Transforming Dentistry: The Journey to Biological Practices With Dr. Ben Javid

Hi everybody. I'm Dr. Sanda 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 Hi everyone. Welcome to another episode on the Holistic Dentistry Show. I'm your host, Dr. Sanda, integrative periodontist and nutritionist. And with me today, I have a fellow biological dentist, Dr. Ben Javid. Welcome to the show, Ben.

Sanda, thank you for having me.

It's my pleasure. And I'm so excited to talk, teach with you, so to speak. But I want to hear first your story. So your practice is, by the way, Smile Body. It's in Santa Clarita, California, which is about, I want to say, 30 minutes north of Los Angeles. And you finished your dental school at UOP. And what happened after that? How did you discover the world of biological dentistry? Because, you know, on our show we have consumers, but we also have dentists and hygienists that are listening and thinking, you know what, this resonates with me. How can I get started? So I really want to dive a little bit into your story of how you got here.

Well, right after dental school, actually going into dental school, I was very passionate about dentistry and I really wanted to be the best possible dentist. You know, even in dental school, I was, you know, I was, had an artistic side of me and had a science background and so on and so forth. And I'm like, you know, I want to be the best possible dentist and clinician. You know, so I came out super confident out of UOP, then realized I didn't know anything. So then it's the same, like a lot of times that's what I also—

Oh, I know what you mean.

And then from there, started a lot of CEs constantly, just constant full mouth reconstruction from Spears and all the Kois and all the, everything from perio to endo. I did CB Cannon, did, so I constantly started doing implants and started doing Conscious sedation and started doing everything under the book as far as dentistry. And I wanted to be doing everything at the specialist level. My brother and my, which is my partner also, we were partners. We were just partners at all these CE courses and, you know, just constantly going to courses.

Did you go to school together?

No, 7 years apart. So he was ahead of me. He was already a dentist before I went to dental school. But when I got out, we were just constantly going to everything together. So, you know, it, and we were just mainstream dentists, you know, but we were trying to do it at a high level, got into very much, I love the artistic side. So I do a lot of cosmetic dentistry and it was fun and we had a beautiful impact in people's lives with cosmetic dentistry and affecting people's oral health, which is awesome. You know, like nothing wrong with mainstream dentistry, except, you know, you start to realize there is more, you know, my personal journey, I started doing personal development, Tony Robbins, and started reading books on all aspects of personal development. And that got me to ask more questions beyond what we were taught in dental school, beyond what we were taught at these CE courses. And, you know, learning more about nutrition, how that's the basis of, you know, our overall health.

Tony Robbins is big on this. You know, he talks about nutrition. He has a supplement company. Yes.

That's really where the start of my nutrition Really knowledge. It was when I went to UPW about 25 years ago, Unleash the Power Within, which is his entry level. And it was one whole day on nutrition.

Isn't that amazing? I'm curious, not even, I don't think in dental school we get one whole day on nutrition.

No, or medical school for that matter, sadly. Although we're trying to change that.

Yeah. Yes.

So, so, you know, it was great. My brother and I were, got very passionate about You know, nutrition, but we're always into health and fitness and wellness and, you know, but nutrition was kind of a missing piece. We didn't know too much, you know, and learned a lot with Tony and then just keep, you're hungry for more.

Did you apply it for yourself? Like stuff you teach things?

Oh yeah. Tony changed our lives, changed the way we ate and changed, you know, changed really direct, made big impact in our day-to-day lives. And, and, you know, that's one of the things about biological dentistry. It's not a craft you learn at a weekend course. It's not placing a dental implant or doing a root canal or any, any, anything you learn in dental school. It's really a way of life. And, and what I learned in those years about health and wellness, even spiritual wellness and everything that kind of made me who I am actually just pushed me in this direction. It wasn't any one thing. It was all of it. And of course you asked me about something that's after my name. It's a degree in sleep medicine.

Yeah. What are those letters again? I have to look them up.

Yeah.

So it's DASBA, everybody.

Yes. So it's a, we, we got interested in sleep medicine and sleep apnea. I got exposed to it at some conference. This is interesting. What can have an effect on people's health?

Did you learn anything about dental school, in dental school about sleep apnea? Yeah. I don't remember learning probably anything.

Which we have a lot of impact on.

Nice.

But, but, uh, but it's, had no idea that we can have an impact on someone's health beyond this space. So this was like a new concept that we can actually do more than repair and replace and, and maybe improve the bite. And you know what our focus was in that realm? We're like, wait, no, we can go past this space and actually we can actually have an impact on someone's overall health. And oh my God, I screened a patient. And found sleep apnea, severe sleep apnea, and saved someone's life because they really, if they kept going, they're— how I, as a dentist, could actually impact someone's life at that level. This was eye-opening. So that was, that was one big shift toward biological dentistry, uh, was sleep apnea.

