Bridging Holistic Dentistry and Energy Therapies for Whole-Body Wellness

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.

Welcome to today's show. I'm your host, doctor Sandhya. I'm here with doctor Linda Makuta.

Fabulous to be here.

Yeah. I'm so excited that you joined me today to talk about holistic dentistry.

Fantastic.

And, you know, we've known each other now for a few years.

Over 10 years now.

Yes. And we've been seeing mutual patients together. And I'm so excited to share, you know, because every one of us as holistic dentists has a certain way of the way we look at things and how we utilize different modalities and healing. So I'm so excited that you're here to share your modality and what's unique to you. And you also work. You know, we work so close now. We used to share the same office, and now we've grown and you're literally down the hall, which is awesome. When you started in dentistry? Early.

Yes. 1985. I was a dental assistant for dentist here in Tarana.

Okay.

Nanda Valley. And I knew very early. I knew probably by age 5 I was going to be a dentist. It just makes my attention so.

Yeah, yeah, that's great that you got that experience from the back. And then at what point did you say, okay, once you were a dental assistant, did you already know? You said that you want to be a dentist?

I already knew. So it was feline to get through school. Going through college was like a hoop to jump through before I could really study what I am passionate about, which was teeth and health. And dentistry is fascinating because you. You don't just work on people's teeth in their mouths. You have access to their whole health. And I noticed that my patients see me at least twice a year, if not four times a year. So I can really track how they're doing and then give them hints and. And ideas and recommendations to improve their health.

Yes, that's. That's super important. And, you know, when we talk about what's holistic. Right. There's so many different varieties of holistic dentists out there. So it's good to mention that, like, exactly what we do, you know, we kind of look for the mouth to improve the entire body that's why we.

Get a lot the same way.

But a lot of patients calling, you know, they mention, oh, you know, I just, I need to see a holistic dentist. But they really don't have an idea what that really is.

Right. So from my perspective is being a holistic dentist means I take into account their whole being, their physical health. I check on my mental health, anxiety, stress level, we check on spiritual health. Even my practice, there's a spiritual component to why people get ill or why they have problems, and we touch on that as well because we're looking at the whole patient holistically. Right. So that's, that's all encompassed in how I practice dentistry.

And, yeah, that's, that's so important, the spiritual aspect and the stress levels. And I think in general, when we went to dental school, we never touched.

On those, not so much. And we were very. We were taught very clinically. Like, we did the gross anatomy. We knew about pharmacology. Like, huge, you know, emphasis on, you know, the different drugs your patients might be taking are, you know, nerves and muscles and everything, but not so much the mental and spiritual perspective.

Yes, absolutely. And how, how do patients react when you ask them about their spiritual practice? Or are they surprised?

Some of them don't understand? Like, what do you mean? Yeah, so I'll talk about grounding, I'll talk about touching earth, about a meditation, things like that, to help with your stress levels. But also it, it, it brings in that spirit and how that needs to have at least some balance in their life. So some people leave saying this was more thorough than any physician I've ever gone to for. So, yes, we'll do the deep dive to see where people can get better balance.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's such an important thing. And it dates back to Greek times. They used to treat the body, mind.

And spirit, the whole.

That's right, yes. And we're all energy. And I love that you have this energy background, and a lot of people don't know that about.

Right, that's true. So I started studying energy therapy back in 1992. I had a teacher, her name is Sensei Fumi Akutagawa, and she was actually a etiquette for Japanese stuff that my parents wanted me to study. And. And she said to me, linda, you need to study this. And along with my etiquette classes, I was studying energy therapies. And she had a chi machine. And I didn't get to work with the Qi machine, but I was very familiar with Qi and prana and the Ideas behind reiki. And so 1992. So fast forward to 2000. I found a chi machine that was just like the one that my teacher had, and it was being used in veterinary medicine. Wow, people. And then fast forward to us meeting in, I guess the early 2000 and tens. You had a T machine. Yes, and I brought it with me.

Awesome.

The. My house.

Yes.

And you introduced me to the T machine. And then I'm like, we're gonna be friends.

Right.

So I did the deep dive with the company that makes this machine, NES Health, Nest Health. And it really blended together traditional Chinese medicine and energy therapy. And to me, that was fascinating. So I studied all that and really understood pemf. So pulsated electromagnetic frequencies.

Yes.

This is the machine I actually use in my office as a PEMF machine. And you were mentioning it also has the. The microcurrent frequencies as well.

And for those of people listening who they might say, what in the world is a chi machine? What does chi even mean?

Okay, so because everything is energy, the way I describe this to my patients is if you take every single person down to the molecular level, it's just a electron with maybe spinning protons and neutrons. It's just a ball of energy. So qi is your energy that you could be born with or that you need to make life animated happen. So chi can also be considered prana. Different idea, but it's the same energy. It's your life force energy.

