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Healthmeans 3 Interview Transcripts From The Dental Oral Health Rescue Summit

This transcript discusses biological dentistry and its importance. Biological dentistry views the mouth as connected to the whole body, in contrast to traditional dentistry which views the mouth as separate. It emphasizes identifying and addressing the root causes of oral and systemic health issues. The transcript provides examples of how inflammation and infections in the mouth can impact overall health and pregnancy outcomes. It also discusses the need for better training of dentists in biological techniques and treatments.
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
100% found this document useful (1 vote)
266 views48 pages

Healthmeans 3 Interview Transcripts From The Dental Oral Health Rescue Summit

This transcript discusses biological dentistry and its importance. Biological dentistry views the mouth as connected to the whole body, in contrast to traditional dentistry which views the mouth as separate. It emphasizes identifying and addressing the root causes of oral and systemic health issues. The transcript provides examples of how inflammation and infections in the mouth can impact overall health and pregnancy outcomes. It also discusses the need for better training of dentists in biological techniques and treatments.
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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FULL-LENGTH TALK TRANSCRIPTS

Enjoy these 3 expert talk transcripts


from Dental & Oral Health Rescue Summit!
IN THIS ISSUE

FEATURED PRESENTATIONS
Enjoy learning from these If you’re already a (If you’re not yet registered,
introductory expert talk registrant of the Dental be sure to sign up to access
transcripts pulled from & Oral Health Rescue these interviews!)
the Dental & Oral Health Summit, you can access the
Rescue Summit! video interviews of these
talks below:

GUEST EXPERTS
Fixing the Great Dental Divide
from Gerry Curatola, DDS
Click here to watch this interview!

Treat Your Airway and Sleep


Better from Dean Raio, DDS
Click here to watch this interview!

Masterclass: Holistic Oral Health


from Anne Hill, ND
Click here to watch this interview!

We’re happy that you’re taking time to From the entire Dental & Oral Health Res-
learn about living a healthier and happier cue Summit team, thank you for download-
life, and we hope you’ll make us a regular ing these transcripts -- we hope you learn a
part of that journey! lot from them!
1

Fixing the Great Dental


Divide
Gerry Curatola, DDS

Shivan: Hi everyone, Shivan Sarna here. This is Dr. Curatola: It was a calling. My mother saved
a big deal, I have Dr. Gerry Curatola, and he is that card, I made it at six. I graduated dental
one of the biggest thought leaders in biological school at whatever, 25. And then she had a
dentistry right now. He is creating an institute picture of me in my doctor gown and everything
to teach other dentists globally about what they at the graduation on her piano, and she put the
need to do to change their thought pattern, their card that I made at six years old on that picture.
technique, their awareness, their… you get the And two years before she passed, she gave it to
idea. It’s a big deal about their whole approach to me, and I’ve kept it ever since. So I said, “Gee, look
their entire, really, missions and career to help us.  at that. That’s a perfect example of setting your
intention and things manifesting.” 
Here’s his book, The Mouth-Body Connection,
you’ll see a new version of this out shortly, And I believe we’re called to do things, and we all
with another picture of him where he’s adding have a mission on this planet. And mine was to
[00:00:36] into it. It’s really phenomenal. And connect the mouth back to the body. It is totally
we’re going to talk about what biological dentistry illogical that 150 years ago, they took this part of
is, what everyone needs to know, action steps that your body and separated it, and said, “Okay, if you
we all need to take. Dr. Curatola, thank you so want to study that, you go to dental school.” And
much for being here. Your work is phenomenal. I everything else, I guess they cut the feet off and
mean, literally, what would the state of dentistry sent you to podiatry school. “But everything else,
be like if you weren’t doing your work to educate you go to medical school.”
everybody? It makes me nervous. 
So there was this big disconnect. And that did
Dr. Curatola: Thank you so much. Thanks, Shivan. not happen in Europe; in Europe, if you wanted
It’s great to be here. Yeah, no, I love dentistry. to be a dentist, you still went to medical school
On the inside of my book, I have a picture of the and you subspecialized. And if you wanted to be a
business card I made at six years old, on the heart specialist, you’d go to a cardiology program.
third page. You’ll see it, it’s on the left, that’s the You have neurology, gynecology, every different
business card I made at six years old, to be a discipline in medicine, dentistry is considered a
dentist.  subspecialty of that. 

Shivan: That’s adorable. I’m so glad you put that So there was never the great disconnect that
in the book, it really shows... happened with many medical schools and dental

 schools in the US. And I always found that to be

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really unfortunate, because a lot of what goes on advancing periodontal disease, which is a source
in here is a mirror and a gateway for what goes of chronic low grade inflammation. And it’s
on in the body. Another interesting tidbit, patients linked to premature birth, premature low weight
see their dentist more frequently than they see babies, most often born with developmental
any other medical or healthcare provider.  complications. And they have a 700% of that,
and a 700% of preeclampsia, a very dangerous
Shivan: I hadn’t thought of that. blood pressure condition. So there are all of
these pregnancy disorders related to the mouth
Dr. Curatola: Dentists are in a unique position to and inflammation in the mouth. And the OB
screen and even diagnose systemic disease. Yet GYN is like, “Oh, no, don’t get any dental work.”
most state dental boards say, “You can’t diagnose So pregnant women, up to… I mean, everyone
anything medical, you only have to be dental,” and in my practice, I let them know, “I want you to
that is equally illogical. So my hope... and I thank get a cleaning once every three months. Once a
you for mentioning the institute because it’s in its trimester, I want you to get a safe and effective
formative stage right now and it’s badly needed. cleaning to reduce inflammation. Keep your gums
There are organizations that biologic or holistic healthy.” 
dentists... we’re going to talk about that biologic
term too today.  There was a wives tale, women were losing teeth
after they gave birth because the baby robbed the
But there are lots of organizations and clubs for mother’s calcium. It’s a total wives tale and now
dentists to join to say they’re holistic or biologic they were losing teeth from advancing periodontal
but very poor hands on training in cavitation disease, from unchecked inflammation that was
surgery and safe removal, and good restorative occurring during pregnancy. A condition very
care and lots of other treatments that should commonly known as pregnancy gingivitis. 
be incorporated. Even tonsillar injections, most
dentists don’t even know what they are. A lot of Shivan: That’s tragic. Tragic, tragic. Okay, this is
dentists don’t even know what cavitations are.  an example, everyone, of why this is so important
but I know you’re here watching this, listening to
Shivan: And we’re going to be educating everyone this, wherever you’re receiving this information
about that during this session, because you might because you’re at least very curious. So I’m going
be like, “I don’t know what cavitations are.” By the to get started with the big one. What is biological
way, my mother’s dentist in New York City, before dentistry and bottom line, why is it so important
I was born, said to her, “Are you pregnant?” from for patients? 
her fricking mouth, from her gums. He’s like, “Oh, I
think you’re pregnant,” and she’s like, “What?”  Dr. Curatola: Alright, biologic dentistry, the term
biologic dentistry really comes from biologic
Dr. Curatola: It’s called pregnancy gingivitis, medicine. And the origins of what we call biologic
the gums getting inflamed and all. I mean, medicine came from Europe, mainly Germany and
there’s another disconnect, perfect example. Switzerland. There is a very renowned medical
And we’re not even getting started yet. A perfect doctor by the name of Thomas Rau, I’ve enormous
example is, women are pregnant and the respect for him, he’s a dear friend, and he started
gynecologist, the obstetrician says, “Don’t go to something called the Paracelsus Clinic back in
the dentist while you’re pregnant. Don’t get any the 80s. And he immediately brought dentistry
dental work.” And meanwhile, they’re at risk of and medicine together, looking at root causes of

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disease.  and dentistry recognize that holistic spiritual


component of healing from the crown chakra
So there’s a couple of principles of biologic down. This was Voodoo in western medicine
medicine slash dentistry. One, we all have this for many years and now, I hear colleagues and
amazing divine life force, called spirit or in Indian dentists, dentists and physicians, starting to drop
Ayurvedic philosophy, it was called prana, and the energy word and the chakra word, and all this
the Chinese called it chi, but we are mind, body, other stuff. But biologic dentistry looks at root
spirit. And we have this amazing innate ability to causes of disease, and recognizes all of these
self-regulate and heal. So that’s the first thing we causal chains and the levels of how these causal
believe; that everyone has this ability. There is no chains are affecting their physical state of their
doctor that cures a patient, we merely help that mouth. 
patient on the path of them being able to self-
regulate and heal; number one.  So that’s that, recognizing the connection to
mouth, body, that’s the other part. Why is it
Number two, many different levels of healing. It is important? Because if you’re going to a guy that’s
not just biologic, your immune system is not just just drilling, filling, and building, you may actually
biologic, T cells, B cells, yada, yada, and all that. be more toxic when you’re done and having more
There is biochemical factors in healing. Hormonal, problems. I mean, I generally see those patients
hormones are a perfect example. You see people that have hit the end of the road. I had patients
with a compromised thyroid or they’re constantly when I start to speak into their state of health or
in fight or flight, causing adrenal disorders and disease, and helping them start to connect, “Oh,
the release of cortisol, and all this other stuff. So I had that root canal done. And yeah, right after I
there’s biochemical factors, right?  had that root canal done, I had this problem, that
problem, this problem. Now I’m starting to realize
There’s energetic factors, we know there’s an there is a connection.” 
electromagnetic field that extends from our body,
and that really, electromagnetic field that has Whereas, the non-biologically minded dentist
a lot to do with energy flow. And of course, in would say, “Agh, that’s nonsense. There’s
Chinese medicine, we talk about meridians and nothing in the literature about that.” Ah, but yes,
acupuncture, it’s based on how that energy flows. there is, and there’s more emerging every day,
What’s the fourth level? Psycho emotional. I talked understanding these unique connections. So the
about fight or flight. importance is, you cannot be healthy without a
healthy mouth. And you can’t really have a healthy
Especially, everybody’s afraid of Coronavirus mouth unless you’re working with someone who’s
or this and that and they’re in fight or flight, it biologically minded. 
compromises their immune system more. They
can be even more susceptible to that by being Shivan: Right now, before we even go any further,
in that state. Versus parasympathetic, which is a because I know this has piqued the interest of so
calm state where healing occurs, and it’s much many people, how do we find the right doctor and
healthier to heal. So we look at psycho emotional what should we be careful of? Just because they’re
factors controlling that in people, what’s going on in a directory, does that mean they have the skill
in their mind and stinking thing.  and the training? 

And then there is spiritual. Biologic medicine Dr. Curatola: That’s the magic, $64,000 question.

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That’s the reason I’m starting the institute, by the a good biologic dentist here? Do you know a good
way, Shivan. Just because they say they’re biologic one there?” and there are. I have some colleagues
and they have a fancy website, ask where they that I have great respect and admiration for and
received their training. Ask if they do root canals. that are well trained in the principles of dentistry.
Litmus test.  Remember, biologic dentistry is not a specialty. It
is not a specialty, it is a philosophy of practice that
Shivan: That’s the litmus test. overlays being a really well trained, good dentist. 

Dr. Curatola: That’s a great one because like, “Oh, Shivan: I realize that there’s that factor of like, the
yeah, we do root canals. We love root canals.” practice and the training. Is there a directory? Is
Like, I will give you a hundred reasons why there a guide for biological dentists at this time
modern endodontic therapy, root canal therapy is that you feel is a decent place to start, in terms of,
flawed in its philosophy, flawed in its success, and “I’m going to Google biological dentists in Seattle,”
flawed in its procedural. And it’s flawed because or whatever? Seattle probably has a ton of them,
we see that 100% of endodontically, root canal but you know what I mean. 
treated teeth start to release endotoxins, as they
necrose and break down. I look at endodontic Dr. Curatola: Yeah, I mean, I have a great friend
therapy, root canals, for example, as a temporary out in Oregon, Kelly Blodgett, he is on it. He
procedure, not as a permanent procedure.  understands it. He’s got a great Instagram. He’s
on top of it. I have Dr. Karla Solis in Los Angeles,
Ask where they were trained in the removal of Dr. Yolanda Cintron in Fort Lauderdale, Dr. Rich
mercury. Did they just go take an IAOMT course Porcelli in Hilton Head, South Carolina. We’re in
online and start doing it? These are the types of New York and East Hampton. And up in Boston
questions. You need to be your own doctor first there are some great people. My good friend, Dr.
and you need to build your own team. So when Watts, is up in Massachusetts. So yes, I would say
you build your own team, as a person who’s in that there is a number of highly qualified, good
charge of your own health, you want to know biologic dentists. 
what the qualifications of those team members
are. And so there are a lot of biologic dentists or But the message I have for everyone who is
dentists who call themselves biologic, who are just listening is do your homework, ask the right
simply not well trained. They’re not good.  questions. “Where did you train? How did you
study?” There are these clubs, like IAOMT,
And there are a lot of very good, highly qualified, International Academy of Oral Medicine
skilled, restorative dentists that understand Toxicology. They were the holistic dentists that
occlusion, that understand reconstructing the now call themselves biologic or integrative, or
bite, that understand the proper preparation and whatever, and they have these accreditation
finishing, and maintenance of dentistry in the programs that mean nothing, because it’s their
mouth that are not biologic. So there’s this basic rules set up that way. And if you study and you get
dilemma that we have right now, of good dentists the right toys, and you speak the right speak, you
who are not biologic and biologic dentists who are can now be accredited. 
not good. And what I’m trying to do is bring both
together.  And I don’t mean to put that down, I think that’s
important that there is an organization that
And that’s why I get calls every day. “Do you know people can exchange ideas in. And my good

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friend, Dr. Rich Fisher, does an academic program Dr. Curatola: That’s it, they don’t have it in the
to teach dentists, biologic dentists, new concepts office, right. 
and things. And Rich Fisher does a great job at
an academic program to these dentists who are Shivan: Yeah, we’ll talk about those. Okay, I’m
interested in being biologic. My point is training, going to backtrack a little bit. What do you believe
training, training, training, training, training. are the most important undiagnosed disease
issues that most dentists are poorly trained to
And that’s why we’re establishing this institute, the address? So I want to break this down for people
American Institute for Biologic Dentistry. And it’s because a lot of people have never heard of
going to be international dentists as well. I have cavitations and they haven’t been thinking about
dentists in Italy who want to be biologic. They’re in their airways. 
London, they’re in Paris, they’re in Santiago, Chile,
Brazil, South Africa. This is a global orientation Dr. Curatola: By the way, you’re hitting the nail
that’s needed with dentistry around the world.  on the head, again. The number one undiagnosed
condition in the human jaw is what we call jaw
Shivan: So I call the front desk, I say, “Hey, do osteonecrosis or cavitational osteonecrosis. Just
you guys do root canals?” “No, we only do it if so everyone listening knows, the term cavitation
necessary and we try to review the ones you was coined by an orthopedic surgeon in 1931. He
already have in your head.” “Okay, great. Where was biopsying a human jaw and found that there
did the dentists train?” Are there a couple of are these areas of dead bone that had no fever,
places that are like, “Oh, that’s good if they trained no pain, and no swelling. 
there,” or is it like so scarce that they’re not going
to...? The father of modern dentistry in the early 1900s,
GB Black. His name was GB Black. He actually
Dr. Curatola: There are a number of different created even a filling that standardized filling
programs. I have a colleague who’s a great guy, preparation design and all this. He found that
Ulrich Volz, who’s at the Swiss Biomed Institute there were the areas in the human jaw that had
[Swiss Biohealth Clinic? 00:18:25], and he’s been no fever, no pain, no swelling. But he discovered
doing his own little training thing. And he has his that there were these holes. Where do they most
own implants that he designed. And so, Swiss commonly form? How do they most commonly
Biohealth is one but there is the Paracelsus Clinic, form? 
has done excellent educational programs. Find
out the training that they’ve had as a dentist, The number one area where we see this, besides
how long they’ve been practicing. But the key people who are on bisphosphonate therapy
questions for biologic things, one of them is the for osteoporosis, certain drugs, Fosamax, and
root canal question. The other one is, “Does he there were drugs in the past that were used for
treat cavitations? Does he do cavitation surgery?” osteoporosis. It’s called bisphosphonates and
they cause something called osteonecrosis. In
Shivan: Does he read a Cone Beam? other words, someone would be on this drug for
osteoporosis, and they’d get a tooth pulled. And
Dr. Curatola: Can he read a Cone Beam? Most the dentist would find that the bone doesn’t heal.
don’t even know how to read a Cone Beam.  Really ugly and it could get gangrenous. And you
can get osteomyelitis, which is an active bacterial
Shivan: Most don’t have them in their office.  infection in the bone. All of these are really ugly

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and that came into light. We really only started it healed, I could almost lay odds if we were in
seeing the preponderance of cavitations when 3D Vegas, that you had a cavitation in there at some
technology came into vogue. It sort of reminds point. 
me, Jacques Cousteau invented scuba diving.
There was no scuba diving, they had the iron lung. Shivan: So its dead tissue, like basically rotting in
I think he worked on the iron lung and then really, your head that you don’t feel but it’s impacting it
the sport of scuba diving became popular. He all. 
actually created that. 
Dr. Curatola: No pain, no fever, no swelling,
And what did that do? You look at the surface you don’t know it’s there. Why is it important?
of the ocean, it could be a super calm day, and Why can’t we not just leave it there? Because
everything looks good. You may see a few fish many times, these areas are a source of chronic
swimming by, or this and that, but when you go inflammation. They’re a virtual petri dish for Lyme
under the water, and you can see, it is like this spirochetes, Candida, mold, metals, parasites.
whole universe that we never knew before. Well, Parasites, so I actually culture, I go into these
it’s kind of like that with two things, it’s like that cavitations and I culture. And I have all kinds of
with the human microbiome, and we can talk screening tools that I can start to see what’s in
about that a little later. But cavitations, now. We’re there. And it’s bizarre, worms, parasites, mold,
seeing these areas. Candida. 

