Preserving Your Smile with a Healthy Microbiome

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. Welcome to today's episode on the holistic dentistry show. Today's topic is the professional dental hygiene, but in a much better, more therapeutic way. Do you hate the scrapers or maybe getting your teeth cleaned because it's painful? Well, today's show is going to uncover a way for you to really enjoy dental cleanings, to experience a spa for your teeth. But also how have that therapy that's anti cavity, anti inflammatory. On today's show, my special guest is Deena Patel. She's the NF hygienist at Beverly Hills Dental Health and Wellness. For several years. She's in both the Beverly Hills and the Newport beach location. Bina, welcome to the show.

Thank you. Thank you for having me.

Dr. Moldovan, I'm really excited to talk to you today about the concept of dental cleanings. Because, you know, dental cleanings, people just think of scraping automatically, right? But. But things changed a lot since, you know, you and I went to school. Tell me a little bit about you, though, and how, how you started on the hygiene path and. And what you looked as a hygienist.

Okay, so I went to school about seven years ago. I graduated from West Coast University. We learned a lot about laser therapy, periodontal bacteria. Everything that you think you would want to learn in school, we learned. But when it comes to holistic dentistry, it's a whole new world. And those were things that I learned working with you at Beverly Hills Dental Health and Wellness.

So how have things changed since you went to school? You mentioned that things are different now. So how. What. What kind of concepts are different for you?

So looking at different the mouth, not just as the mouth, but looking at it as the entryway to the rest of the body, that was big for me. I had to relearn a lot to really understand that as well. You know, we learn about periodontal bacteria, but we don't use the word microbiome or we don't think about looking at the health of the tongue and how that can give us answers to what's going on in the gut. Those things I've learned over time and not in school.

Yeah, I mean, even for me, Bina, like, it was really Eye opening. When I started to look at the research coming out for the different bacteria and how it affects our health. Right. And in our practice, you know, we do a salivary test. Basically, you know, anybody who comes in with inflammation or even inflammation in the body doesn't have to be in the mouth because what happens in the mouth is systemic, it's normal, and just looking like brain fog or inflammation or joint pain. We know that some of this oral bacteria can actually cause these symptoms.

Right. Or it can be a sign of it, too.

Sabina, tell me a little bit about how you use the saliva test, you know, the different bacterial strains. How do you use that information to determine the course of treatment for your patients?

So we look at the bacteria that comes back on the oral DNA results and we compare it to what we see on the health history and when we see the correlation with the bacteria. And, you know, if some patients have GI issues, we see certain levels of bacteria that are higher. Patients that have, you know, trouble with memory, brain fog, all that we've seen come up on the oral DNA test. So it really allows us to understand the patient a little bit better and it allows us to do a more. Create a more thorough treatment plan for them.

Yeah, so. So the whole idea in testing oral bacteria is to help someone actually with their longevity, with their optimum health. That's really the amazing power that you have as a practitioner, is to help people who have brain fog, people who have joint pain, get better. We're going to go more into the way that we do a full mouth detoxification in our practice. But at the core of that, as well as at the core of every single hygiene maintenance visit, that in our office is the airflow ozone therapy. So what is airflow? Tell us what that is and how you would describe it to a patient.

It's a treatment that we have for our patients. For all of our patients that come in, we use erythritol ozone water, and the water warms up. So anyone who has sensitive teeth, they don't need to worry about cold water shooting at their teeth. So when we use that, we don't have to scrape as much anymore, just because that's what's removing the staining, the plaque, the stuff you spend time polishing traditionally or scraping off, we don't, we don't need to do anymore because the airflow takes care of that. And it's also an anti inflammatory, anti cavity treatment as well. So we use that to debride the tongue to really get rid of the bacteria that Make a home on the tongue, the roof of the mouth, the cheeks, all of that. So it's not just the treatment for the teeth, but it really does take care of the whole oral cavity.