Yeah. So can somebody change this chi?

Absolutely.

Great. Yeah. So one of the things that and I love also about, you know, PMF and microcurrent, because we are, as you said, all energy. We can absorb energy.

Right.

And we can change our energetic, I guess, wavelength, for lack of a better word, using different modalities, such as this. My health machine.

Right. So I also mentioned to my patients that you have bad energy, like really high levels of radiation or, you know, like cell towers, cell phone radiation, microwave radiation, radio waste, certain radiations and energies, because you can't see it. You can't see the WI fi floating in the air. Right. But it is affecting us energetically. So let's put in a good energy. That' the opposite end of the spectrum of the bad energy to enhance our health.

Yeah. Makes total sense. Because why, if you don't have good Qi or good energy, you're not going to heal. And no matter what any dentist does, whether it's like a root canal or, you know, an extraction implant, it just won't heal well. So how do you utilize this device? For some of your patients.

So for some of my patients, if they have. In relationship to dentistry, specifically for temporary joint disorder or inflammatory responses in the teeth or the mouth, I use that. You actually just. You just like wave it around.

Yes.

You can do it on, you know, with the microcurrent, I end up just waving around and it allows the body to adjust, put energy in the area to allow it to heal and then we get a good result. Especially post surgical reduction in pain. It's. It's very helpful. Someone who has had wisdom teeth extractions who are struggling with pain and they don't want to take maybe an opiate or they want to reduce their amount of medications. This without anything else will absolutely reduce pain.

Yes.

That's great.

I also love it. Also for neurological things. I know I had a patient that actually had an injection, just like a normal injection at the dentist and I'm numbing injection. And she had some kind of, you know, this esthesia where she was feeling weird things in that nerve. And I remember training her for like, this was years ago, I want to say 10, 15 minutes, and she had 90% improvement in her.

Amazing what it does. Yes. And there's no injection. There's no possibility of allergic reaction. There's no, you know, there's no downside to it. Really.

Yes. Yeah. Excellent. So do you see that patients want to like, maybe say, oh, you know what? I think I can find one of these online and I can buy it. Do you think they work the same?

There's different brands online. Actually, I go on ebay and find different PEMF machines. I like this one. I think it's very elegant. This particular machine has multiple modalities. I use it personally a lot, especially when I travel.

Yes.

Air travel mode. When you go up in high elevation, there's more radiation.

Yeah.

Galactic radiation. That happens. So to have that protection is really fabulous. But I don't know if there are other ones out there. There's probably a few, which is. I haven't done the research on them.

It plus the settings in it, it has settings for soft tissue, for joints, for bone, I think even for teeth or, you know, certain. Because different organs and tissue types of different frequencies.

Absolutely, yeah.

And you have other. You brought another gadget which I.

This is called Charge of the braking. So I'll see if that'll turn on. This is called the wave watch and it has the latest version, this is an older version, has over a thousand different categories that you can use to heal a certain illness.

Wow.

For a Certain issue or problem and it is using to pick self care. Let's, let's say you're, you have anxiety. I'm going to turn the volume up on this a little bit. Maybe it's not a good one. Let's see if I can figure.

So the anxiety frequency there basically just calms down the nervous system.

This is sort of fights and bee stings. It's just one. I thought you can hear it. It's like that's very loud right now. It just needs to be sub auditory. So just a very small like low vibration. And what it does is it has the vibration of a healthy vibration that is associated with the ailment that you're trying to help. And it's a way where when your body energetically picks up on that vibration, your body naturally shifts to match that vibration and then allows a healing process to happen.

I love that. So I mean in dentistry I'm sure you have patients that are stressed out sitting in the chair.

When I use pretty much, pretty much I have patients that will come in with a certain problem. They're like, oh, I'm having knee pain, I'm having an injury pain. And I will say let's set this up so that you have some help healing. And so while they're getting their teeth treated, I can have this on their wrist and it does its work and they leave feeling better. It's, it's quite, it's quite amazing. And I saw the same thing with this. I beg treat patients for pain with this and their pain management is just.

So much better without medications, without side effects.

Exactly.

Yeah.

Natural.

Yeah. I love that we're talking about this topic because I don't, we don't spend enough time talking about energy healing and we are all energy and it's something that's really, is within us so we will react to it. It's impossible not to.

Exactly, yeah, exactly. And it's very interesting that we both like to combine our dentistry with the energy side.

Yes.

Is very unique and different and does make us stand out a little bit. But it keeps my passion in dentistry even more because we have that ability to connect very closely to our patients.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, lasers, low level healing, red light therapy. And you know the good thing for those of you listening, you can buy some of these and utilize them. You don't necessarily have to, you know, find a dentist that uses them. So like a wave watch for example.