And a very prominent dentist who did a lot of And it’s interesting because Dr. Dietrich Klinghardt
implant work with Carl Misch, a very renowned is a renowned medical doctor, biologic medical
implant developer, categorized bone when he doctor, has done a lot of work with Lyme disease
started seeing this. And he said type one bone is and found that Lyme spirochetes love the
like plywood, type one, type two, type three, type mandible, the lower jaw. And he also found that
four. Type four is like this wispy balsa wood, people with Lyme disease tend to have like TMJ
which had holes and was like Swiss cheese. type issues, stiffness in the head and neck. Lyme
Well, actually, he was looking at, in many cases, spirochetes happen to love the head and neck
cavitational osteonecrosis that was there.  and a lot of people suffer from chronic Lyme
disease. Epstein Barr virus loves cavitations on the
So it most commonly forms in third molars, when top and loves the sinuses. So EBV, another really
third molars are removed. The conventional way a plague of a virus that can be very debilitating to
third molar was removed was, you take the tooth the human body. 
out and it’s like, “Okay, Shivan, bite on a piece of
gauze, and when the bleeding stops, you’re okay.” So cavitations, number one, scalp [unsure
And it’s going to magically heal, and you’re never 00:25:36] infection; second, scalp [unsure
going to have a problem again.  00:25:39] infection is infections around root
canals, chronic infections around root canals. You
Well, sometimes you had a problem right away. take a two dimensional X-ray, the root canal looks
You had a dry socket, what we call osteitis, groovy and the dentist says, “Oh yeah, it looks
inflammation of the bone. And many times, those great. Oh, it’s all perfect.” And what you’re looking
dry sockets happened to form wicked cavitations at; that looks great, but you can’t see here. When
down the road. So if anyone listening had a dry you go 3D, you see here a whole different story. 
socket when they had their wisdom teeth out, and

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I had a patient from Houston, Texas. She was important thing. And dentistry has a lot to do with
diagnosed, sadly, with an enormous tumor in her your health and prevention of that. 
left lung. It took up two thirds or three quarters
of the left lung and they were going to remove Shivan: This is one of the big final frontiers,
her lung. A functional medicine doctor sent her guys. I want everyone listening to this to tell their
up to me to examine her. We did a Cone Beam. friends about this. If you’re feeling resistant to it,
And she had gone to 30 dentists in Houston I understand, I can’t tell you how irritated I was
that said, “No problem.” Because I asked the when I first heard about this whole thing. I was
functional medicine doctor, “Did she have any like, “What the...?” But you have to understand, Dr.
root canals?” “One root canal.” “Where was it?” Curatola, in 1987, ‘88, I met Hal Huggins, Dr. Hal
“Lower first molar.” “What energetic meridian was Huggins. I was in PR at the time and I did a book
it on?” “Lung,” lung, lung, lung; left lung, left lower tour for him in Tampa, Florida. 
molars. 
And his book was about amalgam fillings. This was
And in there, there was a giant cavitational space one of the big guys back then. He had his license
between the two roots of the root canal. It was a revoked and a lot of controversy around this guy.
mess. I got it out, disinfected the bone, grafted it, And he however, was sounding the alarm that
let it heal, returned healthy. This is documented, mercury amalgam fillings were causing massive
she went back to the hospital five weeks later for amounts of problems and people hated him for it. 
her pre-surgical workup; the tumor had shrunk
to one third the size. And because she was in the Dr. Curatola: I’m going to give you a little tidbit of
queue to have the surgery, they scared her into information and I knew Hal. I met Hal a number of
just not even waiting any longer, just get it out.  times. When I first met him, which was probably
25 years ago, I thought he was from another
I can understand that. They took out a third of the planet. Like, I never placed an amalgam filling
lung, she didn’t lose her whole lung. They took out from when I came out of dental school in 1983. I
a third of her lung or one of the lobes rather. And refused to. I knew it was terrible material and this
they biopsied it, and lo and behold, it was benign. and that. And never understood the implications
It was a tumor, a benign tumor. Thank God, that’s of taking them out, and breathing in the mercury
great. Did the root canal cause the lung tumor? vapor, which really catapulted me in a biologic
Not directly. But energetically, we know there’s direction.
meridians, energetic flow, and we know that our
immune system is not just biologic B and T cells, When I woke up in the Hamptons one morning
dah, dah, dah.  and had a tremor in my hand, after practicing
for 12 years, never placing an amalgam; taking
We know that our innate immune system, there’s them out unsafely, just a little mask. I was
an energetic component. We’re fighting cancer in absorbing this mercury vapor. Dentists are very
our body every day, Shivan, and we don’t know unhealthy. They have all kinds of neurological
about it. We don’t hear about it until somebody and psychological problems. Dentists have the
calls and says, “Oh, Tommy got prostate cancer. highest rate of suicide. And what are one of the
Tommy caught prostate cancer. Suzy got breast side effects of mercury toxicity? Depression,
cancer.” No, you don’t get cancer. Cancer is the depression, severe depression, Parkinson’s, MS,
end stage of dysregulation. It doesn’t just fly in multiple sclerosis. 
your body and you catch it, and that’s a really

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I remember the 60 Minutes broadcast where they of debilitating issues that people who developed
were talking about people got MS after getting MS or Parkinson’s or a whole bunch of other stuff.
their mercury fillings out and put back in, and And those are usually people who are deficient
then they increased. “It’s not scientific, it’s not...” in the APOE-4 gene, which gives our body the
The American Dental Association was founded by ability... they have this genetic variation, where
pro-amalgam dentists in the late 1800s and the they cannot eliminate, they cannot chelate metals. 
American Dental Association held the patent on
dental amalgam. So I used to say, the American But no one should have amalgam, in my
Dental Association behaves like the American professional opinion, it is a horrible material. And
tobacco companies did back in the 70s.  the FDA just banned it for children and pregnant
women, which the idea of a dentist putting
And now it’s time to know, mercury is the most amalgam into a woman who’s pregnant, or a
neurotoxic element on earth. The argument for young child with a developing nervous system is
dental amalgams being okay, there’s no safety dumb, really, really dumb. 
studies, so that’s BS. The argument for dental
amalgam being okay is, “Look, it’s been in the Shivan: And it’s still done to this day, guys. So
head for hundreds of years, people are still it’s not like it’s not happening, but also, the
walking around. We have so much chronic toxicity, removal. So, quickly, when we are talking about
undiagnosed toxicity and disease.  the removal because I had mine removed. Little
mask, no big deal, right? This again, was in the
I went out on the Dr. Oz show and talked about 80s. After I met Hal, I was like, “You know what,
toxic fillings, one of the most important segments I should have them removed,” and I went to a
that I did, and they actually did three segments, dentist, he’s like, “Yeah, I’ll remove them. Why
the whole show was toxic fillings. And I was on not?” and it was just like nothing. There was no
with Dr. Oz, a dentist on this, and I basically did protection whatsoever. What is the proper way to
a whole segment on the safe removal and they have them removed? When we’re looking to have
cut that out; they cut it out. So they talked about them removed, what should we be looking for?
mercury is bad. And yes, it off gases because What are the standards that we should hope for,
when I was in dental school, I was told that for ourselves and the dentists, and the assistants? 
mercury is magically locked in. 
Dr. Curatola: Yeah, that’s a great question too.
And then they actually can measure it, they have So just from the top, everyone should know that
these mercury vapor meters, they can measure those silver colored fillings that your dentist
the mercury vapor. When you drink something fraudulently represented as silver fillings are
warm, the mercury vapor coming up. When you 26% silver. They are 52% mercury. So really, the
chew, if you grind your teeth, and all of that proper... what do you call it? Nomenclature for
is mercury vapor coming up. So what we’ve an amalgam, if you’re going to call it anything but
discovered about that is that most of us have an an amalgam, is to call it a mercury filling because
ability to chelate heavy metals, so that we’re not in it’s more than half mercury. The largest element
a wheelchair from our mercury fillings, but it can in the filling is mercury. So I’ve actually started
mess up our gut.  to say, any dentists calling it a silver filling is
misrepresenting what that is. It’s a mercury filling. 
It can have all kinds of things. There’s a whole
toxic load from that. But we’re not getting the kind So how do you take mercury out safely? Because

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what’s been shown and documented in videos, leave, you’re exacerbating the problem.
you can go online, there’s a video called The Because the dentist is brainwashed. And I’ve even
Smoking Tooth, and it’ll show you with a miner’s had friends tell me, “Oh, that’s a bunch of crap.
light, the vapor coming off of an extracted tooth Yeah, no, I read the ADA Journal, it said we have a
with a mercury filling. The proper way is you’ve safe history of the use of dental amalgam,” and it’s
got to protect the body. So how do you do that? really sad. But I think the way you can get change
We use activated charcoal, have the patient swish is by taking some simple action. If you buy GMO
with it. We give the patient selenium, it binds to products, they’ll continue making them. If you
mercury in the urinary tract.  stop buying GMO products, they’ll stop making
them. My very dear friend, Fran Drescher, has an
Charcoal binds to mercury in the digestive tract, organization, Cancer Schmancer, that’s her big
not good for toothpaste, but good for these thing. 
isolated situations where you’re removing toxicity,
because it does bind to mercury. We use a heavy Shivan: I’ve met her before, she’s lovely. Yeah,
gauge rubber dam over the tooth. We give the she’s wonderful. 
patient an alternate air supply, oxygen, or even
just compressed air or fresh air. We drape the Dr. Curatola: So, we have to be conscious and
patient’s head. It looks like we’re going into a that’s why I love this. I love what you’re doing. I
contamination zone.  love this podcast. I love this series, rather. And
I think its excellent information for people, to
That’s why when Coronavirus, the COVID-19 empower them. 
pandemic started, the governor of New York
opened dental offices before even hair salons Shivan: That’s the whole point of everything I’m
and gyms and everything else, restaurants. And doing here. So thank you for participating and
the reason is that we take a lot of precautions you’ve given me names of other doctors to reach
but biologic dentists take even more precautions. out to. It really means so much to me. Okay, let’s
The air in the room, in all of our rooms, is ionized. talk about airway disease before Bianca, your
So we have these ionization devices that trap assistant, calls me on my cell phone and says,
mercury vapor and suck them into this… we have “[00:39:25],” because I can tell I’m going to go over
this fan behind the chair that blows out ionized already. I’m already over. So let’s talk about airway
air, which is negatively charged.  disease and how this is also something no one is
thinking about typically, and how it can impact our
And mercury is positively charged, so it binds and health. 
it gets drawn to an electrostatic plate at the base
of the chair. We use these large vacuum suction Dr. Curatola: So there are one billion people on
devices, besides the little stick suction. So all of the planet right now that have a compromised
those minimize the exposure of the patient. But airway and that have airway disease. So let’s
really at the dentist, dental assistants, so many of explain what that is. Airway disease, a very simple
them are young and in their childbearing years, definition of airway disease is a compromised
dental hygienists. I see dental hygienists in offices ability to breathe. We call it obstructive sleep
working when they’re pregnant and all, the idea apnea. So, Arianna Huffington, very famously, I
of this mercury vapor going around in an office by think she fell and she...
a dentist who’s unconscious to this issue, I think
that patients should leave; because if you don’t Shivan: Yeah, she broke her skull.

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Dr. Curatola: Broke her face. Yeah, she broke her mouth so that you’re forced to breathe through
skull.  your nose. The problem is, people who are not
breastfed or not breastfed long enough, they are
Shivan: She broke her face, from exhaustion, like bottle fed; they tend to have a higher vaulted
basically, hitting the ground. palate than people who are breastfed. 

Dr. Curatola: She wasn’t sleeping. And she made So the higher vaulted palate, if you look, you
sleep a priority. And I’m happy about that because breathe here, your palate is where my thumbs
people need to be aware. And one of the things are. When your palate is up…. it looks like I’m
that I will talk about with you is the importance praying. When your palate is up, high vaulted
of checking your airway, getting a simple sleep palate, you are impinging on the ability to breathe
study. They’re disposable now, you can do them through your nose. What’s another one? What’s
at home. We do virtual consults with patients, we the biggest muscular organ in the head and neck?
can read it without you even leaving the house. So The tongue. The tongue is ovoid shaped. Anybody
sleep is really important. Of course, I could give have orthodontic treatment and had teeth pulled
you a gazillion reasons. Most importantly, it’s our to make room? You shrink this airway. And the
reset. It’s our reset for our health.  interesting thing is when you shrink the airways,
it’s like shrinking the cage where your tongue sits,
You’re at risk of high blood pressure, respiratory and many times, it forces the tongue further back
disease, heart disease, diabetes, car accidents. in the mouth. 
They now give UPS drivers and FedEx drivers, and
truck drivers a sleep study because if they’re not What else? Narrow arch. You have beautiful wide
sleeping, they’re driving 18 wheelers that can take cheekbones, by the way. And so you don’t have
out a whole family in an instant.  the narrowness that I have. And so, narrow face,
narrow arch. Do you have a narrow arch? If you
Shivan: And their liability is real. see a lot of black space on the side of your teeth,
that’s called the buccal carta and people with
Dr. Curatola: Yes, their liability is real. Where very large buccal cartas have narrower arches.
does airway disease start? What is a big source Narrower arches, high vaulted palate, tongue
of airway disease? Here, here. There’s a great resides further back in the mouth, occluding the
book, by the way, Breathe, it’s a New York Times airway. 
bestselling book, I think everybody should get the
book, Breathe. And what’s interesting about this, Shivan: Yes, lots of Ehlers-Danlos on that, which
and what I was fascinated by is that years ago we is the collagen of laxity. And I have had a CPAP,
used to do these snoring appliances. So, snoring you guys. I mean, I have had this exact thing. I’ve
is a sign of sleep apnea. It’s not necessarily the had the sleep studies done. This is another reason
number one... a lot of women do not snore and why I’m so interested and so thrilled we’re talking
have obstructive sleep apnea. So snoring is not about it. I had moderate sleep apnea and I tried
the diagnosis, but it is a symptom.  to do that device and everything to move my jaw.
Got the ugly CPAP, the only way to wear a CPAP
So I used to do these snore guards, where it and still have a love life is to sleep naked, I’m just
actually artificially advanced the lower jaw, the saying. It ain’t pretty. Or he’s wearing one too.
mandible, to open your airway more. And actually,
in the book, Breathe, they talk about taping your Dr. Curatola: right, he’s wearing one too and

