Are Your Health Symptoms Connected to Your Dental Issues?
Episode 98
Are you tired of accepting health issues such as fatigue, bloating, and/or brain fog as your new normal? Unknown to many, dental work can be the root cause to your illnesses, whether your symptoms occur within a few months or even years later. Join Dr. Nick and Dr. Nicole as they explore this connection and uncover correlations that go unnoticed. To learn more about how integrative medicine can transform your life, you can find Integrative Wellness Radio on iTunes, Google Play, and Podbean.
Topics: dental, work, integrative, symptoms, medicine, fatigue, brain, occasional
Key takeaways from this episode
- Dive into integrative wellness radio with doctor Nick and doctor Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine to learn about what the limitations are with testing and what you can do to start your health journey.
- And what I mean by that is, you know, occasional stomach pains, occasional bloating, occasional brain fog, occasional fatigue, occasional sleep issues.
- And obviously, this is not because we're dentists but uh but it's primarily because we think it is really valuable information to start thinking about is some type of dental procedure potentially playing a role in the onset of symptoms that you started experiencing.
- And very often when you start to ask better questions and you dig a bit deeper, you start to realize that there is sometimes specific things that happened around the time period that the symptoms started.
- But the dental work, it's not that you had it and one week later all these symptoms manifest.
Pull quotes
**Host:** The information provided is for educational purposes and is not intended to diagnose or treat any conditions.
The lifestyle intervention has discussed should not be used as a substitute for conventional medical therapy.
Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems.
Transcript
**Host:** The information provided is for educational purposes and is not intended to diagnose or treat any conditions. The lifestyle intervention has discussed should not be used as a substitute for conventional medical therapy. Imagine if medicine actually looked at you as a whole opposed to looking at you as a bunch of separate systems. Dive into integrative wellness radio with doctor Nick and doctor Nicole to learn more about the top trends in integrative medicine to learn about what the limitations are with testing and what you can do to start your health journey. Hello everyone. Welcome back to another episode of Integrative Wellness Radio. So today stole my glasses. So today, we are actually diving into dental. And obviously, this is not because we're dentists but uh but it's primarily because we think it is really valuable information to start thinking about is some type of dental procedure potentially playing a role in the onset of symptoms that you started experiencing. So we do pretty in-depth consultations when we work with our patients and we ask a variety of different questions. But the biggest thing is is we're always trying to put together a timeline. A lot of people state, you know, I was healthy and then all of a sudden I wasn't. And I don't really know what happened. I don't know what the shift was but I just felt like I woke up one day and my body was falling apart. And very often when you start to ask better questions and you dig a bit deeper, you start to realize that there is sometimes specific things that happened around the time period that the symptoms started. And I want you guys to understand that this is not necessarily about um some type of dental work being the the primary issue. It's usually that there is something that acts as a catalyst in order to take the body just over a threshold and allows a lot of symptoms to come to the surface that have maybe been mild or infrequent. And what I mean by that is, you know, occasional stomach pains, occasional bloating, occasional brain fog, occasional fatigue, occasional sleep issues. A lot of us are experiencing these things but they come and go. Our blood work looks good. So we're like, ah, well, you know, I'm getting older. I have bad genes. My grandma doesn't sleep. You know, all the excuses that we make. And uh then, you know, we we feel like, okay, it's no big deal. We're fine. You know, I just need to, you know, lay off the sugar. I need to, you know, stop drinking as much caffeine. But then, you know, we get to this point in time that all of a sudden we are so fatigued we can barely function. You know, we're falling asleep at work and, you know, we're we're waking up in the middle of the night. We can't get back to sleep or we can't fall asleep. And, you know, now the bloating is even happening after we drink water and we're like, what the heck is going on in my body? And the catalyst that takes your body over the edge could be a variety of different things. It could be stress. It can be a loss of a loved one. It could be a loss of a pet. It could have been a bad virus that you got. But sometimes it can also be linked to dental work. And the dental work. uh we're going to go into all of the aspects of it and, you know, some of the things that can act as a stressor. But the dental work, it's not that you had it and one week later all these symptoms manifest. Sometimes it can be a couple of months and sometimes it can be a few years.
**Host:** Yeah but I was blown away about how important just your oral cavity was. You know, it's like we're all taught growing up just brush your teeth, floss every day, all these things but like I never really realized the capacity on how like just how much everything is affected by your oral cavity. And it it really wasn't until I got deep into uh at part of a therapy that we do at the office called muscle testing uh that when I really truly realized the depth of this um because I found from um one of our mentors Dr. Klinghart. he gave an actual sheet uh for us to be able to look at as we're muscle testing and it had the correlations of every single tooth is connected to a different nerve and it's also connected to a different meridian system. It's connected to different actual physical organs, connected to different muscles. So the best part about it is through muscle testing and, you know, it's like sometimes people are coming in with a pain in a certain area of the body and just through really quick looking at that chart, you can see if there's en challenge to the connected uh tissues, teeth, all these different things and seeing if it's a part of that process or not.
