, without the fact that, you know, also I just wasn't cleaning well. So I learned about dental floss and how to properly clean my teeth when I actually went to dental school. So that's when I learned about, okay, you're supposed to use string floss and you're supposed to wrap it around like a C, but who really does that? And for sure, we will be tackling these kind of issues and giving you better tools throughout the podcast on how you can clean better. So fast forward, I started learning about nutrition. I went to dental school and finished as a periodontist after three years of specialty specialty, where I got my certification and master's in oral biology. And I just didn't understand why. I did one surgery on one patient and they healed great. And then I did the same exact surgery on another patient. They didn't heal so well. So I started studying nutrition, and through the studies of nutrition, I stumbled upon Institute of Functional Medicine, and I took their classes. I met a lot of integrative physicians that I started listening to, and they opened up my eyes to holistic dentistry and the notion of cavitations and Mercury toxicity. Things that in dental school, I learned nothing about. We were told that mercury fillings are completely safe. So I started thinking, I wonder if these mercury fillings are making me toxic. So I went to get them removed by one of my friends. But little did I know that I was supposed to really get tested ahead of time to see where my mercury level was. So it turns out I developed more toxicity through the wrong removal. I didn't follow at the time the IOMT Smart removal certification, because my friend knew nothing about it. Because my friend in dental school, he had his own practice. He's like, okay, let's remove them safely. We'll put a rubber dam to make sure that we protect your, you know, you from swallowing any particles. And I had the mercury fillings removed. I developed more headaches and fatigue. So I met a naturopath a couple years later, and I started the detoxification process from mercury. So that's how my whole holistic dentistry path started, through nutrition and then the wrong way of removing mercury fillings. I started my practice in Beverly Hills in 2016. Prior to that, I was working as a traditional periodontist, and I started incorporating more nutrition. But in 2016, I said, okay, I really want to develop a biological practice. And I learned from so many different mentors all over the world, from New Zealand all the way to Germany and Switzerland, because I really wanted to bring the best for my patients, because there was really nowhere for me to go to study holistic dentistry. I didn't even know where to start. I went to some IOMT meetings, but I didn't find that they were really, like, systematically teaching things, and I felt that something was still missing. I got my certification in nutrition, and through that, I developed my own protocols, nutrition support that also includes homeopathic supplements to help the body detoxify and help support healing. Throughout the process, I'm still lecturing on many dental issues in our dental community, and a lot of dentists are actually asking me, where can I go to get more trained in holistic dentistry? How can we, you know, practice what you're doing? And unfortunately, there's really no class out there that would do that. So, uh, I wanted to start this podcast to really educate all of you out there who are interested in holistic dentistry, but also those dentists that might be interested in taking this path so we can all practice together. So why holistic? Because holistic dentistry is really here to find the root cause of the problem. Now, in dental school, basically, we're looking at teeth as very mechanical, something that, okay, you see a hole, you see a cavity. Okay, let's drill it and fill it. It you see? Okay, this cavity is going now too deep into the nerve. Let's take out the nerve and seal it with the root canal. Basically. We never associated the mouth with the rest of the body very much. We really, our limitation was treat the hole in the tooth. But what I like to say about holistic dentistry is that we are treating the whole person, not the hole in the tooth. So that is a big distinction between holistic dentistry and traditional dentistry. I finished my dental school at the Ohio State University in which I had many amazing mentors that taught me how to, you know, treat cavities properly and really learn about the different dental materials. What I didn't know, though, is there were a lot more to dental materials than just looking at hundreds and hundreds of different materials in a catalog. We have to know whether or not they're biocompatible. And that's something that we don't really talk about. And we automatically take for granted that whatever a company's putting out and it's on the market, that it's automatically good for everyone. Holistic dentistry practices personalized dentistry. It's not one size fits all. Even though it's not a true recognized specialty. Holistic dentistry really uses a lot of science based evidence. We want to use the best materials that are available today, but we also take into consideration toxicity. Is this material biocompatible for this particular patient? This is such an important distinction that I learned really, like, after 10 years of being out as a practicing periodontist, even though we have so many holistic practitioners out there, you'll find that every single holistic dentist practices differently, just like you would any kind of, you know, functional medicine practitioner. And in a lot of ways, holistic dentistry is very much like functional medicine practitioner. What we really want to determine is the impact that the dental condition is having on general health. So looking at the whole person, okay, how is this root canal affecting you? Are you having chronic fatigue and brain fog? Because things that are happening in the mouth. Let's explore that. I always say the mouth is the gateway to your health. So we must really look deeply for any signs. And what kind of signs do we see in the mouth? We see signs of nutritional