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you’re both like, out the movie, Blue Velvet. Dr. Curatola: And that’s called tongue tie. By
the way, this happens in children. This happens
Shivan: Yeah, crazy. But anyway, this is very, very in infants, children, adolescents. Bedwetting
real and I did notice the difference when I was in children; bedwetting in children is tied to
using the CPAP. I wasn’t compliant. And I’m trying obstructive sleep apnea, bedwetting. Attention
to figure out other solutions. deficit disorder has been linked to airway disease,
obstructive sleep apnea. Amazing, right?
Dr. Curatola: Yes because most people can’t wear
a CPAP. And I’m going to tell you, Shivan, one of Shivan: This is why we’re doing this, you guys.
the things about CPAP is, again, it’s treating the There are connections that we’re not aware of
symptom, not the cause. It’s forcing air in to push between the microbiome and this, I tell you,
your tongue a little bit so it can get by there. The you’ve got to spread the word. We have to pay
problem is, if you’ve ever blown up a balloon four attention to this, we have to support these causes,
or five times, it gets flaccid. That’s what happens and do your due diligence and find people who
in the muscles in the airway. So the muscles in are talking about this. So thank you all for being
the airway get more flaccid. And now, if you don’t here because obviously, I’m preaching to the choir
wear a CPAP, you’re at even greater risk.  because you’re here. So okay, that’s huge. So
what do you do if you have that tongue tie? Who’s
So the cure is fascinating. The cure, which is an evaluating this tongue tie business for us?
amazing company, the Vivos Company, it’s called
the Vivos System. This Dr. David Singh, brilliantly Dr. Curatola: I would go actually to the Vivos
developed an appliance that actually remodels website. 
and helps the maxilla and the mandible remodel.
People’s smiles get nicer, the teeth get straighter, Shivan: V-I-V-O-S?
but it actually expands the upper arch so the
palate comes down, and it expands the lower arch Dr. Curatola: V-I-V-O-S, I think it’s Vivos Life or
so the tongue can come forward.  the Vivos System, or you could Google ‘DNA
appliance’. And we are a center in New York, East
Another thing is tongue tie, we always look for Hampton. We have three centers in the New
that. That’s so easy to fix, tongue tie.  We use York area for treating this. It’s so simple. When
a laser and we can release your tongue. Some I discovered this DNA appliance, and I started
people are tongue tied, their tongue is actually looking into it, I was like, “This makes total sense.”
pulled back in the back of their throat.  And it has literally changed people’s lives. I had a
big Marine who was in Iraq and this and that. A
Shivan: We need to tell people what that is.  healthy, healthy guy, except he had this untreated
high blood pressure. He had high blood pressure. 
Dr. Curatola: Pick up your tongue, touch the roof
of your mouth, and there’s a little string under So they wanted to put him on high blood pressure
your tongue right there. Sometimes when that medicine. And he heard that high blood pressure
string is very taut, it pulls the tongue down, and could be tied to airway disease or obstructive
you can’t move your tongue further forward.  sleep apnea. So his doctors were writing
prescriptions for blood pressure medicine he’d
Shivan: That makes sense.  have to be on for the rest of his life. And he came
to us in New York. And he had the high vaulted

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palate, the narrow arch, I mean, he had every sign a lot more information. If they contact our
and symptom of someone who had obstructive office, we can link them up with some important
sleep apnea.  information that they can get. They can get a
sleep study virtually. That’s an easy thing to do.
And then I started asking him questions. “Is your And we have a respiratory therapist, and the
mouth dry in the morning? Do you wake up in national advisor in airway health in our practices
the middle of the night? Are you gasping? Do you that routinely does virtual consults and helps get
have to frequently urinate at night?” Because by people on the way, and get to the right place. 
the way, bedwetting in children, adults, who learn
to control that, some even urinate at night, but Shivan: Alright, what are the five vital steps for all
they have to get up and get out of bed, and go to of us as patients that we need to do to biohack
the bathroom.  our mouth? What can we do if we can’t find these
doctors or while we’re looking for them? What can
It’s because the bladder is one of those organs we do?
that the brain uses; when it’s not getting enough
oxygen here, it looks for places to take it. The Dr. Curatola: So the first thing that everyone
bladder is one of those places it can take oxygen, should get... so the two things, like step one,
which is least incontinent. So all these things alright, get a sleep study; get a Cone Beam. Try to
are connected. And that’s why I wrote that book, get the Cone Beam that reads the airway. So find
The Mouth-Body Connection, because they’re out, get a Cone Beam that can also read airway,
all connected. And airway is key. It’s so easily and it can read up to 15 centimeters down the
diagnosed. airway. So the Cone Beam will show toxicity in the
jaw, it’ll show infections, and it’ll show cavitations,
Shivan: Okay, I don’t know how expensive this which we spoke about. It’ll show failing root
Vivos device is or if insurance pays for it, but canals. It’ll show cysts and tumors and all kinds
you’ve got to go down that rabbit hole. of things. But get one that also can show your
airway; that we can read your airway from. That’s
Dr. Curatola: Yeah, so medical insurance will the first thing, Cone Beam, right? 
but it will prevent thousands and thousands and
thousands of dollars, and possibly lengthen your Sleep study. So, so cool that these sleep studies... I
lifespan. Or not possibly, it will lengthen your don’t know if I have one here. But the sleep study
lifespan. Heart attack is related to not breathing. is this small little kit we send you. It’s inexpensive
So it is an appliance that remodels the jaws. It and it’s disposable. But it goes on your finger and
can be a one to two year process but you will find checks your blood oxygen saturation, your heart
improvement from the get go, by treating your rate, your respirations. Are you snoring? How
airway disease. many times you stopped sleeping. 

Shivan: Does it hurt? Is it like a retainer? What’s your REM sleep versus your deep sleep?
And how many times you really get that deep
Dr. Curatola: No, it doesn’t hurt. And actually, restful sleep, versus being a very shallow sleep,
what it does is it does it slowly, it’s not like the whole night.  That’s a big problem as well. It’s
those palate expanders when you’re a kid and not just that you’re asleep. But what is that quality
you crank it and you go like that. This is a slow, sleep? We can see all that with a sleep study.
gradual expansion. I could definitely give people That’s step one. 

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Step two, get infected root canals out; get your Shivan: Okay, what about calcium and vitamin K? 
heavy metals out. By the way, heavy metals aren’t
just mercury fillings, you could have nickel in Dr. Curatola: I love, love, love, love vitamin D3
crowns. I don’t even want to go on because you and K2. So I have a vitamin D plus K. Take a look.
can have bisphenols from tooth colored fillings, D and K. The great thing about D and K is they’re
bisphenols. BPA, that’s an endocrine disruptor the gatekeepers of calcium metabolism. So
which causes thyroid disruption and puts you at everybody needs to be on D. D, there are over 40
risk of breast cancer and prostate cancer in men, studies on vitamin D being a COVID preventer. So
and ovarian cancer and things like that. So BPAs, everybody should be on vitamin D and K. D and
bad. So get the diseased stuff out.  K for calcium and remineralization. So you’ve got
to feed your mouth, you’ve got to feed your smile;
Shivan: What kind of composite should we be remineralization. The fifth one is, what are you
hoping our dentists are using? brushing your teeth with? What kind of oral care
products are you using? 
Dr. Curatola: BPA-free and that I support and I
use all the time is made by the Voco Company Shivan: Okay, so as we continue here, first of all,
and its Admira Fusion. It’s a very nice composite. do I need to brush after every meal? Do I need to
A couple of the companies now, it’s kind of like, floss every day?
getting BPAs out of filling materials is becoming
an in thing, thankfully. I’ve been pounding that Dr. Curatola: No. 
drum for 10 years; that these people would go to
get their mercury fillings out and then the dentist Shivan: I don’t need to brush after every meal?
would put BPA in. And I was like, “No! Stop the So, I should brush in the morning and at night.
insanity.” So yeah, the first step of the diagnostic
thing is the Cone Beam and the sleep study. The Dr. Curatola: Floss once a day. Brush morning
second thing was the cavitations and the like. and night. The big thing that everyone has to
understand is that health and disease in the
Shivan: Check your filling materials, okay.  mouth is really modulated and controlled by this
amazing ecology called the oral microbiome.
Dr. Curatola: So the third thing is when you’re It’s like a coral reef protecting an island, except
done with that, treat the airway; treat the airway. everything we’ve done in oral care has been
So I always recommend, the order should be, get designed to nuke and destroy. Listerine kills
the toxic stuff out, then do the surgical part of germs on contact, and Colgate Total kills germs 24
treating any jaw osteonecrosis or infections. And hours a day, and even natural products that have
then the final one is get the airway disease going. tea tree oil or clove oil, peppermint oil, they all kill,
Definitely treat your airway.  kill, kill. 

The fourth thing in biohacking your mouth that I And we went from the germ theory that all
always talk about is nutrition, nutrition, nutrition. bacteria were bad and invaders, and kill them.
Nutrition is a cornerstone of oral health. And To the good guy, bad guy theory, which was
we really want to make sure that you have probiotics. “Oh, there’s good bacteria, there’s bad
good immune support before, during, and after bacteria. Oh, let’s make friends with the good
treatment. So that’s the fourth thing.  bacteria,” and that’s not true. And then the Human
Microbiome Project has changed everything we

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know about health and disease.  imbalance of the gut and potentially overgrowth
in the small intestine, I’m just saying for my SIBO
So quite simply, for everybody to understand, is people out there, stem from bacteria in the
that what we really need to know at this point is mouth? What do you think? 
that we’re really a composite of species. There’s
10 times estimates of that even higher or lower, Dr. Curatola: My very, very good friend, Al
but many, many, many more bacteria than human Dannenberg... 
cells in and on our bodies. And they do everything
from determine the color of our eyes to who we’re Shivan: I’m getting him on the summit. 
going to marry. And everybody laughs because
the microbiome actually produces pheromones Dr. Curatola: That’s great. He is wonderful. And
that has to do with sexual attraction and things. he is all about a healthy gut and its relationship
So, sometimes the microbiome picks the wrong to a healthy mouth. And we were brought
person and sometimes... we could go on, I could together because he was very fascinated by the
make a children’s book about that, how bacteria gut. He’s actually a gum specialist, a periodontist
sometimes make the wrong choices.  by background. But he’s a very thoughtful, well-
educated man who has been able to connect the
But anyway, our body is run by the bacteria. gut and the mouth together. And yes, indeed, a
So the bacteria in the mouth, what I found healthy gut helps promote a healthy mouth. And
fascinating is I went to dental school, being a healthy mouth is also at the same time, very
taught that the bacteria cause tooth decay and important for a healthy gut. So there’s this bi-
gum disease. When in actuality, in a balanced directional approach between the two. 
microbiome, the biofilm or microbiome is an
intelligent, semi permeable membrane that But the oral microbiome, what everyone should
takes minerals from saliva to remineralize your understand, and most of my 20 years of research
teeth. It brings oxygen from the air to your gums, went into, is the oral microbiome is on the
molecular oxygen, and it takes free radicals front line that defends you, and protects you
away from the gums. So there’s this incredible from deadly viruses and bacteria. Whether it’s
metabolic system of balance between the bacteria COVID-19 or tuberculosis, or any one of a host
and our human cells and it’s fascinating.  of different things. The oral microbiome is an
essential part of your innate immune system. 
So my mantra, Shivan, and I should say what
we call Revitin is toothpaste reinvented but my Shivan: Okay. Let’s say your oral microbiome is
mantra in terms of our relationship of man and okay, and your boyfriend, girlfriend, lover, there’s
microbe, is that we need to make peace with our is not. And you’re there sucking face with them,
microbes, because they keep us alive. So when what do you do? I’m serious!
we understand that basic principle, it changes the
kind of products we put in our mouths, on our Dr. Curatola: Fantastic question. Fantastic
skin, and in our body.  question. Our oral microbiome, we have common
species between us, right? But what we’ve
Shivan: It’s so true. Let’s say someone has discovered is that in these 800 different species,
halitosis, is that a sign that the gut is out of we’ve kind of isolated 800 to 1,200 now, and 6 to
balance? I think we can all agree with that, yes. 10 billion bacteria, is that our oral microbiome is
But what’s going on with the mouth and could the as unique as our thumbprint. It’s as unique as our

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DNA. So there are commonalities and differences biological dentist, they have a DNA test, where
between us.  they can test the microbes in your mouth, they
send it off, you can get a little report, kind of like
Our oral microbiome makes it very inhospitable a stool test or whatever. And then if you have
for foreign bacteria to set up shop. So the person an overgrowth of something... and by the way, if
you’re sucking face with, they may have a couple you go to a dentist that will show you a picture of
of nasty bugs that you’re like, “Ew, I don’t know,” what’s swimming around on that swab, or they
but for the most part, you do not see. And by the have these cameras to put in your mouth and
way, this is one of the reasons why probiotics show it up on the VCR, the TV, and they’re like,
don’t work in the mouth. Revitin is prebiotic. “Oh, we don’t have to do...” do it. My husband was
It nourishes and supports your indigenous like, “Ew, it’s gonna be gross.” I’m like, “Do it.”
microbiome. 
Dr. Curatola: A lot of people don’t want to see it.
Probiotics were tried as far back as the 1970s and Well, you know what? Even a healthy microbiome
just didn’t work. So there are a couple of products is scary because you have to think of it like this. 
out there now like, “Oh, we’re a probiotic for the
mouth,” great, show me the science. It doesn’t Shivan: It helps to look at it, look at it, look at it.
work. The reason it doesn’t work is because I like
to say, if probiotics work so in common biotics like Dr. Curatola: Right. You have to know that there
salmonella, when you eat a tainted hamburger are bacteria in there and those bacteria may not
and you get salmonella, you don’t get salmonella be unfriendly, but when we see the bacteria, a lot
infection in the mouth. But it sure as heck blows of people think like, “Oh, get rid of them! I don’t
out your gut, because that’s a closed system.  want them! Agh!” Especially now, people are so
bug phobic with sterilizing their hands every two
So in the mouth, our oral microbiome makes it minutes. I mean, wash your hands with soap and
very inhospitable and protects us from foreign water; that is important. I think especially because
bacteria. Now, there are cases where our immune we’re worried about coughing in your hand and
system is compromised. When our immune you touching. That’s basic hygiene. 
system is compromised, we are much more
vulnerable. So there’s this important interaction But this ethyl alcohol... I came out with a sanitizer
between the oral microbiome and our immune that remoisturizes the hands but even that, it’s
cells. And actually, our immune system helps destroying the microbiome on the skin, which
stratify the bacteria. Lots of interesting things go is important to protect you. So don’t overdo it.
on. So yes, healthy immune system, healthy oral I see people living with Purell. Putting it in their
microbiome, they go together.  bathwater. I mean, it’s crazy. So, important to
understand, what you’re talking about, by the
Shivan: Okay, so if you’re sucking face with way with the DNA test, and with the camera
someone, you’re pretty protected, assuming is referring to planktonic bacteria, which is an
you’re pretty healthy. Okay, good.  indication of whether you’re imbalanced or not.
So thank you for bringing that up. 
Dr. Curatola: Right. 
But an important point about those tests are
Shivan: Practice good oral hygiene. Okay, thank you’re not looking at the basal level of the
you. The other question I had was, go to the microbiome. For example, you can have a healthy

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microbiome, but you go to a big Italian wedding smaller the circle, you get bounced around a little
or an Indian wedding and you’re eating lots of too much. 
sweets. And then the next thing you know, if you
looked at your microbiome the next day, you’d So you want a healthy host resistance. You want
see tons of like these acid loving bacteria floating good diet and nutrition. You want to do healthy
around, strep mutans, and all this. And you can exercise every day and that’s why I have it in the
immediately make an assumption of, “Oh, we’ve book. And you want to reduce stress. You want
got to kill that.” Don’t. Don’t ozone it, don’t kill it. to have your quiet time, your intentions, your
Allow your body to self-regulate. Get back, clean meditation, your yoga practice. All of these things
yourself up the next day.  serve to help not only restore balance in the body,
but more importantly, balance starting in the
And I have a page in my book that I talk about mouth. 
that. So in my book, I actually have a graph, which
is really interesting, because it explains this really, Shivan: That’s such a great way to wrap up. I want
really well.  to however, talk about how you’re changing the
future of dentistry in this world. 
Shivan: Oh good, I haven’t gotten that far in the
book apparently. Dr. Curatola: Thank you for asking that. 