You bring a good point here because traditionally, when you go to the dentist, the cleaning teeth. Right. Scraper, they're taking their polisher with a pumice. Let's polish the teeth. Yeah. Because all I guess they're zooming in on is the plaque on the teeth. But the truth of the matter is that 60% of the bacteria lies on the surface of the tongue. So for those of you especially that, you know, you stick your tongue out and you notice there's that white coating, there's a lot of fungal microorganisms that, you know, you're actually swallowing, and that is actually unhealthy for your GI tract. So when you do an airflow ozone therapy, you're taking care of the entire oral cavity. As you said, the cheeks also have a lining of bacteria. And through this guided biofilm therapy that was developed by the airflow company, that is the whole notion behind it. It's like, let's wipe off the biofilm so we rebuild it in a healthy way. Completely different than what is taught in schools.

Exactly. Very, very different. And it's very nice because it actually penetrates below the gum line too. So, yes, it's taking care of what we see, but it's also addressing things that we cannot see, which is the bacteria below the gum line and around implants crowns. That is actually, lots of information has come up showing that that's more beneficial than scraping an implant or a crown. So it has a lot of great benefits.

Yeah. And what's interesting is, like in the 12 micron particle, the erythritol can really get around all the grooves. And of course, the implant is exposed. If people have peri implantitis or an infection around an implant, the erythritol actually can get in the grooves of the implant, which is just microns, and take off the plaque, the biofilm, so the tissue can get healthier. That's the nice thing about it. Now, when compared erythritol airflow versus tooth polisher, you know, with a pumice. What are your thoughts about that?

So I've done both, obviously, polishing. I feel like we're just polishing the acid from the staining into the. The tooth structure. So I feel that at the end of the. Yeah, we're removing the staining, but at the end of the day, we're actually harming the tooth structure. Whereas with the airflow, it's gently removing the staining with the pressure of the. The air, the water, the ozone water, the erythritol. It's definitely a lot more comfortable than just having somebody putting so much pressure with a rubber cup onto the tooth. And I think it just. It does it in a quicker way, too, without it causing damage to the tooth. So.

So speaking of it does it faster, like how? Obviously you're very thorough in your. In your therapy, but somebody with, like, you know, without gum disease, you know, with full dentition, what long does it take for you to really do an airflow ozone therapy Compared to the old traditional way?

I would say about 20, 20, 30 minutes, tops.

And how long would it take you with a scaler?

Probably 45 minutes to an hour.

Yeah. And let's face it, who wants to sit longer in the dental chair than they have?

Not a lot of people, but here they would love to spend time on the chair.

That's right, because you know, that 20, 25 minutes, you're actually more thorough. And there's videos on YouTube about this, how, you know, doing airflow therapy is actually a lot faster at cleaning the plaque than the scaler will ever be, no matter how good of a scaler you are.

Exactly.

Yeah. Yeah. So let's. Let's move on to ozone. Ozone is a big part of our practice and a big part of any holistic dental practice. And in my opinion, if a practice is not using ozone, they are not holistic.

I agree.

But tell me your. How are you using ozone in your everyday dental cleanings?

So we do ozone insufflation to start the whole treatment. I kind of. I like to start with this first, just because I always explain to the patient that before we start messing around with the plaque and bacteria in the mouth, they understand that the. That bacteria is being transferred into our body systemically. So when we use ozone prior to doing anything, we're reducing the amount of bacteria that we're ingesting during a dental appointment. So that's something that we love to start with. Also ozonated water. Anytime we're rinsing the patient out, any. Any kind of water we're using, it's all ozonated water. So it gives you a peace of mind knowing you're not ingesting all that bacteria.