deficiencies, we see signs of disease, such as systemic problems, such as, for example, bleeding gums can cause leukemia. Or bleeding gums is a sign of leukemia, typically. And holistic dentistry is taking more and more of a forward movement. And it's really because A lot of people are interested in the holistic lifestyle today. Even the US government has this. Healthy People 2020 is a project that was started at the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. And what the government is trying to do is increase awareness of the importance of oral health to overall health. It's been overlooked for too many years. And we have dentists practicing over here, and then we have functional medicine or doctors or traditional doctors practicing on the other side. You all know that I've been to the emergency room with a toothache or a swollen cheek, that the doctors have no idea what to do. They don't even know how to diagnose. I remember one time one of my patients said, oh, a tooth was basically injured or traumatized. She was punched in the face. The tooth came out of vulft and she went to the emergency room and they put it in upside down or they tried to. So these are the kind of things, and it's really not, because unfortunately, the physicians just know they're not trained. So my goal with this podcast is also bring together medicine and dentistry to really learn to work together for offering our patients really the best chance they have to achieve optimum health. Furthermore, holistic dentists also acknowledge that a systemic disease can start in the mouth. For example, as a periodontist, and all traditional periodontists know this, that periodontal disease works hand in hand with diabetes. So untreated periodontal disease can result in higher numbers of diabetes. So if you're trying to treat diabetes, but you don't treat periodontal disease, you're not going to get great results. And the other way around, if we're trying to treat periodontal disease, but we're not treating the diabetes itself, we're not going to get great results with the teeth and the gums. Heart disease. Big research came out a few years ago that people with periodontal disease have two to three times increase in cardiovascular episodes such as heart disease and stroke. Why is that? Because bacteria in the mouth doesn't stay in the mouth. Every time your gums bleed, bacteria has an opportunity to enter the bloodstream and actually lodge into heart valves. It travels to the brain, creating inflammation, respiratory problems. We know that bacteria from the mouth actually travels and can cause pneumonia. Very, very important to be able to test the microbiome. And this is something that we are going to address in one of the podcast episodes, premature birth. I highly encourage all the moms out there who want to get pregnant or future moms who want to get pregnant to definitely check their mouth for any kind of bacteria, especially the aggressive periodontal pathogens that might influence their pregnancy in a negative way. What are these bacteria? Porphyromona gingivalis. That's number one. AA is another one, Fusobacterium. So we can easily measure these today through the saliva. And we know how to treat them better so that when you're pregnant, this bacteria doesn't go to the fetus because this will result in premature births and low birth weight. But we're not interested in holistic dentistry just for adults. Holistic dentistry can make a big difference in children's lives. Number one is actually choosing natural products and natural oral products for home use is a big deal. Decreasing the use of fluoride in holistic dental practices. And I mean in true holistic dental practices. We know that children who ingest fluoride have a decrease of iq. There was a study done in California, grades fifth through eighth. I measure the fluoride in the water and the higher the fluoride in the water, the lower the IQ in children. So definitely ingested fluoride is a lot more toxic than topical fluoride. Although we don't use topical fluoride in any of our holistic practices. The reason being we have much better tools today. We have calcium hydroxyapatite and ozone and roll. We will be talking about what is the safest way to help children preserve their teeth and prevent them from getting cavities. ADD meds in kids also affects their oral microbiome. We will be talking about that. It's a huge problem today. The medications actually cause dry mouth and dry mouth in turn can result into cavities because saliva is there to really bathe the teeth, to provide minerals for the teeth in a wet environment. That's how we preserve the teeth longer. As I spent time at the Institute of Functional Medicine, I really learned to work with other integrative health practitioner to help our patients thrive. A biological dentist. You have to remember we always, always seek the safest and non toxic way to accomplish oral health. Naturally, we have to recognize the essential connection between the mouth and the body. Mercury free and mercury safe. Those are two terms that are very important in looking for a holistic or biological dentist. And when I use biological dentistry is basically interchangeable with holistic dentistry. A lot of you might say, oh, I've never heard of biological dentistry. And actually our organization, IAOMT.org is for biological dentists in which we are trained on certain basic principles. But outside of that, we each can choose how we want to practice and which tools to bring into our practice. Testing for biocompatible dental materials and technique. This is hugely important in any biological and holistic dental office. We must must use biocompatible dental materials. And for that we actually utilize some testing. Because every person is different. Every person reacts differently to different things. So it is very important. Besides mouth techniques, we also employ things like heavy metal detoxification. For example, people that have mercury fillings. We always want to know, are you high in mercury or other heavy metals? Why? Because you're already looking at some kind of detoxification. But we want to know if we have to start this