Dr. Curatola: It’s on page 58.  Shivan: Thank you so much for this. This was
amazing. Oh wait, let’s say you do find planktonic
Shivan: Oh, yes, yes, yes, I know what you’re bacteria because you do the DNA test, they want
talking about.  to give you systemic amoxicillin or whatever. What
do you think? 
Dr. Curatola: So balance is in the middle. And
when you start eating a lot of sugar, your plaque Dr. Curatola: No, no. Crazy, crazy, crazy. Crazy.
gets thick, sticky, smelly on your film, and you They’re still in the bug killing head. You have to
were talking about bad breath. Yeah, bad breath understand that the word planktonic means free
happens from a microbiome imbalance. But when floating. It’s a transient state. So generally, what
you try to kill everything too much, you go to the we look at is an overgrowth of planktonic bacteria,
other extreme. And the other extreme is what we it’s a transient state. What you really want to
call atrophic or like a desert, you strip everything do is not take napalm and kill everything. What
out. These are the people who oil pull every day you really want to do is restore balance. And the
or use charcoal and clay and all this; it strips amazing thing, Shivan, all of the research I’ve
everything. And you don’t want that desert. done, and I’ve done over 20 years of research, and
I’ve financed and published studies on the oral
Where you want to be is in the center of the microbiome. 
target and balance. And the bigger the circle in
the center, the target, represents host resistance. And I have another study going on right now with
So if you go to a wedding, you’re eating lots of Dr. Al Dannenberg, it’s about to start. And in all
sweets and you start shifting toward what we call of the studies, the one thing I’m really amazed at
the hypertrophic or overgrowth of the biofilm. is how quickly things return to normal when we
You go to an overgrowth of the biofilm, the bigger make some simple changes. The reason why I
the circle, you can regulate more. Whereas the wrote that book, The Mouth-Body Connection, is

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because I made it easy. All I wanted was to get the systemic antibiotics.
guy who was on the drive thru at Burger King to
pull off the line and think about making healthier Dr. Curatola: I believe, first of all, the test itself,
choices for his mouth. Beginning with what he’s it has its limitations and its flaws. And it can
sticking in it.  be biased. And the reason it’s biased is it’s not
looking at the basal microbiome, it’s looking at
So, when you see planktonic bacteria, you know, planktonic bacteria that are floating around. Same
“Okay, I have to reset.” Maybe do a cleanse. Eat thing with the camera. So if you have a scanning
greens, think greens, you want to alkalize out, electron microscope and you could do confocal
move to a diet that’s alkalizing, anti-inflammatory, laser microscopy, you can look at the indigenous
antioxidant rich. Use prebiotic support. I have microbiome that’s on the surface of the tissue,
a great prebiotic supplement that I use with which is very different. 
probiotics because spore based probiotics are still
moderately effective in the gut. So those are the And the reason we were able to discover all these
things you should be doing. Not getting scared amazing things in the mouth, were because of
from a camera in the mouth and then wanting to these very sophisticated diagnostic tools that
kill everything. So I was cautious about that and I were... I mentioned confocal laser microscopy,
actually gave you some pushback there with the atomic microscopy on an atomic level, and even
camera.  these fluorescent probes. So these are very
sophisticated tools. But I do like the ability for
Shivan: No, I’m good. patients to visualize and get it. Like you said, it
raised awareness. And that’s when I went, “Aha,
Dr. Curatola: I used to use the camera and that’s a good thing.”
I found that people were freaked out, and
everybody, their knee jerk response was to kill Shivan: That’s of good use. This is so helpful.
everything.  Thank you so much. Because look, you get this
test result, you’re hearing DNA, I mean, I hear
Shivan: So here’s the deal. If you use the camera, it all the time with people with stool tests. And
don’t have a knee jerk response. It’s like if our then they’re like changing their entire lives based
intestines were on the outside of the body, on something that’s in the large intestine that is
everyone would have [01:11:23] gut. It’s that totally different than the small intestine, yada,
whole thing. So I will say for me personally, my yada, yada. It goes on and on and on. 
experience was, it woke me up in a very new way
and it was very motivating. My husband, on the Dr. Curatola: Exactly, exactly. 
other hand...
Shivan: So that’s good clarity. Thank you. Okay,
Dr. Curatola: That’s a good point. what are you doing to change the future of
dentistry for the planet with your institute? 
Shivan: ... was very, like freaked out. But for
me, it was just an awareness and an increase Dr. Curatola: Well, it’s funny, and I really have a
in awareness. But the other thing is if you do sense of mission, when I turned 60, I knew like,
this DNA test, and you do have this planktonic “Okay, now you go from the...” the Chinese believe
overgrowth of certain spirochetes or whatever, 60 is the most important birthday in a man’s life
they make suggestions in the report about doing or a woman’s life. And so, at 60, you’ve completed

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one cycle in Chinese culture, 12 signs and you go Dr. Curatola: That’s so true. 
through the year; we’re coming into the year of
the ox. It’s the metal ox, and then the elements, Shivan: It’s so true, right? And the exhaustion and
right? So you have metal, water, fire. So we’re in the burnout and the advocacy, and then like the
the metal ox this year. I’ve got to look that one up. outrage of like, “Why isn’t this happening faster?”
I think it means be strong, keep on keeping on, it’s a whole thing, you guys. I know from my own
and all that.  experience of trying to get the word out for the
health conditions that I’m trying to educate people
So I went through one of those whole cycles of about. So hang in there, sir. Hang in there. We
60 years, five elements, 12 signs, and that was love you so much and we can’t wait to see what
the yang, young, wild, and crazy right? Now you you do next. And I know all of us are going to have
get into the yin cycle, 60 years of mentoring, to listen to this a couple more times, and make
teaching. Ah, passing wisdom down. Dentistry some more notes. 
is a mentoring profession. Really, a lot of young
dentist can get an opportunity to mentor with an Get the book, Mouth-Body Connection, get
older dentist, but many do not.  the toothpaste, and do those five action steps
that he was talking about. The sleep study, the
So I wanted to create an institute that can help cavitations, discovery or not with the Cone Beam.
with the mentoring, with the hands on. And make We’re not saying it’s free, you’re going to have to
it international so that dentists can come together maybe have a lemonade sale. I mean, do what
and really be able to share information, so that you can, right? Do what you can. Inch by inch, it’s
they can be better equipped to rejoin the ranks of a cinch. But if this is resonating with you, go look
the medical profession. I’d like to see the institute up that Organ Mouth Meridian Chart on Google,
be that discipleship and mentoring environment. they’re all over the place there. Go back and
I’d like to see the institute help foster bringing go, “Hmm, oh, wait, that tooth that has always
down that wall between medicine and dentistry. bothered me, that’s the meridian for...” fill in the
So that was the one thing I’d like to do before I blank. 
leave this planet. 
Maybe you have a correlation. Think about it.
And then the second thing is, I’d like to change This is not like instantaneous. This is a whole
what people stick in their mouths, and what study, a whole new awareness, a whole new
they’re using to take care of their bodies. And way of thinking. And then that way it can be
to understand that we have this incredible, confrontational and simultaneously, so freaking
wonderfully made, miraculous, living life force exciting. We should be excited about this, not
of the body. And what we use in there, and how confronted, instead, liberated. Final thoughts, sir. 
we treat each other is a very important part of
leaving this world a better place. And that’s really Dr. Curatola: There was a study done by the
the bottom line of where my entire mindset and Aetna health insurance company. I was just
mission is for the future.  thinking when you were saying, “Oh, maybe you
have to have a lemonade sale.” You know what?
Shivan: Well, it’s very clear, it’s very clear, and it’s We can make universal health insurance a reality
happening. I know, it’s not happening fast enough, by simply improving the health of your mouth. So
because anybody who is mission driven can swear they did a study on 145,000 patients at Columbia
by that, it never happens fast enough.  University and they found, over the course of

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treating periodontal disease, gum disease, for this. Japan took notice and started to initiate
example, in the mouth. campaigns for oral health that were not on
brushing, floss, and use a detergent toothpaste,
They lowered healthcare costs for the most they were taking a more organic approach. 
expensive systemic diseases; diabetes,
cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, If we improve the health of the mouth, we
stroke, Alzheimer’s, all that, mind, heart, pancreas, improve the health of the body. We make
big sources of damage. And, by the way, the most healthcare coverage affordable, so that we
expensive diseases to take care of, by 21%. In can live longer, healthier lives. Not by treating
dollars, in one year, in dollars; that translated into symptoms of disease, by organically building a
three quarters of a trillion dollars of savings; of base of health and wellness on the knowledge
savings.  that you’re bringing forward here. And thank you. 

So, what you are doing, dear Shivan, in educating Shivan: Right back at you. Thank you. Okay,
your people and I really admire your background, thank you, everyone, for listening. You have
what we were speaking about, I have to say, your marching orders. Listen to this over and
by educating people and empowering people over again, spread the word, tell your friends
with the information you’re doing... and that’s and family. It’s a gift. Tell strangers because
why I jumped on as the poster boy for biologic sometimes strangers will listen to you more than
dentistry, because you improve the health of the your friends and family. It’s a very liberating gift.
mouth, biologically, you reduce healthcare costs So thank you, Dr. Curatola, I appreciate you. 
by an average of 21%. 
Dr. Curatola: Thanks, Shivan. Thanks.
It was 23% for diabetes, it was 21% for
cardiovascular disease, and cerebral vascular
disease was around 20%. By the way, that study
was repeated in Japan. So let me just finish with

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Treat Your Airway and


Sleep Better
Dean Raio, DDS

Shivan: Hello, hello. Shivan Sarna here, with one See, these black spaces on the side here, this is
of my doctors, Dr. Raio. So good to see you, sir.  something for everyone to look at when they look
at their smiles because you guys have taught me
Dr. Raio: You too.  that that really can be an example of how you
can tell if you have a high palate. So a lot airway is
Shivan: When you go to the gym, they say you’re restricted. And so Dr. Raio really opened my eyes,
your vulnerable best, at least if you’re not like, and he’s been helping me open my airway. And
threatened and going to the dentist is similar to he’s here with us to talk today. Hi, thank you for
that. You’re just like... being here. 

Dr. Raio: Yes. Dr. Raio: Absolutely. So going to what you just
said about your palate, those black spaces on the
Shivan: Thank you so much for taking such good side, that’s called the buccal corridors. And that
care of me. I really appreciate it.  space should really be filled with your teeth and
your bone from your upper and lower jaw. And
Dr. Raio: You are so welcome. You’re easy to take when it’s not, it typically means that your upper
care of.  and lower jaw are too narrow. And especially a
narrow upper jaw means a very high palate. 
Shivan: Oh, that’s very kind of you. So ladies and
gentlemen, we’re working today with Dr. Raio. So if you picture, let’s say, like an orange cut in
We’re going to be talking about the bite, we’re half, and I’m showing you that part of the orange
going to be talking about airways, sleep, sleep where the fruit is, and you squeeze it this way,
apnea, how to fix it. What does it mean when you and that top part pops up, that’s representing
wake up in the middle of the night to pee? “Huh? your palate. So if it comes in this way, the palate
What? What does that have to do with my bite, goes up high. Now the significance of that high,
lady?” Talking about jaws dropping, Dr. Raio also narrow palate is the palate or the roof of your
did a consult for my husband, David. And both of mouth is also the floor of your nasal cavity. 
us have mild to moderate sleep apnea. 
So if your nasal cavity is this triangle here and
Mine is partly because of my very small airway my thumbs are your palate, and yours is really
and because I have mild Ehlers-Danlos, there’s a high, and it comes up like this, well, that closes off
lot of sagging that happens. And because I had your nasal breathing. So that’s one of the things
so many teeth removed and a very high palate. that that we address with this newish treatment,

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where we try to make permanent changes to your enlarged heart, diabetes, and the list goes on
breathing and your sleeping.  and on. There’s probably about 70 comorbidities
associated with sleep apnea.
Shivan: So tell me a little bit about your
background. Explain to everyone your perspective Shivan: Explain what a comorbidity is, just explain
and your training, if you would, please.  that if you would.

Dr. Raio: Sure. Well, I’ve been a doctor for many Dr. Raio: A comorbidity is a bad result of a
years, 20 plus years. I have specialized training in condition that you have. So it’s an added bad
sleep and airway through a company called Vivos, condition, basically. 
so I’m a clinical advisor for them. And that means
that I teach all the doctors in the US and around Shivan: It’s like it’s a neighbor, it’s a bad neighbor. 
the world how to do this treatment. I go over
their cases with them. We take a lot of photos and Dr. Raio: People with sleep apnea and sleep
Cone Beam CAT scans of our patients.  disordered breathing, or upper airway resistance
syndrome, those people, they’re like swiping
And I go through all of that with those docs, and a debit card every night. They’re not gaining
sort of direct them on how to treat these patients anything when they sleep. I mean, people with
for these issues. I’m also a diplomat for the ASBA, severe sleep apnea are said to not really sleep
the American Sleep and Breathing Academy. And I and not really be awake. I mean, they’re living
graduated from the University of Buffalo in 1995, their life in this fog, where they have poor focus
actually, so that’s a dental school there.  and poor productivity, and they don’t wake up
ready to attack the day. And for some people, it
Shivan: Very cool. Very cool. So alright, let’s talk happens to them early on, for some people, it
about what I was just touching on earlier, which happens to them later in life. 
is, I mean, what if people think they don’t really
have sleep apnea? So here I am. I’m not a typical Shivan: So how does being overweight...?
candidate of what someone would think who Like, you think of having this big belly, of being
would have sleep apnea, CPAP at some point; that morbidly obese, that’s kind of like what people
was a long time ago. And we need to talk about sometimes associate with sleep apnea. But that’s
CPAPs. And so if someone at home is like, “This not necessarily true. 
isn’t for me, I don’t need to listen to the rest of this
talk. I mean, yeah, I wake up in the middle of night Dr. Raio: It’s not true. As a matter of fact, most of
to pee every now and then. But yeah, I don’t have my patients are not overweight. But look, if you
sleep apnea.” What are some symptoms of sleep add 10 pounds, 20 pounds to a person’s body,
apnea that are unexpected? it’s going to make you sleep and breathe worse.
There’s no question about that. But the real cause
Dr. Raio: In adults, a very simple, obvious one of the condition that really, I would say 80 to 90%
is you always need a nap. You need a nap in of the population have, children and adults, by the
the middle of the day. You’re always planning way, is partially evolution, and partially just what
your day around a nap, trying to fit that into we don’t do for our infants and our toddlers that
the schedule. Brain fog, headaches. And look, we should do. 
the comorbidities of sleep apnea get a lot
more serious, like hypertension, heart disease, Shivan: Okay, what’s that? Come on now! Don’t

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hold out! your airway. When we go into a deeper sleep or a


REM sleep, and we have total muscle relaxation,
Dr. Raio: Right. So from an evolutionary the tongue just slides to the back of the throat
standpoint, okay, when we became Homo because there’s more space there on most of us. 
sapiens, let’s look at a chimpanzee compared to
a Homo sapien, we were more like a chimpanzee Shivan: Okay, so what about typical mouth
We had a smaller head and a smaller brain, but guards? I’ve got so much to talk to you about. So
we had somewhat of a snout and the snout is typical mouth guards. So wait a minute, I want to
what we’re missing now, but we traded our big go back to the list of things that people experience
brain and bigger head for our snout.  with sleep apnea that are unexpected.

So our face got pushed in but our brain got bigger, [10:00]
there’s not enough room in the mom to have a
snout and a big head, okay? That somewhat of a So my husband, sorry, honey, he doesn’t do this
snout is supposed to develop after birth. We really full blown snore, he whispers his snore. It’s a
need three years of breastfeeding to develop our heavy breathing. And I have to end up putting in
face. Breastfeeding is work, the tongue pushes earplugs but I’m super sensitive. But it’s fine. 
the breast up against the roof of the mouth. And
that’s how we get that growth of the palate, and But you guys talked and like, that’s a sign,
growth of the face.  waking up in the middle of night is a sign, to
go pee. I want to know about that because you
The tension the muscles put on the bone activates really explain that well, and then also grinding,
the bone to grow. So three years of breastfeeding clenching. “What? Sleep apnea? How’s this
is ideal and then a hard diet as a toddler. With possible? That doesn’t make any sense to me.”
our big brain that we traded our snout for, what I’m like, “Oh, I just have stress. That’s all it is, it’s
did we do with our big brain? We invented bottle stress.”
feeding, soft, mushy food, McDonald’s, melty stuff
that it does not develop our face. There’s very Dr. Raio: Look, there is obviously external stress
little chewing involved and you just swallow.  in our life, relationships, job, kids. 