Absolutely. And you know, Beena, is, besides the ingestion, my concern always with patients, especially those that have, you know, heart issues, stents, artificial joints, is the actual entrance of the bacteria into. In the circulation in the blood. There's been studies done at the VA and we do know within 10 minutes of a dental cleaning, there's an increase of bacteremia or increase of bacterial level in the blood. So we know bacterial circulates. And I, you know, I love what you're doing. This is something that you kind of implemented yourself in the practice. To start with ozone gas, which is what ozone insufflation is, using gas to break up the biofilm. And, and what happens? Actually, the ozone molecule destroys the biofilm on contact. It doesn't take 10 minutes. And the way that ozone does this is really. It breaks up bacterial walls, so it helps. It makes the bacteria burst. Not just bacteria, by the way. Fungus and other microorganisms that might be living in the mouth, sometimes even parasites, but doesn't discriminate. So besides the ozone gas, you're also using ozone water, correct?

Yes, we are.

How are you incorporating that?

We are using that in the airflow system that we're. We start the patient off with also with a piezo that is also shooting out water. So that's all ozonated water. Anytime we're rinsing the patient out, it's all ozonated water. And then at the end, if they'd like to swish with the ozone water, we allow them to do that too. If they bring in their night guard or their retainers. After we clean it in the ultrasonic, we always rinse it out with ozone water and give it back to the patient. So anytime we can use water, it's. It's ozonated water.

Yeah. I mean, it's the best decontaminant and biofilm destroyer that we have. And we cannot escape biofilms. We just want to detoxify. And your biofilm will help to grow back, you know, in. In a healthy manner. That's really the goal of inflated biofilm therapy?

Yes.

What kind of patient story can you share with us? You know, somebody maybe who, who got used to biofilm therapy? What's the patient's reaction usually?

Well, I mean, it always starts off with, I haven't been to the dentist in 10 years or 20 years, whatever it is. And it's because of the dental anxiety and fear that they have and the pain that comes with scraping and, and learning that you have an infection or whatever the fear might be. But we've had several patients that have, you know, after a long time and after, you know, experiencing airflow at the end of the treatment, they're just like, oh, that was it. That's it, we're not doing anything else. No scraping. And it's really rewarding to see that. It makes for a great patient experience, but it also creates a very rewarding experience for me as a clinician to be able to play a part in that and having them come back regularly every three to four months and having them be excited to even come back for their appointment. So, yeah, we've had a lot of patients that enjoy coming in now.

Great. Speaking of being gentle and quick. Right. Not being unexpected. Had a patient that came in and they said, I don't think you are thorough enough. You didn't? Because I didn't feel the scraping. Have you ever had that happen?

No, never.

Yeah. Because who really looks forward to having the heavy scraping? But I've had a couple of patients actually told me I like the heavy scraping because I feel my teeth are clean. And unfortunately, that's a habit that's bad, that needs to be untrained. But those of you that think that if you're being scraped heavily, you're getting a better cleaning, you are mistaken. When you're being scraped heavily, what happens.

Veena, you are disrupting the tooth structure. Our teeth are made of, you know, hydroxyapatite, essentially, and it's a crystalline structure. So you're scraping parts of the enamel off over time. It's actually not the way you want to do your cleanings. And it's not something that you should get used to either.

Yeah. I actually recently had a patient in his 60s. He actually came to me because he's periodontist, retired, and when I look at his teeth, he had severe recession. His roots were showing and they were all hourglass shaped. Well, basically the height he was going in every three months for his cleaning and the hygienist was scraping so hard that she thinned out the roots. And in the front they were all hourglass shaped. And as a matter of fact, I had to replace two of them with dental implant because they died.

Wow.

So, yes, you can have trauma from a dental cleaning. And from a biological perspective, I highly. We highly recommend not to do that. And even for those of you who are hygienists, listening to this show, scraping harder doesn't mean you're giving a better cleaning. It's about having the right tools to ensure that you're not traumatizing these vital organs in our mouth, which they are organs.

They are. Yep.

Let's talk about. You mentioned calcium hydroxyapatite.

Yes.

That's the structure that the tooth is made out of. In our holistic dental practice. We don't use fluoride for treatment.

We like nanohydroxyapatite. That's our best friend.