Absolutely. It is. None of these are particularly inexpensive though they are an investment. However, I think the investment is well Worth it. The amount of things that you can heal on your own is. It's. There's so many things.

Yeah, absolutely. And now I think more than ever, we're taking health into our own hands and really, you know, doing our research how we can heal better. I see a lot of patients coming in already with. They already know so much. So I think that's a good idea for everybody to. To, you know, help themselves and be prepared.

I do think that it's important that people have their own information and choose what's in their own best interest because they know their bodies the best themselves.

Yes, definitely. So then he actually did a fellowship with the America. Like, general dentistry.

Yeah, starting with them. So it's more of the didactics of, like, more mainstream dentistry because things change often enough and frequently enough that I like to just stay informed as fast as possible.

Absolutely. And for some of you and I also are alike, because it's important to, you know, see both sides. Okay, traditional dentistry, what are we looking at? What are the materials, the science behind it? And. Okay, then how does it affect the big picture that we have to be, you know, learning from? Yeah, both sides. So what is your philosophy, just in general, like, with. With a healthy mouth, let's say, when patients come to you, like, how should they take care of things and of their body in order to kind of preserve their beautiful smile over time?

Oh, that's a good question. Kind of broad. I really like to bring into mind people's. Because they've already had a healthy mouth and they're generally doing the right thing. I like to give people other ideas like nutritional counseling and grounding techniques. Are they drinking enough water? Where are they sourcing their water? Are they drinking fluoridated water? Are they drinking, you know, fresh, you know, clean water? How's their sleep go over? Sleep issues? Are you waking up? Are you only getting four hours of sleep a night? Why are you getting four hours of sleep a night? So in my practice, we touch on all of those issues. Are you exercising your body? I'll look at people's tongues and their fingernails and see, you know, are there lymphatics working? Are they stagnant? Do they have good liver function? Good sugar regulation? That's been a really big one lately. Is liver function and insulin possible? Insulin resistance coming up. I've just really healthy people, too. So, yeah, I touch on all of those things in my practice. It's because it's all connected.

Yeah, absolutely. And you bring up a good one. So, for example, the insulin resistance we know that there's going to be an increase in inflammation when it comes to oral health, especially gum health. For those of you listening, thinking, well, how is insulin resistant and my liver function related to my mouth? Yeah, yeah.

So. So if you think of the inflammation like, so. So let's say you were talking about someone who has a chronic periodontal disease. That inflammatory response in your mouth goes down to the rest of the body. But then how does it do that? It does it by the inflammatory markers and the bacteria. And the bacteria, toxins. All your lymphatics go all the way through your face and then it drains down your neck. So when you have those toxins constantly coming from your mouth and draining to the rest of your body, it's going to affect your lymphatics, your liver, your, you know, your elimination pathways. So. Absolutely. There's a huge connection.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. For the longest time, too, the mouth was so separated from the rest of the body. And even today, unfortunately, I wish there was a better communication between all dentists and all physicians treating the same patient. If we can have some hub or some cloud, you know, where we can all communicate, that'd be great. Maybe it's coming. I don't know.

That's really innovative because I was just talking to another physician who was about to prescribe a bisphosphonate or osteoporosis for someone who has chronic gun problems. And we're considering. Okay, is it at the point where we're going to do extractions and implants? And if she got on the bisphosphonates, I would be very uncomfortable having her go through surgeries like that. I don't know what you think about systemic.

Yes, I agree. You bring up a good topic. The bisphosphonate market right now is in the billions. There's so millions and millions of prescriptions out there. Bisphosphonates. And it can affect. It does affect bone metabolism. We know that. And once it's in your system, it stays there.

There needs to be more talk between physicians and the.

Yes. Because they should say, hey, go to see your dentist. Do you have any problems before I do this prescription? But that's not the norm, unfortunately.

I think that needs to change.

Yeah, yeah. And why is that? For those of you listening, what are bisphosphonates like? You might have seen, like, the commercials on Boniva, you know, Sally Fields, I know, did this, like, whole commercial.

Right.

Good. She feels on Boniva. But the problem with Boniva is once you take it for osteoporosis and now they have so many other different names that are out there.

Fungus actin. Yeah.

Yes. There's some injectable ones. Probio. Yes. Yes. And what's happening? It prevents your bone from healing. So we're seeing more of basically dead bone in the mouth, sometimes just sloughing off. Let's say if you have wear a denture or partial denture and it's rubbing against the gum, it could actually cause bone nickname process. Don't even have to have a procedure necessarily in order to see that. Yeah. I was actually talking to a dentist. He said, oh, I've seen five cases of osteonecrosis of the. In the. Yeah. Just in the last two, three years. So.