I love that. Was that hard to learn? You know, as a periodontist, it's not something I dive into, but I know some people, some dentists listening is like, wow, how do I go about learning that? Is that something that took you a long time to master?

Well, you know, there's opportunities. There's these academies, definitely, that have with sleep apnea. There's also that they have very opportunities to learn and be certified. I, we, Sean and I also, besides that, took a residency at UCLA, a 6-month residency, because just like everything else that we did with root canals and cosmetic dentistry, we don't want to do it and half-ass it. We wanted to do it at a high level. So if we're going to do it, you know, learn everything there is information out there on this topic. Of course, the way we do it now is more from a holistic biological perspective than just the mainstream treatment of sleep apnea, which we can get into. But, you know, it overall, it, what it did was a great gift was to open our eyes to our, our more possibilities, how we can impact patients' lives.

I love what you said about, you know, this being more of a journey of learning things along the way. It's not one course that all of a sudden you're going to be a biological dentist. It's really experience. Experiencing life differently and changing the way we practice, transforming it, maybe every year doing something a little different.

So true.

So what is your process now? Let's say a patient comes to your office compared to what it was, right? When you were a traditional dentist.

Or last year.

Or last year. That's today. Maybe when we talk again in a year.

It really is.

Yeah.

Because we're all learning from each other too. And we, and that's one of the wonderful things about biological dentistry. There's You know, our, our, our peers that we all know that we're friends with that are throughout the world, you know, it's a really collaborative approach and we all are learning constantly and we're all humble and know that at the end of the day, we don't know much really. And we're just constantly trying to grow. So our process, our new, is it a new patient process?

Yeah, patient process. Like, you know, how do you come up with to the diagnosis? There's an intake and. You're not, you're not just looking at teeth and all of that.

Yeah. Most of our time spent is not looking at teeth, actually. There's very little, as you, I'm sure for you, it's very little spent time looking at teeth, you know, because we're looking at the whole person and the word holistic is there for a reason because it's, there is really a whole person there. It involves really listening first, you know, really what, what's, what patient is, what their challenges are and really not just their oral care challenges. And that's one of the things that I think There's an important distinction now, and I think we have to charge, start thinking differently in the world of healthcare, which includes oral health, as opposed to it's something that's separate, which has traditionally been very separate. You know, mainstream medicine considers like the head is not attached to the body and it's something totally different and nothing happens here affects the health and vice versa. But what we have to start realizing is this is a whole person. You know, and in what, what's happening in their lives, both in their health challenges and otherwise, is affecting the mouth. And what's happening in the mouth is affecting their overall health. So we have to gather all that information. A lot of listening and talking to patients and understanding their journey, understanding their challenges that they're going through right now. Of course, an integral part of what we do is a cone beam CT scan. You know, I, you know, it's, otherwise we would miss so much and we've missed so much over the years and so many miss so much right now still in dentistry, just doing regular 2-dimensional x-rays.

Yeah, absolutely. I agree. I think the standard of care has to be cone beam CT scans for patients.

I have no argument with anyone that is doing this right now. And unfortunately it's not the standard. Unfortunately people are, you know, we've moved from the films that maybe we grew up with that you dentists would look through the little And then at one point—

to develop, we had a darkroom that developed these films and wait 10 minutes just to figure out that they're not good films.

And then go take it again. Imagine the time wasted. And then, you know, about probably 25 years ago or so, no more, like maybe 30 years ago, we went to digital and it not only reduced the radiation 90%, but made things much more efficient in our world of dentistry. And yes, but even though there's been developments in that world of 2-dimensional digital x-rays, the really, the cone beam CT scan is It's totally changed everything. And we were not using the cone beams, even though we had one in our office, because we did dental implants and we did, and if you were doing dental implants at the time, if you're not taking, doing a cone beam to plan your case, you're below standard of care.

Agreed.

So, but I wasn't really utilizing it for my exams, you know, but at one point, quite a few years ago, I realized that, hey, you know what, every patient that comes through the door, should get a cone beam CT scan. And it just evolves from there. And it's, I can't imagine not taking a cone beam CT scan on a patient to really look for those hidden infections because those hidden infections are key that we're missing in general dentistry, right?

Yes. So you're looking at the jaws on the CT scan. What other things do you look at on a CT scan?