But we need that action, this part of our body Shivan: It should be periodic, not like every night. 
needs that action to develop. And why is that
important? Why is the snout important? That’s Dr. Raio: Correct. That would be periodic stress,
where our tongue is. And 85, 90% of the time, it’s where you do it a lot for like, that day or two. I
our tongue that we are all choking on when we fall call that external stress. And then there’s internal
asleep. There’s not enough room in the oral cavity stress, when you stop breathing, you’ve stopped
itself for the tongue to live there happily, and stay breathing, you don’t get oxygen during that time.
there while we fall asleep.  And for some people, it can be for 10 seconds or
more, or 10 seconds or less. For some people, it’s
Shivan: So you’re kind of like choking on it in a multiple times an hour.
way. 
I’ve seen some people who stop breathing 70
Dr. Raio: You’re not kind of choking on it, you are times an hour, that’s more than once a minute.
choking on it, yeah. Your tongue just closes off But the cascade of events is this, you stop

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breathing, your brain knows it’s not getting difference between grinding and clenching?
oxygen, and it does something to get oxygen to
keep you alive. So your tongue blocks your airway, Dr. Raio: So grinding, you’re actually sliding the
the brain realizes there’s no oxygen coming in, mandible, the lower jaw, into different positions
and the brain makes you do something. It might but you’re typically clenching when you do that.
make you change position, whatever it is, it’s In other words, your upper and lower teeth stay
taking you from that deeper, restorative sleep to a in contact as you grind. Clenching is something
lighter sleep, so that you can move.  you do, like you think of, like if you’re going to lift
something heavy, and you kind of clench down.
Shivan: Wait a minute, oh, my God, oh my But they’re both very destructive. They’re both
gosh, that makes so much sense. It’s a survival very destructive to the bone, to the soft tissue,
technique.  and to the actual teeth. 

Dr. Raio: Exactly, yeah. Shivan: So what about a traditional dentist’s


mouth guard for all that? 
Shivan: The body’s going like, “Hey, dum-dum,
wake up, you’re not breathing.” Dr. Raio: When you make a traditional
mouth guard for grinding, you’re really just
Dr. Raio: But not necessarily wake up but coming putting something in between the upper and
from a deeper sleep to a lighter sleep. See, a lot lower jaw and the upper and lower teeth to
of people do think sleep apnea is like, “Oh, I wake protect the teeth. Now, is that going to stop
up so many times a night.” That’s not really sleep you from grinding? No, because you haven’t
apnea. Sleep apnea is, you go into those deep really addressed the sleep apnea. You haven’t
stages of sleep and REM sleep, but you don’t stay addressed the sleep disordered breathing.
there long enough to get rejuvenated, and to get You certainly haven’t addressed any external
that restorative amount of sleep that you need.  stress that the patient may have either. But it is
protective. It does help to protect the destruction
We’re supposed to go through all those phases that the grinding actually does. So it’s more of like
of sleep throughout the night. What happens a Band-Aid. 
with someone with sleep apnea is they go into
that deep, or REM stage, all the muscles relax, the Shivan: Okay, let’s say it goes untreated, where
tongue is a muscle, the tongue completely blocks you have the normal sleep mouth guard so you’re
their airway, the brain is not getting oxygen. The not grinding or whatever. We’re talking about
brain brings you to a lighter stage of sleep so that cortisol level changes, [inaudible] changes. Well,
you can move. what are some other issues? Like, why should we
take this so seriously? 
And then you might grind. The tongue is attached
to the lower jaw. So the brain makes you grind Dr. Raio: Well, the thing that I always say to
forward or to the side, but your jaw typically my patients is this, how many days can you go
comes forward, either at an angle or straight, in without food? Probably 30 and you could still
hopes of pulling the tongue out of your throat. survive. How many days without water? Maybe
And that’s how the grinding happens.  three days without water. How long can you go
without oxygen? Maybe three minutes. So it’s like,
Shivan: So grinding and clenching. What’s the which one is the most important and which one is

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the most overlooked?  Dr. Raio: The other two really important numbers
here are the RDI number. Okay, just bring it
Look, we take breathing and sleeping for granted. down a teeny bit. Good. The RDI number, which
It’s something that we should automatically know is 17.2. And the AHI number, which is 14.4.
how to do and we just do it. And most people Those numbers, so the RDI number at 17, that’s
wind up becoming mouth breathers because of respiratory distress index. And what that means
that. “I get more oxygen when I mouth breathe, so for this particular sleep study, is you stopped
I’m going to mouth breathe.” Big mistake. When breathing 17 times an hour for 10 seconds or
you mouth breathe, the difference between nasal less. Yes, that’s the respiratory distress. I know, it’s
breathing and mouth breathing... and look, there’s astonishing, right?
a lot more awareness about this now.
Shivan: We have to tell the world about this.
There’s multiple books written, great books Okay, we talked about the problem, I think
written about these topics now. And it’s great for everyone gets the idea there’s a problem. Let
me, it’s obviously great to have educated people, me just talk about diagnosis. Because I have
and have awareness with this. But when you literally slept in office buildings before that had
breathe through your nose, you filter the air, you sleep centers, so I’ve done this twice. It was a
warm the air, you moisten the air, you make nitric strip center, not a strip center, but a shopping
oxide, which is a vasodilator, it opens your vessels center that was in a strip mall, which was really
so that everything flows and drains better through weird. They were professionals, it was fine. But
your body. And that’s the oxygen that your lungs it’s not great. And then another time was another
and your body wants and needs; nasal oxygen. doctor’s office. So I’ve done this twice over the
past, like, let’s say 10 years. And David’s done a
Shivan: Nasal because it’s filtered and all that. couple of home sleep studies. 
Okay. 
Now this newest one, and not everybody’s going
Dr. Raio: I mean, think about how dry your mouth to have this kind of technology. Okay, you may
gets when you breathe through your mouth. Your still be in a sleep center and that’s fine. Great. But
mouth, your throat, everything is completely dry. what made it super easy for this one was that it
Why? Because the air is not moistened, it’s not was kind of like an iWatch, an Apple watch. You
made to be used optimally for you.  put the watch on, you put the finger thingy on,
you put the stickers on, and you go to sleep. So
Shivan: Let me show you this. It’s a long story, but it’s not as intimidating as it was in the past to get a
I wish I could be sharing my screen right now but sleep study done, depending on the technology of
here. What are you looking at there, those circles whoever’s office you’re working with.
that I made up top? Explain that if you will.
Dr. Raio: That is so key. And for this particular one
Dr. Raio: Okay, so that was your total recording that we gave you, it’s a single use sleep study. So
time of eight hours and 28 minutes, and your total nobody has used it before you and no one uses it
sleep time was seven hours and 11 minutes.  after you. And you don’t have to return the sleep
study. The data gets uploaded to a cloud that I am
Shivan: That seems like a long time. But just for able to access.
the record, I was not rested the next day. Okay, so
what else are we looking at here that’s important? Shivan: This is awesome. 

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Dr. Raio: You sleep with it one night. You put that but long term, if that soft tissue and muscle
a sticker on your chest, one probe, and a little is not doing anything for a long period of time,
watch.  like throughout the night, it becomes very weak
and flaccid, and typically, collapses more. And
Shivan: It was easy, you guys. It was easy. It that’s why most people with a CPAP are always
was nothing compared to, literally, I looked like constantly like increasing the pressure. “Oh, I
Clockwork Orange when I was in the building and used to have it on this number and it doesn’t work
they— anymore. I have to increase the pressure, increase
the pressure.”
Dr. Raio: Yeah, all the leads from your head and
your face.  So, long term with the CPAP, those are the
negatives of it. However, if you could learn to
Shivan: It was a lot. So definitely, the advanced sleep with a mask, and in the short term, it’s
technology is beautiful. Not everyone’s going to actually very helpful because you may wake up
have it, I understand but certainly, it’s moving feeling a lot better the next day. It doesn’t address
forward in the right direction. And it is much more the root cause of the problem. It sort of gets you
common than it used to be, much more common through. And that’s the way I look at a CPAP, it’s
and easy. You’re in your own bed. Because it’s a sort of a Band-Aid.
very weird feeling to think that you’re sleeping
in an office building, in an office, in a bed, and Shivan: They have improved the masks
people are watching you all night. Super creepy. drastically, you guys. I mean, some people will
need that, it depends. But it’s almost like... what
Dr. Raio: People watching you move and all that.  are those called that you put up the nose?

Shivan: Again, super creepy. Anyway, so this was Dr. Raio: They’re called nose pillows but it’s just
really interesting. Let’s talk about the solution. little rubber tips that go through your nose, but
And it’s a range, it’s a spectrum, isn’t it? Like, you you still have the whole hose that goes across
could have a CPAP, which has also improved your face and over your ears, and you’re attached
technology. If you don’t know what that is, it’s the to a machine.
Darth Vader mask. People have them, you see
them maybe on the airplanes or used to, and they Shivan: You are attached to the machine. I have
were carrying, it looks like a little cooler. What do received tremendous benefit from my CPAP. I
CPAPs exactly do? ended up being non-compliant after a while. But
I definitely noticed a difference. So I’m not saying
Dr. Raio: CPAP, actually, it’s positive airway to get off your CPAP and obviously, don’t take
pressure. So it forces air down your airway, either any of this as medical advice, talk to your doctors.
through your mouth or through your nose, down But I just wanted to do a distinction about that.
your upper airway, and sort of inflates it like a There’s some of my family members who are
balloon. So it’s a constant airway, a constant really resistant to doing a CPAP. I mean, like a
forced air going into you, so that it inflates the throw down resistance. And they ended up doing
airway, so it can’t get blocked, and holds it open.  it and they were like, “I’m sorry, this is the greatest
thing I’ve ever done. I’m sorry I was cranky.” They
Now, the upper airway is all soft tissue. It’s all weren’t cranky from being tired, first of all. They
soft tissue and muscle. So you can inflate it like lost all this weight.

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Dr. Raio: Exactly. By the way, you make a whole oral cavity. So we make permanent changes
good point by saying you don’t always use it. and get three dimensional growth by using these
Compliance is the main problem with a CPAP. So appliances.
many people have a CPAP, I bet you everybody
who’s watching knows somebody who has a CPAP, Shivan: And you have to have them adjusted
and most of them use it as a coat hanger, or to frequently, right? Like, beyond a retainer from
put their shirt on. And that’s the problem with it. when you were a kid and you got braces.

Shivan: Yeah, it’s a shame. It’s like your exercise Dr. Raio: Yes, it’s different because as we’re
equipment, you look at it and go, “I love you but I getting growth, things are changing and we
hate you.” Okay, so let’s talk about some of these have to make sure that that appliance is seating
other things where you can actually change the properly. This isn’t one of these appliances where
palate. There are a variety of devices, not just I kind of give it to you and I wish you luck. We
the one that you’re a diplomat for, but there are follow and make sure it’s tracking the way it
a variety and it’s exciting that there’s so many should. 
options. So this is not an advertorial for anything,
but you can move the palate and I am fascinated Shivan: Yes, it’s serious business.
by this. And then we’ll wrap up because I know
we’re running out of time with you. Thank you Dr. Raio: For children too, like there’s appliances
so much, I know you’re very busy. So talk to me for children and you see just incredible results
about these devices in general and the theory with the kids because they’re already growing. So
behind them.  when you add something to them that’s now sort
of egging their growth on even more, it’s amazing
Shivan: So the theory behind these devices is what happens. 
getting growth. Can we get the growth that that
person did not get? I always look at a person, Shivan: I’ve been thinking a lot about this, as you
“Can I bring that person, in this area of their can imagine and I watch all these shows, all the
body, their mid-face... can I bring that to their singers, all the contests and stuff, and I see all
genetic potential? What they should have gotten these videos. And I’m like, “Oh my gosh, these
to if they got three years of breastfeeding and a singers that can belt it out. They don’t have any of
hard diet as a toddler.” And the appliances that I these buckles.”
make really mimic that, and I do get growth. So,
I do get with the maxilla, the upper jaw, and that Dr. Raio: No, they have huge space. 
tends to bring the palate down. And we’re talking
millimeters but the changes you see in the person Shivan: Because I’ve always been like, “They must
are extremely dramatic.  be from another planet,” because not only can I
not sing, I can’t even imagine singing because I
If you get somebody more oxygen, it is incredible. don’t know where to begin with. 
The person’s skin is better, their hair is better,
they feel better, they’re more focused, they sleep Dr. Raio: Right. And if you look at athletes as well,
better, and a lot of things that they used to feel if you look at the really, really amazing athletes,
just kind of go away. But the idea is to get growth. you know that they’re nasal breathing and that
So we get width and we get some forward growth their airway is wide open. And they most likely
and that increases the size of the airway, and the sleep amazing, as well. 

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Shivan: Very interesting.  breather. And a kid who has allergies, and


becomes a mouth breather because of that,
Dr. Raio: I look at the same thing, that same thing you’re breathing through your mouth and you’re
what you just brought up. taking in all the pollutants, all the toxins, all the
allergens that are in the air. And those particular
Shivan: I’m like, “Look at Adele’s mouth. Oh, my tissues in the throat would react the worst,
God.” typically, and they get very enlarged. 

Dr. Raio: Yeah, I have a before and after Cone So the tonsils and adenoids, kids are getting
Beam that I could share with you. those out all the time. And this particular child,
we avoided it, and you can see with the colored in
Shivan: Oh, thank you so much. I remember airway. Can you see that? How different it is now
talking about this, I’d love to see it if you want to and she’s a much happier kid. This kid was also a
share it.  bed wetter and she stopped wetting the bed.

Dr. Raio: Let me share my screen. [30:00]

Shivan: The thing with the Cone Beam is, again, in And we spoke about bedwetting. If your brain
case someone seeing this video as their first video is not getting oxygen, it will pull oxygen from a
of this session.  lesser important organ like the bladder, and the
bladder releases. And in children, a lot of times
Dr. Raio: So okay, I’ll explain it. It’s a Cone Beam that’s the reason why they’re wetting the bed
CAT scan of basically, the head and neck, but it because they have some form of sleep disordered
shows the airway. So this is the before and after breathing or sleep apnea. 
here. Can you see my mouse? 
Shivan: Let’s just have a moment, if you know
Shivan: Yes.  someone whose child is wetting the bed... you
can go ahead and stop sharing your screen. If
Dr. Raio: Okay. So right here is before, you see you know someone whose child is wetting the
the airway, this is her nose. She’s looking off in bed that can devastate a family. Yeah, you start
this direction, the lips, nose, so everybody gets to change that dynamic in that whole family, that
oriented. And this was the size of her airway, and shame cycle, the physicality. 
these are her adenoids right here. And if we move
over here, this is about a year later, the adenoids Dr. Raio: Exactly, yeah. And the kid doesn’t know
shrunk back considerably here. No more adenoid why. There’s a lot of blame, right? “I told you to go
surgery needed and the airway is much bigger. I to the bathroom before you went to sleep.” “I did.”
could show you... let me show you.  “Well, then why did you wet the bed?” And once
we all know why, and what we can do about it, it
Shivan: Could you clarify and remind us what an just changes entire families. And that’s really one
adenoid is?  of my favorite things to do when I’m doing this
kind of work. 
Dr. Raio: So the tonsils and adenoids, it’s basically
lymph tissue in the back of our throats. And Shivan: Fantastic. I thank you so much. Thank
this gets super inflamed when you’re a mouth you so much for your life changing work. It really

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has helped so many people and I know it will help


even more. So if someone wanted to find a variety
of sleep specialists, you said you were a part of an
organization about the breathing and the airway.
What’s the name of it? 