Well, yeah, because it mimics the enamel. You were mentioning earlier that the enamel is made out of calcium hydroxyapatite is the crystalline structure of the tooth that if you're going to mineralize teeth and, and why would somebody mineralize their teeth? One might have micro cracks.

Right. Sensitivity staining, just maintaining the overall health of, of the teeth. Really? Yeah.

Even the staining been. I think one important thing for people to know is that when your teeth stain easily, your enamel is porous.

That's right.

And you can actually do something about that. So what are some of the tools or tricks you give patients in order to mineralize their, you know, to help strengthen their teeth?

So I always recommend the mineralizing powder that we have here and I explained to them that it helps to really close up the pores that are exposed in our teeth. So products that have nano hydroxyapatite already in them are very important in remineralizing the tooth structure. Anytime you're having anything acidic, like coffee, tea, wine, oranges, ketchup, anything like that, I always recommend having water in between those sips or in between anything that you're eating that might be acidic. Using a straw whenever you can. And for people who say, you know, they don't want plastic, we can use glass straws for hot drinks. It does not happen plastic. But yeah, those are the tips that I usually give.

Yeah. Now in terms of frequency of getting your dental clean, teeth cleaning, I know a lot of people say, you know what, I'm just going to go in whenever I, you know, once a year. And what is your recommendation?

I recommend, I mean every three to four months I think is a really good base timeline to, to go with. We have patients that come in every month and that's how much they love the airflow. But I would say every three to four months, the whole six month to a year thing, it's just not sustainable. I don't think it's really healthy for your teeth, your gums and your body in general. That is just an insurance scam, I believe. But every three to four months I, I feel like would be a good routine to maintain.

Yeah, absolutely. We should definitely not base our decisions on, on the insurance. And they're only pay for two cleanings a year. And people think, well, that's the right way. No, Right, Yeah. It is not good to detoxify your mouth, you know, in a healthy way by coming for your hygiene therapy right now, it's dangerous. If somebody wants to come in, come in monthly, then that hurts them for. With the airflow.

With traditional cleaning, yes, but with the airflow, not at all. Not at all. We are not scraping away tooth structure and enamel. So once a month it's totally safe.

Yeah. And, and you know the one thing that I love about airflow and that is actually been some studies that erythritol actually whitens teeth. And who doesn't want to white a smile? Number one. But to actually get the therapy that's anti cavity and whiten the teeth without the abrasiveness, that's pretty amazing. So anybody that you know basically smoking, right. You have those smoker stains, maybe people that just don't have good dexterity to clean their teeth at home. Coming in monthly for your hygiene visit is absolutely okay.

Definitely. Okay.

Any other tips that you want to give our listeners regarding either, you know, dental hygiene or oral health?

Yeah, I would love to just put out there that flossing is very important every night, every morning, if you can. But every night definitely will really help keep your gums nice and healthy. Keep your teeth from staining in between even. Also so fleas floss, use a water flosser, use string floss, whatever you can get your hands on. I would just recommend that to be something you don't overlook ever.

Yes, that is really a great tip, Bina. There have been actually some studies to show that if you're actually flossing, you're lengthening your life. And we really believe that goes back to the microbiome, the mal toxification, having a healthier mouth. So for those of you definitely that are having a problem with string floss, cause your hands are big, you can't get back there. Use a water flosser.

Yep.

And learn how to use it correctly. Of course, either tool that needs to be had a little training. And you can go to our website or my YouTube channel at AskDoctor Sandattu for tips and tricks on how to floss or water floss.

And we will certainly show you when you're here too.

Absolutely. Well, Bina, I want to thank you so much for sharing your thoughts with our listeners and really presenting to us a new way of dental hygiene in the dental office. And I'm really hoping that we can convince a lot of the holistic practices or the regular dental practices to go this route because there's a lot of research on the airflow therapy, on ozone and mouth detoxification and how important it is to keep a resilient microbiome, right?

Yeah, me too. Me too. And we hope to see you guys very soon at either of our locations.

Have a good day, everyone, and see you on the next show. 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'd 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. Doctorsanda, 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.