Well, on a cone beam CT scan, you can see Quite a bit, obviously. Besides, obviously bone health, the surrounding teeth, your world of periodontal, we're actually, and you can obviously, you can have a nice broad view of that panoramic x-ray, but of course diving deeper into those jaws around teeth that have had root canals or have not had root canals, you can a lot of times find hidden infections. Or of course, where teeth have been extracted or where tooth buds that never formed. There could be little hidden infections, what we call cavitations or CSRs. And these are the, you know, obviously some of the main sources of toxicities that we look on cone beams for. Of course, a lot of times metals are another thing that will show up. We do telemedicine calls where we're just looking at a cone beam. We, we, I do a lot of telemedicine calls from patients throughout other states and some sometimes outside the states. You know, all we have to go on is that cone beam, and we can find a lot about what's going on. And a lot of times find a root cause of a health issue that they're challenged with, a health issue that no one can figure out why this is. Like, you know, I'm sure you see every day, they've gone to doctor to doctor and, you know, all of a sudden, you know, the root cause was in the jaw.

Yeah. Do you also look at airway? Yeah,

of course. Airway is another thing that it's very, very helpful to address. Obviously, I'm an airway guy. I, you know, you can, it's, it can be helpful to see a potential problem. Of course, we don't diagnose the sleep apnea, for example, from a cone beam CT scan, but you can, there's many factors like a cone beam CT scan or just looking in the mouth. You can find little, little red flags, little flag here, little flag here, and just talking to the patient and ask questions about their sleep and, or even how they are during the day, you know, you find out, yeah, maybe a sleep study is a good idea and see exactly what's happening in their sleep. And so many of that problems they're having from headaches to low energy to brain fog to erectile dysfunction to heart disease, stroke, diabetes, related to sleep. So in fact, actually in one of my lectures, I was researching and I, to, for a slide, and I realized out of the top 10 prescriptions given in the United States, 6 of them are directly related to the symptoms related to sleep apnea.

Wow. I did not know about the statistics. That's pretty incredible. And I'm glad that you mentioned all these conditions because still most people, most patients think dentist helps with teeth, but we can help with overall health and improve the outcome That's

a, that, you know, that's, that what you're, what you're describing, I call collaboration. And I feel that the future of not just dentistry, but healthcare has to be collaborative care. And because obviously there's some wonderful clinicians out there doing amazing things. This weekend, we're surrounded by them, right? There are people doing amazing work, but there are certain things that we do that they can't do. And we have to work collaboratively together. And I think that's a big part of it. very important message to get out there so that, you know, some of the biggest challenges they're having with their patients, if they'll be, if they're working with a really well-trained biological dentist that can, you know, really together find a lot of time the source and the root cause that they're missing. And I know I don't have to convince you of that, but it's the truth and it's something that we are doing on a daily basis. You're doing in your practice and we are as well. Is work collaboratively with another practitioner, medical practitioner of some sort, that they have realized that if they work with us, they're going to get better results.

Yeah. And I hope that the dentists that are listening to this show really understand what you're saying here, because a lot of them are so like practicing on an island, you know, by themselves. And there's so much power in this collaboration and cross-referral and networking. A lot of dentists, you know, are burnt out from digital marketing, you know, trying to get new patients in, but But I actually grew my practice through the power of this collaboration with other physicians so we can help patients thrive. So I really encourage the dentist listening to look more into this whole body wellness dentistry, biological dentistry, in order to incorporate some of this wellness, like airway, nutrition, you know, understanding these things. You don't necessarily, I mean, you're doing amazing things. You have a lot of skill, but some dentists might be listening and being totally intimidated by you. Oh, wow. He's doing cosmetic dentistry and implants and all this, which is really amazing. But just know if you're listening, you don't have to do all these things to be able to collaborate with the physicians.

And, you know, for those people that are, don't know where to start, like you're kind of describing it, a dentist out there that, you know, has been doing, you know, what they know, but knows there's more, but it's kind of scary to chart, go to uncharted territory, you know, and You know, you know what, just, I would just start by asking questions. You know, it's really about, you know, going beyond what we were taught in dental school. And dental school taught us so much. I mean, it's unbelievable what we packed in in those few years.

True.

And, but at the end of the day, unfortunately, sometimes, sometimes dentists get too caught up into just perfecting those skills and not going beyond that. And, but I think we, if we keep asking questions and asking the right questions and surrounding ourselves with people We realize it's not as scary as we might've thought. And we realize that, you know what, it's so much more fulfilling. Our day is going to be so much more fulfilling and we get to enjoy our, what we do so much more.