Dr. Raio: Oh, the American Sleep and Breathing


Academy. Yes. ASBA.

Shivan: Do they have a directory people who are


trained? 

Dr. Raio: Yes, they do. They might be all trained


in different ways of doing it. They could also go
to the Vivos website, which is vivoslife.com, and
there’s definitely a directory there as well. 

Shivan: Okay, lots of options for everybody.


Thank you so much. Don’t go anywhere, Dr. Raio,
I’ve got a question for you off camera. Thanks,
everybody.

Dr. Raio: You got it.

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Masterclass: Holistic Oral


Health
Anne Hill, ND

Dr. Anne Hill: Hi, everyone, my name is Dr. Anne Oral Microbiome Project found that in nearly
Hill. I am a naturopathic physician and I practice almost half of their subjects, both the oral cavity
in the Portland Oregon area. And I’m going to talk bacteria and the stool bacteria lined up, were
to you today about oral healthcare. I talk to my basically kind of the same. And I think that’s, in
patients about this a lot, there’s a lot of issues that many ways, a testament to the fact that we are
come up for them that I need to help teach them sharing this bacteria up and down this whole gut
a little bit about what I know with my experience too.
of being a patient in the dentist’s chair. 
The oral bacteria that we have can reach the rest
But also, what I’ve learned throughout the years of our gut via saliva. And so interestingly, I didn’t
of being a physician who treats chronic infectious realize this before doing this talk, but we can
disease. The mouth is an area where there can swallow upwards of .75 to one and a half liters of
be a lot of infections and different things going saliva daily. Now, I oftentimes tell my patients to
on that I need to make sure that I roll that out in drink about two liters of water a day if they can,
a lot of my patient population. So I’m going to go at the least. So the fact that we’re also swallowing
ahead and share my screen.  that amount in saliva was actually kind of
surprising to me. So this is actually a great way for
So let’s talk a little bit about the mouth. The oral our body to be able to send oral bacteria down
cavity is actually pretty much the largest orifice into the rest of the gut. 
we have; that we interact with our body, where
we interact with the outside world. And obviously, Any kind of disturbances in the gut microbiota
because it is where we’re putting foreign things may be caused by swallowing all of this bacteria,
into our body on a daily basis, all day long, we and it can lead to endotoxemia and all the
want to make sure that everything in this area is disorders that I’m going to be talking to you about
working well and properly, so that we can fight off today. So when they did the Human Microbiome
any infections. So that we’re not eating things that Project, they actually established a database
are going to be really bad for us. And so that we just specifically for the oral microbiome, there’s
can have the most optimal health possible.  about 700 different species that they found that
were very specific to our mouths. And in every
So the mouth is basically the beginning of a large human being, there’s at least a hundred species
tube. And I talk to a lot of patients about this of different bacteria living in their mouth. 
when we’re talking about their gut health, and
that’s why it’s important for us to look at it. The Not only that, but it also defined nine different

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biome states in the mouth. So the biome states And so this is an example of plaque from a
that they found were the tongue, the palate, tooth, and the inside of it is corynebacterium.
which is that upper part of the roof of your That corynebacterium is the purple, the outside
mouth, the sub and supragingival plaque, and of it that’s green is streptococcus. And what
that’s the actual plaque or the stuff that’s on your they found is that these work in tandem, so the
teeth that the dentists are scraping off when you corynebacterium does not like to be exposed to
go in. The keratinized gingiva, and that is the red oxygen. So that’s why it forms kind of a core on
gingiva which is immediately surrounding your the inside, and then the strep grows on top of it.
tooth. The buccal mucosa that’s just on the inside And the strep actually itself, is being exposed to
of your cheeks, the throat, and your saliva is its more of the oxygenated environment. And so in
very own microbiome.  that way, it protects that inner core of the plaque. 

And so, interestingly enough, even though our Okay, so I’ve been hearing about this for years,
tongue is constantly touching the roof of our probably a lot of you who have been listening
mouth, and all these parts of our mouth are to health and thinking about health related
constantly touching one another, they all have subjects have as well. And so I’ve known about
totally different microbiomes So much so, that a gum disease and issues with your teeth as being
trained scientist, if you were to take a Q tip and problematic for heart disease, lung conditions,
scrape off the tongue and a Q tip and scrape off things like that. But honestly, as a physician, it
the buccal mucosa, they would be able to see the was never anything that we were really taught
difference and they would know exactly where about at school. If anything, maybe there was just
that Q tip came from.  sort of a brief mention of that, but I never had a
whole day long or week long lecture on how these
So each of these microbiomes is going to have a things connect. And there are a lot more studies
different of bacterial species. So for example, in coming out about some of the issues that they’re
the saliva, prevotella is one of the biggest species understanding now are much more related to our
that’s there. And the tonsils, veillonella, I think gut health. 
is how you pronounce this, is one of the biggest
species in our saliva. And then on the tongue, Okay, so this is the gut gum access is what some
streptococcus, prevotella, fusobacterium. I look at scientists are calling this; this is actually a review
those a lot when I’m looking at the GI testing that that just came out in February of this year, 2021.
I’m doing for patients.  And this is a really nice review and really why I
have it in here because they basically are talking
So this is actually a really cool picture. This is a about that over 50 different diseases have been
picture that what scientists did is when they were associated with gingivitis and periodontitis,
looking at plaque, they were trying to figure out and that’s a pretty huge amount. So, some of
how different colonies of bacteria would live those diseases are anemia, diabetes, metabolic
together. And so what they did is they stained syndrome, high cholesterol, rheumatoid and
these different colonies. So this is an example of osteoarthritis. 
plaque. Plaque is one of the densest microbial
habitats on the earth. That along with the tongue, So that’s autoimmune arthritis as well as arthritis
they found. It’s got about 100 billion organisms that we get in our older age from just overuse.
per gram.  Osteoporosis, which is where our bones are
becoming weaker. Crohn’s disease, ulcerative

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colitis, GI cancers, these are all also related. and basically just kind of said the same thing that
Kidney failure, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. I experienced as a physician. That there’s really
Preeclampsia, some of you might not know a very large lack of familiarity with primary care
what that is, that is when a woman develops physicians and emergency room physicians with
hypertension towards the end of her pregnancy, understanding about oral health and how some of
and it’s actually quite a dangerous condition and our patients might be presenting with that. 
typically leads to C sections.
And one of the things that she talked about is
Preterm birth, they’ve actually known about this every single doctor needs to know their laundry
for a long time, there’s been a strong association list of what is a fever of unknown origin. And that
with women with periodontal disease and not means someone’s going to come to your office
being able to carry a baby to full term. Testicular throughout your entire career, this happens
dysfunction and male infertility. Certainly, many of quite often, and they’re going to have a fever,
my younger couples that I have in my practice are and they’re not going to know why and you’re
dealing with issues of infertility these days. And not going to know why. So you need to be able
then the newer kids on the block, dementia and to understand what the workup is for that. And
Alzheimer’s. There was actually just some more sometimes that can be a flu, sometimes it can be
recent studies coming out about Alzheimer’s with an infection, that’s easier to see. 
relation to having periodontitis and gingivitis. 
But what we can’t see is if there’s a tooth infection,
So is this a disregarded specialty? Absolutely, or an abscess. And it’s not always directly related
really as physicians, we need to be incorporating to pain in that area. And she said, oftentimes,
this into our practice. And who I always refer to medical students are missing this, simply because
are what we call biologic dentists. And oftentimes, it’s really just not on their radar because they’re
what biologic dentists do is they’re not just looking not thinking about teeth and tooth health. The
at your teeth as a patient, they’re also looking at other aspect of the fact that this is so disregarded
the gingiva. They’re looking at all of the buccal is that like, honestly, myself, as a patient, I’ve
mucosa, making sure that you do not have any, never had an insurance plan cover dental health.
like precancerous lesions that are starting to It’s never seen as an important part of our being
grow.  in this planet and in this body, that we would have
dental health.
The dentist that I work with that I bring myself and
my kids to tests the pH of your mouth to make Dental health is always kind of that secondary
sure that it’s not an environment for growth of thing like, “Oh, yeah, you can add that on if you’d
a lot of plaque. And then a lot of the times that I like to add that on.” And really, this is doing a
refer my patients out is when I feel like there’s a great disservice for a lot of the people that are
deeper infection going on. Not just gingivitis and in the insurance healthcare system because
periodontitis but possibly infections under the oftentimes, we can prevent larger infections,
teeth that are very difficult to see, and we’ll kind of larger problems from going on, simply by
get into that.  including dental health in our understanding
and our ability to be able to get healthcare paid
So this is actually taken from an article I found, for. People who are at greater risk, of course,
this doctor, Dr. Crane, who’s at the Mayo Clinic are in the geriatric population. They tend to
in Rochester, Minnesota, was being interviewed have a lot more issues with circulation and even

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neurological function, which basically leads to a reaction that creates all this inflammation. And
lot of dental issues where they don’t even feel then what that does is that creates an issue where
these dental issues for a really long time.  all of the cells in your oral mucosa, as well as in
your gut mucosa become really big and puffy, and
Medicare does not cover routine dental care, inflamed. And so it’s harder for our body to keep
unless it’s integral to another medical treatment. these inflammatory products, these bacteria, the
So a lot of times what happens is people who antibodies inside the gut, and it actually translates
don’t have healthcare, or who have the very kind to the outside. 
of low cost, high deductible healthcare, they end
up with an abscess or something going on with And so it comes into our circulatory system and
their teeth, and they actually end up in the ER, starts causing issues with the rest of our body,
which of course, puts another burden on the ER and becoming more inflamed with that. And
and the healthcare system, and cost. And then then that, of course, leads to more systemic
it’ll get paid for but it won’t get paid for if they go inflammation, which then is going to lead to
to a dentist if they don’t have any kind of dental different diseases. This chart just talks about
coverage.  cardiovascular diseases, but we’ve already kind of
gone through a list of all the different things that
And then Medicaid provides an optional adult could happen. 
dental care plan. However, in many states, it fails
to meet the requirements for a dental care plan. Okay, so let’s start at the beginning, gingivitis and
So it’s very little. And then many plans will actually periodontitis. Gingivitis is where everything starts.
tap out at only a certain amount of money to And that’s where we start getting plaque on our
reimburse. And then the other thing is, is that teeth. And then the gingiva, which is that red area
the reimbursement rates are so low, that there’s there which is the tissue that’s surrounding our
very few dentists that actually really want to take teeth starts getting really irritated because it does
Medicaid patients on. And that’s not because not like having plaque on that tooth. And so then
they don’t care, it’s just that they’re not getting what happens is, if it’s not taken care of, it will
reimbursed for all of the time and the money that actually go deeper down underneath the gingiva
they have spent getting this incredible education and will cause periodontitis. 
that they’ve gotten through our dental medical
schools.  So both of these can end up destroying the
connective tissue. This is the primary reason for
Okay, so what happens? How does this translate? tooth loss in adults and worldwide, this affects
And I’ve done talks before on the gut and what nearly 50% of the population. And really what
happens when we get inflammation in our gut, that means is it’s one of the most common
and how it gets into our body. And it’s kind of inflammatory diseases in all humans. So this is a
the same thing as oral health. So when you have really important thing to be looking at and taking
pathogenic bacteria, gram negative bacteria, they care of all over the world. 
have this lipopolysaccharide layer on them that
our immune system hates. And it creates a very When I’ve done a lot of traveling, I’ve certainly
huge reaction, like an immune reaction. And then seen lots of kids who are like 7, 8, 9, who just have
what happens is it creates this endotoxemia.  little nubs for teeth, because they do not have any
oral healthcare. And all I could think is those poor
So what that is, it’s basically like a big immune kids, they’re going to be growing up with all these

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horrible diseases that are plaguing the Western mouth. They will oftentimes do like kind of deep
world.  cleanings of plaque and put antibiotics in the
mouth. And this has actually shown to reverse
Okay, let’s talk a little bit about this particular some of these markers for patients. 
bacteria, porphyromonas gingivalis. If you look
this up on PubMed, you are going to see a So this is also really important. I don’t know about
bazillion studies; people have been looking at this you guys, but when my grandparents grew up
for a long time. This is one of the bacteria that there was not a lot of Alzheimer’s and dementia,
plagues us as humans, plagues our teeth, and it was actually quite rare. And it’s becoming very
we know it creates a lot of long term issues for big now, so I kind of worry about my parents and
people. It’s been related to most of these diseases I worried about my kids and me, what’s going to
that are related to oral health.  happen to us; are we all kind of fated to go down
this Alzheimer’s path? So this, I think, is even more
This study just came out this last year, and this of a better reason for us to all be taking care of
study actually really shows that you can no our oral health.
longer just cut off the oral microbiome from
the gut microbiome. But even just a single Autism spectrum disorder. I know a lot of
exposure, even just one swallow of your saliva providers, I’m friends with a lot of providers who
that has porphyromonas gingivalis in it is going treat this in kids. And one of the things that they
to potentially increase inflammation in the entire always just have to start with is the gut because
GI tract, create endotoxins, and then create more they know that a lot of kids who have autism
systemic inflammation.  spectrum have a really imbalanced gut. We
also have known for a long time that our social
So these are just a few studies that I pulled, behavior, it can be modulated through dysbiosis.
there’s a lot of studies about oral health and And so if we try to correct that it can actually
cardiovascular disease. It’s directly related to correct some of those things. 
atherosclerosis, it’s directly related to peripheral
artery disease, as well as coronary artery disease, So this is actually one of the studies that really
and hypertension. So one of the things that just links it specifically to the oral microbiome.
porphyromonas gingivalis puts out is what we And what they found in this study is that they
call a virulence factor. And this is basically just actually corrected the dysbiosis within the oral
something that it spits out to create more havoc microbiome with bacteroides fragilis. And they
in the system. And we know that this boosts the found that there was a reverse of psychological,
expression of pro inflammatory components that neurological, and immunological issues in mice
then are going into our cardiovascular system.  who had already been bred to be autistic. 

Okay, this is sort of the new kid on the block, Mental health, I just want to note this, there are
Alzheimer’s. There’s been a lot more studies several studies in PubMed relating periodontal
coming out recently about Alzheimer’s as being disease with mental health illness. It’s certainly
pretty much directly related to porphyromonas a passion of mine because I do you feel like a lot
gingivalis and infections in the mouth. And of my patients sort of get shoved off to the side
actually, interestingly, with this study, they also and diagnosed with mental illness, rather than
show that you can reverse that by doing all the people listening to them. And it oftentimes ends
health care things that we need to do in the up being some sort of mold illness or chronic

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Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, things that we don’t And oftentimes, it’s because they’ve got a chronic
oftentimes tend to take seriously, unfortunately, mold illness, or they’ve had chronic sinusitis. So
as physicians, because we don’t really understand they’ve had some other sort of chronic thing that
them, and we don’t really understand how to treat is happening with their immune system, and then
them. So periodontal disease, of course, because suddenly, their teeth fall out. 
it is stemming from an infection, I think very much
can be at role in mental illness too. So there’s a really great interview, I would
encourage all of you to listen to this, by a British
Okay, and then coming kind of to the end, lung dentist, and her name is Victoria Samson. And
disease, this is also been known about for a really she basically just said, when COVID started, she
long time. And really, the actual mechanism of got really bored. And she was really interested
this and a very strong relation with COPD, and in why the risk factors for COVID and for having
pneumonia, including bacterial pneumonia is that severe COVID and ending up in the hospital, were
you’re actually breathing in the bacteria through the same as the risk factors for periodontitis. And
your mouth. And that is going to go directly to the she started looking through all the literature and
lungs, and that is going to create an area where all the studies that were coming out, and came
the lungs, the respiratory epithelium is going to up with some really interesting thoughts that I
be having to fight stuff off all the time. And so it’s wanted to share with you today. 
going to make it more susceptible when other
things come along, such as COVID.  Number one, she talked about that in the flu
outbreak of 1918, there were subsequent
So, one of the things that’s been very interesting bacterial infections that were really, honestly,
that’s come out this last year and probably the main killers of most people. And so she
everybody else has been paying attention to a lot called these bacterial super infections. And in
of the interesting medical things that have come COVID-19, 50% of patients have had secondary
up with COVID. So, some of them are like, “Well, bacterial infections when they died. And she
what’s this? How come people are losing their said, it’s actually really hard for, especially with a
sense of smell? Why are we losing our sense of pandemic, where there’s a lot of people showing
taste? What’s COVID toe?”  up at the hospital, not all due diligence is taken to
figure out what’s going on. We just say, “Well, they
And one of the things to me, that was really have COVID,” and we’re not sure. 
fascinating that came out early on, it wasn’t from
this article, but I believe it was another New York But a lot of these patients have had these
Times article where a dentist and his practice was bacterial infections that they’ve succumbed to.
being interviewed. And he was basically saying, And their immune system normally may be able
like, since COVID began, he was starting to see to fight these off but with COVID-19, because it’s
patients calling up left and right, because their a newer infection, because our immune systems
teeth were falling out. Okay, so what does that are freaking out about it, they’re trying to learn
mean? That’s super interesting to me, I remember about it, they don’t have any time to take care
always thinking about that.  of potentially other infections that are already
there in our bodies. Because we are exposed to
And I’ve actually seen that a lot in my practice, viruses, we’re exposed to bacteria, we’re exposed
where we start treating patients for different to spirochetes.
things, and sometimes their teeth will fall out.