And it's. And you can't heal from that. Yeah, it's very difficult.

Yes. Luckily, as holistic dentist, we have also. Yeah. So we can help people with. With these kind of situations. But there's so many different ways to improve bone health and bone density.

Absolutely.

Than going straight for the medication. And by the way, if you look at the research for the bisphosphonates, after seven years, it actually increases the risk of fracture.

Right. So it's no longer protective. Exactly. So the bone is dense, but you need to have some flexibility in the bone to allow for regular normal growth and remodeling. And it does not allow for.

Yes, definitely. I love chatting with you, bringing up such good topics. I've never even talked about these things all together. Yeah, that's true. I think your practice is so special in the way you incorporate different things which they don't have any other substitutes, like the energy things you're using or, you know, your approach to talking about nutrition. I think that's great. Anything in related to, let's say, how do you deal with. With explaining to people, like the benefits of some of your treatments that you do.

A lot of my patients are already looking for the outside the box ideas. So when I break it down and I explain how it works, why it works, what is the benefit and I just have an open discussion. I do send a lot of patients. I'm like, do your Google research, get your Google DDS a little bit and find out if what I am recommending does match for you. There's only so many hours in the day and so many minutes in an appointment. So I make my recommendations, we had a discussion and people want to do more research than they can and they come back and.

Yeah. And do you start with. Let's say somebody comes with a mouthful of problem, like how do you sequence things or the.

Well, I. The periodontal health is the most basic. Like, Dr. Song is like, so fabulous at the office. But I just make sure you're going to keep your teeth first, not going to build a house on a weak foundation. So, like, I know we think alike on this. The periodontal health is primary. That's how I sequence first. That becomes the first thing that's taken care of. And then unless there's something catastrophic like you're. You've got infection and you're gonna, like, you know, have an airway obstruction, then that will take precedence. But generally it's going to be making sure the foundation is good and then building from there. Even aesthetics. Aesthetics will come. I treat multi modality. So we have different surgeons, different orthodontics and things to put teeth in proper alignment. I work with myofunctional therapy for tongue health, tongue strength, and tongue tie issues. So everything is taken into consideration.

Yeah.

Nice.

You're also a provider for clear liners.

Yes.

So you do clear liner therapy, meaning, you know, straightening.

Yes. So straightening. I will do that. More from a aesthetic perspective, as opposed to full occlusion perspective. If it's something complicated, I do, yes. Good people to work with.

Yeah, I agree. I do the same thing. That's something that it's good to work with multiple specialists, right? For sure. Yeah. And what are some of the tools you give patients or some of the things that you like for home care for your patients?

Let's see. I do generally just work with a soft toothbrush. Super soft. I do like electrical toothbrushes and water picking and things like that. Water flosser. So. So things like, you know, this kind of normal home care, just being really present. When you do it, though, some people rush and it's just. It's like a simple fix. Just put your brain at the end of your toothbrush while you're brushing for that two minutes so that you're just really present and you know that you're getting everything clean. Most people are brushing, you know, what am I cooking for dinner? What time do I pick up the kids? Am I missing an appointment? What's next at work? And they're. They're checked out, but if they're really present, it's. It makes a difference. Mindful brushing, mindful brush.

I love it. Very good. What do you see the future of, you know, our profession or where would you like it to go?

No, that's a. That's a big question.

Yeah. I often think about this, Linda, because I feel like it's such an opportunity for the new generation of dentists to. To understand the whole wellness aspect of how much more there is to dentistry than just drilling teeth. And like, for me, I would love to see us like you and I educating more and more of the younger generation so they, they can see the difference. Because when we finish school, we really don't know much. I remember being like, I was like, yeah, okay, I learned the basic. But it's really. I think my growth came after I finished my heart.

Sensei, that's a good. The future of dentistry. Maybe like you had brought up earlier, the collaboration between different healthcare providers would be really fantastic. Just to have to be able to speak with other people in medicine to say, hey, there's a connection between teeth and the body and it needs to be addressed. So I think for future, I'd like to see more collaboration between different practitioners.

Yes, absolutely. I agree with you. Anything else you want to mention that, you know, we haven't touched upon?

No, I just. I really appreciate our friendship together. I think, I find, I find Dr. Sonda to be absolutely inspirational. It's just been a pleasure to know you and work together and, and I just hope that continues for many, many years to come.

It definitely will. I feel the same about you and I'm blessed to know you and thank you for coming on the show and sharing your knowledge and where can people find you?

Oh, I am. My office is located in encino. I'm in 5400 Balboa Blvd and if you want to look me up on the Internet, it's. My website is linda y makuta dds.com that's L I N D A Y M A K U T A D S dot com.

Thanks everyone for joining us. 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@.com Dr. 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.