Yeah. Speaking about fulfillment, can you share with us like one patient case? And I'm sure you have many that, you know, came in, walked in through your doors and what did you do and how What was the outcome of that case?

Well, which one? I mean, a recent one is a patient that was going through the Pompa program. If people that don't know, Dr. Pompa has a program for cellular detox and sees, has coaches from around the country, around the world, and sees patients and helps them detox your body at a cellular level, which is wonderful. We all need that. But also he believes like some forward-thinking practitioners out there that if you want to detox, you also make sure you have to be looking at root cause or root source of a toxicity and address the source. And a lot of times we know the source of toxicity is the mouth. It might be a moldy home or other sources of toxins that are coming in life, but many times it's the mouth because of the dentistry that was done. The dentistry, unfortunately, the dentists of Past generations and even the current generations have introduced a lot of toxicity into many people's mouths and probably caused more autoimmune and chronic health issues, unfortunately, with good intentions, but unfortunately the materials and other things. So obviously when— lost my train of thought.

So you took this patient, came in from Dr. Pompa's program.

So, so she had 3 autoimmune disorders in her 30s, 4 kids. And living a very, very marginal life and very struggling, struggling. She's gone to see countless doctors. She joined the POMPA program and the POMPA program actually helped her to get remission in 2 of the autoimmune disorders by just the steam detox protocols, which is great because honestly, we know the sources of toxicities and these as how, as they build up in our body are really the main sources of the chronic health issues that we're facing.

Yeah.

So finally it was, let's look at the mouth. And we, I, and she was from Rhode Island. We did a telemedicine call and we discussed what we found on the cone beam CT scan. On the cone beam CT scan, I reviewed with her that we found 4 sites of cavitation where there was hidden bony infections. For people that don't know that, but if they're listening to you, they probably know what that is.

Yes.

Yes. And there was 2 titanium implants. Also that, you know, and for us in the biological world, we are, we want to be metal-free for multiple reasons.

Yes, there's a, there's not one study, several studies that show that titanium exacerbates autoimmune disease.

Oh yeah, there's, I mean, don't forget, there's not just titanium in these titanium implants. There's other metals and nickel in particular has been very much linked to autoimmune disorders. So, so, so she came in fluent for, it was very hard for her to make this work. 3 little kids, her and her husband made it work. They came and stayed with us for a week, which is typical that patients stay for a week. And we went through the whole, our optimal healing protocol that we do that involves hyperbarics and IVs and using light therapies before and after surgery and during with as long as IVs go. And the day after surgery when I saw her, she said, I don't know if it's how this is possible, but I'm not feeling the pain. She was had Her third autoimmune disorder was debilitating pain. I forget the name of the, it was not some, it was, I can't remember the actual autoimmune disorder, but she had debilitating pain where she, the point where she, if she laid down for too long or sat too long or even in a shower, she'd have to stop and come out. And it was just, she couldn't do anything for any amount of time. She said, I don't have any pain today. And I said, okay, well, let's wait and see. And, you know, let's see how it goes by the end of that week. Still don't have any. Great. Month later, don't have any more. I'm 2 months later, I'm going on vacation with my kids. I haven't done that in so many years. And I'm, I'm a week out, month, 3 months later, I sat all by the pool. I hang up. Like, it was just beautiful to see the impact you can have on someone's life, everyday life with their family. As she said, I, my kids have a new mom and my husband has a new wife. And, uh,

that's priceless. That's really important.

It, what, this is why we do what we do. And for us, it's exciting for us and then, and our team to be a part of their health journey. And it's such a blessing to serve in that way, to be able to actually contribute to someone's life in such a positive way. And I'll let, many times these people will go on and do amazing things from there because now they can.

Yeah.

You know, and a wonderful quote from Bobby Candy was, a sick person has one goal and a healthy person has many goals. And if we can help people have more goals, what a blessing.

So, Dr. Ben Javid, where can people find you?

Well, our website is mysmilebody.com. Our social media is My Smile Body. That's most probably the easiest way to find us.

Okay, and we're going to put that down in the show notes. So if any of you are interested in seeing Dr. Javid, make— or your brother, right? Do you still work together?

Still Dr.

Javid. Okay, both Drs. Javid.

We go by Dr. Ben and Sean.

So I hope you all enjoyed this episode, and if you know anybody who could benefit from listening to this episode or from the whole podcast, please share this episode with them. And until next time, stay healthy and keep smiling. 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 liked 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. @DrSanda. This is Dr. Sanda, and remember, your mouth is the gateway to your health, so take care of it in the most natural and best way possible.