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And our immune system can typically keep these So these are some of the questions that I ask all
at bay, but what we’ve been seeing with COVID is my patients, I obviously don’t ask every single one
that our immune system can no longer keep these all the time. But I do more due diligence when
things at bay. And so it’s so distracted by fighting patients first come to see me because I want
off this new virus that these other infections to get a good feel for their dental health. I want
start coming to the forefront. And that’s why to make sure they’re seeing a dentist regularly.
the thought is that people are losing their teeth I want to make sure that they have not been
really quickly or the lung issues, or the issues with diagnosed with gingivitis or periodontitis. 
people dying. 
And sometimes people don’t really get diagnosed
So, she also mentioned that about three quarters with that in the dental chair but I think at this
of people who were admitted to the hospital early point, all the hygienists will go through people’s
on, this study is from pretty much a year ago at teeth and kind of do that like pocket where they’ll
this point or this paper is from that long ago at shout out a bunch of numbers to the person
this point, when people were admitted to the who’s doing the typing. And they’ll say, 3, 1, 2, 2, 1,
hospital, they almost all needed antibiotics. And 4. And I’ll ask them if they’ve ever been told that
they showed that there’s definitely higher cure they have deep pockets, because they might not
rates with both an antiviral and an antibiotic.  actually be diagnosed with these things. But they
might be told by their dentist that they have some
And then she talked about something called deep pockets that they need to work on. 
lymphocyte exhaustion, which I thought was
fascinating because this is something that I feel I also always ask if they have any metal fillings,
like I see in my practice all the time. Where we having any teeth pulled, including wisdom teeth,
treat one thing and then that gets better, and having root canals or implants, or crowns. And
then something else flares up. And it’s because I always ask patients if they know what they’re
these people have multiple infections, they have made out of. And then also, when I’m doing
an immune system that doesn’t work. And they’re physical exam, I want to look at those because
really just kind of stomping out one fire, like it’s sometimes if there’s a crown that has metal in it,
kind of playing whack a mole a little bit with some you can actually see the metal around the base of
of these patients.  the crown. Or, “Did you have any orthodontia? Do
you have any permanent metals in your mouth
The other thing that she likened this to that I from this?” 
want to mention is AIDS. And she talks about
how it’s similar in some ways to AIDS or to HIV, This is fascinating to me, when I was growing
because when people contract HIV, they’re not up, they stuck the braces on and they took them
typically dying of the virus, they’re dying of the right off, and then we just went about our merry
super infections that are caused by the virus, way. And now with my kid’s generation, what I’m
taking up all of our immune system space time noticing is they’re putting all of these permanent
continuum. So the first one here is the study that retainers in to sort of keep their teeth in place for
Dr. Samson had put out. And then subsequently, the rest of their life. “Do you have any symptoms
there were many, many more studies that came in your mouth related to pain, discomfort,
out about COVID and issues with infections in the chewing, or bleeding gums?” 
jaw and the mouth. 
This is really important to ask. This is kind of the

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main question that the dentists always asked me all right connected. It’ll deposit in our brain.
and I think as primary care physicians, we should
be asking this. And then also, “Do you grind your And it also crosses the placental barrier. This is
teeth in sleep, snore, or have any issues with probably one of the biggest reasons why I have
sleep apnea that we should talk about today?” young women coming in to see me because
Those are all a good kind of oral health history to before having children, they want to actually do
be taking from patients.  some heavy metal testing and get as much heavy
metal out of their body as possible so that they’re
So let’s kind of go into just a quickie, what are the not passing it on to their baby. In 1975 is when
things that I’m thinking about when I’m asking high mercury copper fillings were introduced
these questions? And why am I going to refer and by 1976, there was a clear increase of
these patients back to a biologic dentist or a autoimmune disorders. MS, ALS, in the United
holistic dentist? Mercury fillings is one. Mercury States. This is a quote from a dentist who I heard
fillings contain at least 50% or more mercury, speak at a talk. 
as well as other metals; silver, copper, tin, and
zinc are some of the common ones. Mercury is Okay, so the other thing I’m thinking about, first of
poisonous, there’s no doubt about it, we know all, you don’t always want to just go run willy-nilly,
that; it’s proven. And it can move into different pulling your mercury fillings out. If they’re very
states. It can vaporize. It can go from solid to stable, I usually recommend not, unless you’re
liquid to vapor with temperature fluctuations. super sick. And we know that we’re kind of having
And so we have temperature fluctuations in our a direct connection. And when you’re testing very
mouth all the time.  high in mercury, then that’s when you want to get
them taken out, so just as a caveat.
One of the things that’s interesting to me is I did
have one case where a patient had a really high The other thing I look at a lot for my patient
fever and then her mercury filling popped out. population is something that is called cavitational
So we know there was kind of something there. osteonecrosis or ischemic osteonecrosis. And
Mercury amalgam fillings, they call them mercury we also call these cavitations, I’ve been told by
amalgams, because basically, it’s mercury plus dentists that that’s not the proper term, but that’s
it’s a whole bunch of other metals in with it. An the quickie term that we use. If there’s cavitations
average filling will contain 780 milligrams of and there’s cavities, and cavities are what the
mercury and this exceeds the EPA regulation for dentist is drilling out on top of your teeth;
the amount of mercury that we should be being cavitations is actually where you have an infection
exposed to.  underneath the tooth. And what happens is, when
you get that infection underneath the tooth, it can
Now, when it vaporizes from different start eating away at the bone in the jaw. 
temperature fluctuations in our body, our bodies
just don’t handle heavy metals very well. We There’s many different ways where this can
actually physically have to chelate heavy metals. happen and I’ll talk about these in a second. But
And so, what happens is when this vaporizes, it basically, I’ve had a lot of patients in my practice,
actually kind of deposits in our body, which is not who have some kind of chronic infectious disease
good. So it can go into our kidneys, our liver, our and sometimes it boils down to the reason why
spleen, it can cross our blood brain barrier, of they’re not getting better, is because they have
course, really easily because it’s all right there and a cavitation in their jaw. And it’s not always that

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easy to diagnose, the imaging isn’t that great. been kicked in the jaw. So any kind of trauma
You have to have a dentist who believes this can can basically either break the tooth and it can
happen. cause blockage of blood flow that might not be
necessarily visualized very easily. Any kind of
Because many dentists and endodontists don’t improperly performed procedure to extract a
believe that there can be infections underneath a tooth. 
tooth that’s had a root canal or that’s been pulled.
They probably don’t believe it because they can’t Now, this maybe isn’t the right way to say this,
see it readily in X-rays, or it’s not as easy to see. sometimes it’s really difficult for dentists to
Although that is changing now, as we’re coming get teeth out. And sometimes, like I have had
out with CT Cone Beam scans, more dentists are patients, where they’ve had teeth pulled that they
doing this in their office to be able to catch these say, “Yeah, the dentist had a really tough time
things. And oftentimes, especially if it’s been a getting that out.” And sometimes they’ve had like
root canal tooth or a tooth that’s been pulled, it little pieces of tooth like, still stuck inside there.
doesn’t actually have a nerve anymore.  In fact, one of my patients right now is going to
go get a cavitation taken care of because of this.
When they do a root canal, they actually kill the She had a wisdom tooth pulled out and there’s a
nerve if it’s not dead already and then they just little tiny piece of the root that’s been left in there.
stuff gutta percha, which is like a rubber like It’s very difficult for the dentist to visualize that,
substance, in there. So you no longer have any unfortunately. 
connection, nerve wise, to that tooth. Which
means when you’re having pain, if people do tend The other thing is, is if you pull a tooth out and
to have pain with these, it’s going to translate you just put a little stitch in it, you can still get
elsewhere. It’s not going to come up through that bacteria. We have to eat food, right? So for the
particular tooth, it’s going to become a chronic two weeks that that little stitch is holding the
earache, it’s going to become chronic neck pain, gingiva together, we’re still going to be eating a lot
or it’s going to become chronic headaches. of food. And so there’s still a possibility of getting
bacteria in that area where that’s healing. And so
Sometimes it will start affecting the alveolar sometimes the gingiva can kind of heal over that
nerves and then you will actually get shooting area, but then there’s still bacteria underneath
pain along the jaw. And I’ve had several patients that can start festering and growing. 
who have come in with that. Just they’ve come in
and actually, many of the doctors that they went Overheating the bone during a dental procedure.
to go see said, “I’m not really sure what’s going I know lots of dentists, of course, are really good
on with you.” They just didn’t know. They were and try not to do this, but this is a possibility. And
like, “Here, take some pain medications,” and they then tooth abscess penetrating into the bone and
didn’t really get it checked out. So I sent them to a becoming isolated within the bone. So there could
dentist to have this imaging done and we did find be an abscess that’s still left in the bone from a
that they had infection in their jaw.  root canal procedure or even just from having
really bad periodontitis or gingivitis. Our teeth
Okay, so what happens? How does this happen? have something called dentin, which if you look at
Any kind of trauma to the bone, I’ve certainly them under a microscope, they’re these very, like
had a couple of different cases in my patient interesting little tubules that go all the way down
population where they’re soccer players, they’ve through the teeth, and they go from the top of the

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teeth all the way down into the root of the teeth.  surgery on this patient. 

And so obviously, with any root canals, or having Diagnosing cavitations, this would be called a
lots of inflammation in that top area of the tissue cavitation or that cavitational osteonecrosis.
that can get into the tooth and actually kind of Diagnosing this has been really difficult. Many
go all the way down into the jawbone. So, it’s dentists for a long time and still will do, they’ll use
very difficult, we cannot visualize that at all on a panoramic X-ray and that’s where they actually
any X-rays or anything. So that’s just something do an X-ray all around your full jaw. It’s actually
that we have to understand, is a potential for a machine that is on wheels and it kind of goes
happening.  around your jaw. This is harder to see with X-rays
unless it’s super obvious. And in fact, they don’t
Continuing infection at the base of the tooth, post think that on X-rays, you can really see anything
root canal. With root canals, they basically just until there’s at least 50% bone loss in the jaw. 
take out the pulp and they take out the nerve, and
they stuff the gutta percha in there. They do do So the newer kid on the block, which a lot of the
some stuff where they’re kind of cleaning it out, dentists that I refer to are getting are called CT
but because it’s connected into the jaw, you can Cone Beam scans. It’s much easier to see kind of
still have infection underneath there that if you’re the tissue, it’s much easier to see the bone, and
just doing a root canal, it’s not going to catch and visualize areas where there might be some bone
then that can become kind of a festering infection.  being eaten away from infection. And the CT Cone
Beam scan, they can actually just bring it right up,
And then periimplantitis, and this is where people and they usually do like one quadrant at a time.
are getting implants, and where the implants Or they’ll do one tooth at a time to look at it really
are causing a huge immune reaction. And which carefully, to make sure that there’s no cavitations
this, of course, causes issues with our bodies in that area. 
being more susceptible to having bacteria kind of
grow down in there, and biofilms and things like Okay, root canal issues, we kind of talked about
that.  this before. The accessory canals from the dentin
can still have an infectious process in there that
Okay, it’s never this clear, this is actually from the endodontist just can’t see. So that can kind
a study on PubMed. These are these periapical of be locked in. Accessory roots in the tooth,
roots of teeth. And as you can see here, this we talked about that. Or sorry, we didn’t talk
would be the patient’s right side, you can see this about that. But I have also had patients have
is exactly what the bony matrix needs to look like. this happen, where they’ve gone in and gotten
It needs to look kind of like this little model, the a root canal. And there’s a lot of like anatomical
area here. And that’s actually our physical matrix differences in humans, we generally tend to have
that’s inside the bone. And this is the tooth root.  three roots in our back teeth, but every once
in a while people will have a fourth root. And
And then when you look at this tooth root, look sometimes the dentist or the endodontist cannot
at what this looks like. This is a big black spot on always visualize that with imaging. 
there. So there’s obviously been some sort of
festering infection in there that has basically eaten So sometimes I have had a couple patients
away at that jawbone. And so this is somebody throughout the years, where they had a really bad
that they did find the lesion and they had to do cavitation, the dentist had to pull the tooth, and

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then what they found is that there was a whole before, I’ve had some of my mold patients come
nother root that the endodontist missed. And this back and say, “Oh, my God, my tooth is falling out
is not because it was a bad endodontist, it was of my mouth.” And I’ve wondered a lot about this.
just because we just don’t really have the best And I think it’s because they’ve had this sort of
imaging for this. And then bone damage due to chronic sinus infection from the mold illness that
infection can also contain pathogens, if it’s not then maybe gets translated down to that tooth, or
disinfected. So these are all the potential issues maybe they had a problem with the tooth and an
that can happen with a root canal.  infection in the tooth that went all the way up into
the sinuses. I don’t know really where it starts. 
And I just want to share with you what one of our
local dentists, who’s a biological dentist, said to This is kind of an interesting case, what this is
me. He said, “I think anybody who has had a root here, this abnormality on this panoramic X-ray
canal or who has had a tooth pulled should have is actually root canal. It’s the gutta percha from
a CT Cone Beam scan of that tooth every five to having a root canal in this tooth here. And what
seven years, just as a preventative. Just to make happened is for the entire six months after getting
sure that you’re not 30 years down the line with a a root canal, this person complained of eye pain
whole bunch of symptoms that you cannot figure and headaches, and then pain in that area where
out what’s going on. And there’s a raging infection they had the root canal. 
in your jaw that you cannot feel, and nobody can
really diagnose.  And when they did imaging, what they found is
that the endodontist who did the root canal, kept
Okay, I just wanted to bring this in because I think shoving the gutta percha in there and basically,
about this a lot. I do a lot of osteopathic medicine because that root was penetrating through the
in my practice, which means I really manipulate sinuses, the gutta percha sort of just went up
the bones of the head and the brain, and work into the sinuses and created kind of a bullet. So
with that a lot. And I also treat a lot of mold illness obviously, the endodontist wasn’t visualizing that
in my practice, where there are a lot of issues with when they were doing the treatment, so they
the sinuses. And so this was an interesting study couldn’t see what they were doing. And this is
that was on PubMed, and I kind of wanted to quite rare, I’m sure, so I wouldn’t worry about this.
show you this. But I just kind of wanted to bring this up to point
out that very thin barrier between the sinuses and
First of all, this is also an example of a panoramic these upper teeth roots. 
X-ray that they take. And so right along in here, I’m
hoping that you guys can see this, this is the sinus Okay, other things that can happen. I actually
floor. So these are the maxillary sinuses. And then had this happen to me, electrogalvanism, oral
these are the upper teeth. And I just wanted to electrogalvanism. This was first reported in the
mention that the sinus floor, it’s almost more like 1800s. And this is where different metals in the
a curtain than it is a physical barrier between the mouth that are in close proximity can interact by
sinuses and the teeth. And in fact, a lot of people an electrochemical reaction. And then if you have
will have their roots of their teeth on the maxilla saliva in there, it’s this perfect conductor. It’s going
actually poking up into the sinuses.  to help bring that electricity. Kind of like when
you buy a hairdryer and it tells you, don’t use the
And so I’ve just seen over the years that hairdryer in the bathtub. Not good. 
sometimes I wonder, like, I think I’ve mentioned