detoxification prior to removing the mercury fillings or after. Nutrition is hugely important. We talk to our patients about nutrition because nutrition can help in healing. Nutrition can help in preventing cavities and in basically getting more energy and decreasing inflammation. For that reason, I actually wrote a book, Heal Up 7 Ways to Faster Healing and Optimum Health. And it took me actually a few years to write this book, and I published it in 2018. And actually it's right here also behind me. But why did I write this book? Because patients would come to me and say, doctor, what kind of pill can I take so I can heal better? And unfortunately, there is not one magic pill that will heal you. And this goes true for any condition. It doesn't have to be oral. It's a lifestyle approach. You must practice good oral hygiene. But also sleep is hugely important in healing. Water. What kind of water you're drinking is very important, whether it's alkaline or acidic or structurized, what kind of supplements you're taking. I am a huge fan of supplements because, let's face it, you know, the way we grow our fruits and vegetables today, we are not getting enough nutrients. And as a certified nutritionist, we know that the consensus is everyone should be taking a multivitamin supplement to help fill in the gaps. But we have a lot of therapeutic nutritionals today. Ozone is hugely important as a biofilm disruptor, at least in my practice and for oral health food, hugely important in healing. Another important distinction, holistic dentistry versus traditional dentistry, is the oral galvanism. As holistic dentists, we know that any kind of disruption of electrical stimulus in the mouth will disrupt the way you feel. Oral galvanism has been well documented, actually, in all literature. And it is hugely important to be recognized because essentially, if you have two metals in the mouth in a wet environment, you're creating a battery. This battery is going to drain your life force. We're going to be addressing this in more detail later on. Biological Periodontal THERAPY Even though I graduated from UCLA in 2003 or 2004 as a periodontist, the way I practice periodontics has changed significantly due to the advances in certain salivary diagnostic and lasers and ozone. So most of the time I actually treat periodontal disease successfully, non surgical and especially employing the use of chewable probiotics. You come into our office, we do a saliva test, we find out exactly which bacteria is causing the infection or the periodontal disease and we help you detoxify your mouth. And also through the use of certain systemic supplements, we can help you feel better. As you know or as you might not know, I am also the founder of Orasana Natural Oral Health Supplements. And how I started this company is really through a want of having better chewable probiotic. I had several patients that I was using a different probiotic. It's a company actually that's based in Canada and I used to give them this chewable probiotic because the studies were coming out that using chewable probiotic after periodontal treatment actually helps decrease inflammation and decrease plaque build up. But they didn't like the taste. They said, oh, I can't take this anymore, it's too chalky. If they start official, it tastes like cough syrup. I don't want to do it. So I said, okay, I'm going to go find a lab in the United States. And I did. It's in Wisconsin and I'm going to work with a chemist to fabricate some delicious vegan certified probiotic. And that was the other thing. A lot of my patients were vegan and they said, I don't want to take something that's milk based. So we launched this product about three, four years ago and I'm happy to report that it's doing well. People love it. We have a lot of recurrent customers and I thank you so much for those of you that are using my products from Orasana and it's really helped treat my patients better because at home they are noticing better results, less plaque buildup and healthier gowns. The last thing that holistic dentistry does, or not the least, how does that say? The last but not least is diagnosis of neuralgia inducing cavitational osteonecrosis or nicos. A lot of you know them by cavitations and what's the problem with these is the fact that it's bacteria that's lodged inside your jawbone that can cause you to have all kinds of neurological symptoms, especially brain fog, headaches and pain in the teeth. Very important to recognize these cavitations is something that I do quite a bit of and they can be as a result of root canal therapy. We all have to be aware, at least in holistic dentistry, how root canal therapy that is now leaking with bacteria can affect one's overall health. So in this podcast you can really look forward to hear a lot more about all these things that I mentioned, really in depth and how basically your mouth is going to be affected by traditional dentistry, what you can do about it, tools and tips on natural oral health at home and really how to seek a healthier way of dentistry so you can feel better overall. Holistic practices give us a better appreciation for the influences of dental condition and materials can have on the human body. We want to achieve a higher quality of care overall. That's really the goal of holistic dentistry because we know through holistic dentistry we can increase your level of well being. So thank you for joining me and I really look forward to bring you the best then the latest cutting edge technology tips and we're going to have also people that are going to be invited guests to talk about what's hot in the microbiome world, in the biocompatible materials and also functional medicine practitioners to show you how we can work together better. See you next time. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please make sure you check out the show notes for any links mentioned in the show. If you like today's show, please invite your friends to listen as well. That would mean a lot to me. Do you have a question you'd like me to answer? Message me on instagram and @doctor sandha. 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.