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Okay, symptoms of this. So a metallic taste in the know any dentists right now who do that but
mouth. I actually had this in my mouth because I oftentimes, just by looking at the symptoms, I’ll
had two crowns that had mixed metals, and I had recommend that people maybe consider getting...
all these weird symptoms. It wasn’t debilitating if they’re going to have metal in their mouth, only
but it was certainly annoying on a daily basis for have one type of metal, or getting rid of crowns or
me. So, a metallic taste in the mouth, increased things that have multiple metals in them. 
salivary secretion, burning, tingling sensation,
and eroded areas on the margin of the tongue. I Okay, metal in the mouth, just not a good idea
had that exactly where I had those two crowns. in general. Mercury amalgam is electronegative
Occasional nerve shocks and pulp sensitivity for and calcium ions, these migrate together, so
metal restorations touching or from contact with it’s actually going to start breaking down teeth
a metal utensil.  after a little while. Gold increases the corrosion
of mercury amalgam. So, I had a couple of gold
Now I remember when I was a kid, I don’t know pieces in my mouth, and I had a whole bunch
why, you never know why you have these of mercury amalgams in my mouth, that wasn’t
memories but I always remember sitting on the very nice to think about that this could happen.
bus to go home from school when I was in grade And then also, mercury amalgam with any other
school. And I stuck the end of a pencil in my restorations can cause that kind of same thing. 
mouth, you know where there’s that metal around
the eraser. And I had a lot of cavities when I was Okay, this is live and learn, and I just want to share
a kid, and I remember getting electrically shocked this. I got all the mercury taken out of my mouth,
from that. And so I always thought that was really all the metal taken out of my mouth, except for
odd. And now I know what that is. the gold because those are actually stable, so I’m
not going to do anything with those. But I had a
Generalized discomfort, disintegration and couple of root canals and the dentist who was a
discoloration of metallic restorations, because holistic dentist at that time, this was many years
obviously, having all of this electrochemical ago, said, “Oh, we’ll put some porcelain crowns
interaction is going to cause problems between in,” and I was like, “Great. I want porcelain. I don’t
these things. They’re not going to become a want any more metal in my mouth.” 
stable anymore. Dissolution of the cement, so
sometimes people’s crowns will pop off because And they said, “Yeah, its porcelain.” And they
of this. And then all the way into the mucosa of never told me that porcelain crowns actually
the mouth, which is leukoplakia, and this is a have a metal base to them. So I wanted to let
precancerous lesion, kind of looks like a little bit you guys know that so that you can ask more
of a whitish or a grayish area on the inside of the questions than I did because oftentimes, we’re
mucosal area.  just presented with these things. And a lot of
dentists, this really just isn’t on their brain that
This has also been called somatization disorder or we really don’t want to have any metal. So noble
burning mouth syndrome because people don’t metal crowns are built on a base of metal, and it’s
know what it is. So they just oftentimes will chalk to make them stronger. They’re usually built on
it up to a mental issue. But it’s not, it’s actually gold, palladium, or platinum base, and different
something that can happen. There are actually types of metal crowns, or they call them porcelain
machines that you can test this. I know a couple crowns, can have anywhere from 25 to 40% metal
of doctors who will do this in their practice. I don’t in them. 

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And also nickel, interestingly, is found in most of getting zirconia. It’s considered a bio metal,
these crowns. And nickel is a huge issue for a lot it’s supposed to be a much better option. The
of people. And honestly, throughout all my career, biological dentists that I know and that I’ve
I’ve never had a dentist ask me if I’ve had a nickel worked with, and that I refer my patients to,
allergy, even though I’ve had a ton of these things actually have seen this. They think that this is a
put in my mouth. And I can’t imagine that my better option because they’ve seen that the body
mouth would not be reacting to something that it does not have quite as big of a reaction to it. 
did not like. 
And they’ve done that because they’ve been
And then lastly, periimplantitis, an implant failure. doing zirconia crowns for a long time and they
So I think we’re just starting to see the kind of don’t tend to see that the gingiva around zirconia
wave of implants that are being kind of spit out of crowns is quite as inflamed. And I definitely
the mouth, because your body is rejecting them. noticed that the difference between my metal
A lot of times, unfortunately, dentists sort of chalk crowns and then I got zirconia crowns put on,
this up to people not taking care of their mouth and I’d had really deep pockets around the metal
very well. And I just don’t think that’s always the crowns. And now I don’t have any problems with
case. I do think that we have already seen a lot of that. And honestly, I’ve not changed any of my
issues with... most of the implants are made out oral habits at all. I still brush; I still floss. 
of titanium. 
So, holistic dentistry. How do you find a holistic
So we’ve already seen a lot of issues with titanium dentist or a biological dentist? They’re called a few
implants in other parts of our body, like with hips, different things; iaomt.org is the association of
where it’s created something called metallosis. dentists who do extra training to understand how
And this is where titanium ions actually get to take out mercury in a safe way so that you’re
released into the surrounding tissue. And then not getting re-exposed to mercury. So that they’re
our body kind of starts reacting to it. Like it’s like not exposing themselves as dentists to mercury
an immune reaction, because it’s like, “What is and so they’re not exposing their staff to mercury. 
this stuff? I gotta get rid of this stuff.” Implants are
really expensive. They’re like $8,000, I think, like So that’s kind of the basic holistic or biological
seven or $9,000, somewhere in there.  dentist, but many others also are taking other
things into account. Some of them will do immuno
And so, of course, we don’t always have a lot of compatibility testing, to different substances
people getting them, but as more people are they’re going to be putting in the mouth, whether
getting them and more people are getting root it’s a metal or some kind of a plastic. Also, as
canals taken out, because they’re failing, they’re we talked about with some of these issues,
opting for implants, which makes sense, we would they’ll look at things like cavitations, or issues
like to have a tooth there. However, like I said, I with infections in the mouth. And not all regular
think this is still a little bit newer, and it seems to dentists do that at all, in fact, many of them do
always be about 20 years out that we’re seeing not think that that exists. 
where all the sequela are of these new dental
procedures that are happening.  They also contribute to a better environment
because they are taught how to when they
So I’ve been recommending to my patients, if pull mercury and other metals out of people’s
they do need to get an implant, for the moment, mouths that have mercury in them, or that might

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have toxic metals in them that we don’t want we can see like, is there something that we need
in our environment, they actually will put them to treat? Because sometimes we want to give
into waste receptacles that are then dealt with more systemic antibiotics after that happens. 
properly. And I have talked to a couple of dentists
about this and they said, before getting trained Okay, I just wanted to bring this up really quick,
people were just throwing stuff in the garbage, just looking at holistic health as a doctor, what do
they didn’t really actually have a good way to get I talk to people about? We all know about sugar
rid of mercury in their offices. And then they’ll but really, there’s a lot of foods that can throw off
oftentimes work with people like myself who also our oral microbiome. So I think we’ve been telling
have these things on our brain, and we’re treating people, “Don’t eat sugar,” for a long time, and I
patients where we’re really looking at their oral don’t think it’s actually worked very well. So really,
health and connecting that in with their whole it’s just more about brushing your teeth more,
body health.  utilizing xylitol gum, because that actually kind
of helps clean off the plaque and helps bring pH
Okay, just a couple of mentions. Dental product balance back into our mouth. 
testing, I had just talked about kind of immuno
compatibility, you can do that with blood, you But I wanted to bring this up, because these
can do that with different labs. The one lab that are just some other examples of things. We tell
most of us have used for a really long time is a people not to eat sugar, but are we going to tell
lab called Clifford labs, and they just went out of them not to eat chocolate? Now, that’s a very
business over this last year. So a patient came dangerous thing to do in your practice, especially
to me with this BioComp Labs that had done a in Portland, where we have so many amazing
panel on testing for different dental products and chocolatiers here. Okay, just really quick, I’ve got
how her body might actually respond to these. I to talk about fluoride for a second. 
have not used them; I’m going to look into them.
But I at least wanted to provide one example of Fluoride started being added to water sources in
a lab that might be out there that you could start the US in 1945. This was before a lot of studies
looking at.  actually came out about it. There’s a lot more
studies coming out about it. The American Dental
And certainly, if you are utilizing a holistic or Association is a proponent for this and I can
biologic dentist, they might already have a lab that understand that. We do know there has been a lot
they use that they like to work with. This is a lab of studies in many countries over the last 60 years
that I’ve worked with quite a bit, DNA ConneXions, that have shown a significant cavity reduction. But
they do testing; it’s a PCR DNA test for different is this the best option? Maybe, maybe not. 
kinds of infections that are in the mouth. You
can do this with either using the super floss The bad, this is not the good, the bad; fluorosis.
where you can floss around a tooth that is really Fluorosis has increased in the US in the 90s and
problematic. And you can send it in, and see what the early 2000s. What as fluorosis? Fluorosis is
shows up.  where we’re actually getting too much fluoride.
Now, for a cosmetic sense, what that looks like
The dentist that I refer mostly to for cavitation is it looks like, on your teeth, you get little white
surgery at this point, when he cleans out the spots. I’ve certainly met lots of people who have
infected tissue, will actually send a sample into that; looked at lots of teeth, seen a lot of this in
the lab, especially if the patient requests. So that my practice. And then it can go all the way down

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into the rest of the bones of the body.  when our kids’ brains are developing and when
their nerves are developing. Studies revealed
And skeletal fluorosis is actually where you get that intelligence in children is affected by fluoride
too much fluoride and it’s called skeletal fluorosis, exposure. IQs have an inverse proportion to
because when you actually look at it on an X-ray, urinary fluoride level, interestingly. It adversely
it’s very, very white. So it should look like it’s a affects learning and memory. There’s issues
really strong bone but it’s actually not a stronger with neurotransmitters and fluoride, so
bone. In fact, they have done studies to show neurotransmitters aren’t going to be created quite
that fluoride does not do anything really to help as easily. And then Alzheimer’s disease, ADHD,
with prevention of any fractures. And in fact, and dementia have also all been connected to
it can increase fractures and calcifications of high levels of fluoride. 
ligaments and tendons, which is obviously quite
problematic.  Okay, so here’s kind of the new kid on the block
in the US, although this has been used, I think,
It can impair iodine absorption. It has an in Japan for quite a while. Hydroxyapatite is like
impact on thyroid. And it has been implicated fluoride, it’s another micro mineral, and it actually
in both animal and human studies to lead directly makes up about 97% of our tooth enamel.
towards cardiovascular and kidney dysfunction, So this is actually a little bit more of a... it might be
cardiovascular disease and kidney dysfunction. a better option for us to be putting in toothpaste
So, this I just wanted to include, this is a study or and things. And I’ll talk a little bit about that. 
it’s actually a review of different studies that just
came out about how fluoride affects the brain.  This is just one study that I’m quoting. But in
2019, there was a study kind of comparing the
So what they’re talking about in these studies is difference between fluoride and hydroxyapatite
definitely fluoride, where you’re getting way too to sort of remineralize or strengthen our teeth,
much fluoride. But some of that, I don’t think and it found that there was really no difference
we’ve ever really revised the amount of fluoride between the two. And it’s actually already been
that we need to have. And I think that would be used in dentistry in the US for a lot of different
a really important thing for a lot of these cities in things. And they found that there’s really no
America especially, that put fluoride in their water, adverse health effects to it. 
to do. They did actually lower it in 2015. 
Okay, so remineralization; that just basically
Many of the cities were told that they needed means kind of like what we do with fluoride, it’s
to lower the amount of fluoride that they like making our tea stronger but let’s do it with
were putting in. No doubt, we’re getting more different things that are maybe a little bit less
now because we’re getting all these fluoride toxic. These are just a couple different examples
applications on our teeth and our kids’ teeth, of toothpaste that have this hydroxyapatite in
we’re getting fluoride toothpaste, we’re getting them. Again, another study showing that it’s really
kind of fluoride all over the place. So add that in helpful for remineralizing and strengthening the
with the water, and it’s a lot of fluoride.  tooth, helping with initial lesions on the enamel.

So these are just a kind of a review of these Theobromine, some of you might recognize
studies. Fluoride is recognized as a developmental that from chocolate, and that’s had at least
neurotoxin. So it’s not good to get too much one study that I could find. There’s, I think one

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or two companies that are starting to put out Quercetin; quercetin has been my favorite herb
theobromine toothpaste. And theobromine, same or nutraceutical this year because it’s been really
thing, is supposed to help remineralize the tooth.  great for helping with our immune system and
to support and balance our immune system.
Oil pulling, I just want to bring this in because And I just wanted to bring this up, I found this on
a lot of people ask me about this. I did find one PubMed, I had no idea. So I’m going to probably
study on it. I know a lot of people really like it a start using this also for periodontal disease in my
lot, and so I don’t dissuade them from doing it. patient population. 
Certainly, one of the things I like about it is it can
actually strengthen the oral cavity muscles and Green Tea, another great excuse to go drink
jaws, and we don’t really have anything else that your green tea. Green tea compounds have been
does that. In this study, it did show that it did help found to prevent that porphyromonas gingivalis
to prevent dental caries and inhibit adhesion of from adhering to the cells in our mouth. This is
plaque, which is kind of nice. So if you like to do just a great herbal formula from a friend who’s
oil pulling, go for it. The thing I like also about an herbalist, Kathy Abascal, and Eric Darnell,
oil pulling is you can also put herbs in there that who’s a naturopathic physician. And they actually
might actually help with caries and help with the recommend putting these herbs together and
gingiva. actually placing them in a Water Pik like device,
and gently washing any pockets that you have,
Ozone therapy, this is something I use a lot. The any deeper pockets. 
dentist that I like to refer to will use this as well.
Ozone basically is like our all natural killer, it’ll And I think that’s great because honestly, what
kill off viruses, bacteria, fungus; many dentists more do we have to do? Like, we can’t just keep
will apply it to the gums for gingivitis. They’ll use going to the dentist like every week, and this is
it in root canal therapy to sterilize. They’ll use it something that can maybe possibly be helpful to
to kill small cavities. They’ll use it for sensitive keep fighting off bacteria and helping with the
teeth as it’s been found to be quite helpful. And tonification of the tissues. 
then we use it also as an injection underneath
the gum line for after a cavitation surgery or Biofilm breaking support, I definitely always
after a tooth has been pulled in order to help add this in as well. This is one of my favorite
continue to kill anything off, any infections that companies, Biocidin. This is kind of this one
were in there. Okay, and so I do this along with formula that they’ve come up with that is a very
the dentist. They usually start with the dentist and successful formula. And I believe they also have
then I have people follow up with me once a week a toothpaste and a liposomal two formula in it to
for four to six weeks to get this done.  help with this. So, I usually just have people put
this in water and swish, and then swallow. 
This is a product that I really like, this is ozone in
an oil where they’ve put ozone... like it’s kind of Oil probiotics, just to be mindful, streptococcus
been preserved in an oil. And then there’s also salivarius was found to be one of the bacteria
like, clove and I think, artesunate, there’s a couple that lives in our mouth. However, if you have a
of different herbs in here that are really good problem with strep or having too much strep,
for fighting off bacteria. And so I’ll have people which a lot of my patients do, then it might cause
actually put this along the gum line where they’ve a red rash around your mouth, and it might cause
had a tooth pulled, after. more inflammation in your gut. So I generally tend

Dental-Health Connection Summit


45

to tell people to stay away from this if it’s in your


probiotic strain. And there’s a lot of companies
that have come out with probiotics that have
strep in them. I generally, just as a rule, say,
please do not buy a probiotic with strep in it. 

Lactobacillus reuteri has been one of the most


studied strains in general. However, what they
have also found is just clinically, for gingivitis
treatment. And again, I would just have people
swish this in their mouth and then go ahead and
swallow it because it’s good for the whole gut. 

And I want to thank you guys very much for


joining me today. I’ve had a great time putting this
talk together and putting all my thoughts together
about this. I hadn’t really done that before. But I
hope that it’s helpful for you and I am excited to
listen to all the speakers in this conference as well,
so I can learn a lot more. Okay, thanks so much.

Dental-Health Connection Summit

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