**Host:** Well, one of the teeth that most of us get removed is our wisdom teeth and what's fascinating about the wisdom teeth is that they are connected to the small intestine and they're also connected to the pituitary gland. So the small intestine is a part of the digestive system where most of your nutrients are absorbed. And we are currently living in an epidemic of gut issues and a lot of people that are struggling to absorb their nutrients. They're not absorbing B vitamins. You know, they're they're deficient in a lot of different things. So I'm not going to sit here and say that every single person that has had their wisdom tooth removed have has a small intestine issue but it's more important to understand, you know, did were those teeth impacted. Were they infected. Did they end up with what's called a dry socket through the healing process meaning the blood clot um mobilized out and it took longer to heal. So things like that can definitely create more stress on the meridian or the nerve which can definitely cause a higher probability to have gut issues. So if you literally go and Google and you search tooth meridian chart, you'll be fascinated because we look at this regularly and, you know, we'll have patients and we'll they'll we'll ask about their dental history and, you know, sometimes the history is, oh, um I had a root canal that, you know, ended up going bad and I ended up having to get the tooth pulled or hey, I had this tooth pulled or hey, this tooth literally deteriorated and like rotted out of my mouth or um I ended up getting a really significant infection that turned into an absess in this tooth or I had a cavity that cracked and the filling cracked and it started to leech chemicals which we'll talk about as well. So there's a variety of ways that it can look in order to create stress on that meridian and, you know, if somebody's like, hey, you know, it's this tooth, I'll look at what organ it's attached to and I'll say, you know, do you are you experiencing X Y Z and they're looking at me like, yeah,
**Host:** You have shoulder pain.
**Host:** I am and it's crazy and then I'm like, well, you know, we obviously have to do further testing to look at the big picture but, youtro this might actually be correlated to something that is currently happening in your mouth or um a previous uh type of therapy or or surgery or intervention that you've already experienced.
**Host:** Yeah, it's pretty diverse because I mean, it's looking at uncorrelated things and actually making them correlated and then there's the easy things that you can correlate through yeah, it's like, you know, you just had surgery and now all the lymphs and everything is going to be inflamed at the same part and if you already had a thyroid issue and the lymph's already clogged up.
**Host:** Okay, before you go there, this is assuming everybody knows anatomy. So for you guys that are are want to follow what Nick's about to say is that first of all, your mouth is the start of your digestive system. So that's number one is understanding that your mouth is not independent of your digestive system but if you have
**Host:** Just one big tube. So it starts at your mouth and ends at your anus.
**Host:** Yeah. So if you have bleeding gums if you've had a lot of root canals, if you've had a lot of dental infections chances are these different bacteria or other organisms have made their way into your digestive system number one. um which can definitely be linked to indigestion, heartburn, ulcers. But in addition to that is when we're talking about the mouth, we're talking about connections to the sinuses, connections to the tonsils, connections to the lymph nodes of your neck which primarily are the glands that hurt when we get sick. So when you get sick and, you know, you have a fever and you're like, oh, my neck is killing me. That is because now the lymph nodes are swollen dealing with whatever organism your body is fighting. So there is a lot of connection that can be happening based off of your oral health.
**Host:** Or you could be like me and it gets backed up so much it affects your ears.
**Host:** Yes. Which is another podcast that we actually want to do is is really um talking more about pediatric cases dealing with uh, you know, getting tubes in the ears and a variety of procedures to, you know, remove the tonsils and understanding that there's a bigger picture behind it. But, you know, coming back to dental is just a couple of things to look out for is if your gums bleed and if you're just like, well, they only bleed when I brush hard or when I floss, they shouldn't bleed. So if they're bleeding, it's because there's some type of inflammation usually connected to something that should not be in the mouth and if that's a bacteria or a fungus. You can even have parasites in your mouth not to totally freak you guys out. But if you have a pet that licks you in the face, chances are you have a bunch of stuff in your mouth that you don't want in there. But uh in addition, uh one thing that I ask a lot of my patients is, um I know this might seem off topic but do you drool um when you sleep and they're like, yeah, I do a lot. And one of the signs of drooling is actually that you have um your parotid glands are not functioning properly. The parotid glands actually make enzymes to help you break down your food. So breakdown of food actually starts in your mouth. It gets pre-broken down. Then it goes into the stomach and your stomach acid and the enzymes of your stomach continue to break down the food so it should be broken down pretty effectively by the time it makes its way into your small intestine and that's really where you're going to have more of your nutrient absorption. So if you have issues with your parotid glands, you're not going to be breaking down food effectively and then it puts a lot more stress on your stomach which then can create more of a probability to get reflux, indigestion, heartburn, gerb and other types of um gastrointestinal discomfort.
**Host:** Pretty much every other commercial you see on TV.
**Host:** Yeah, tums, priside, prelasac, nexium. Uh I would say most men that I've personally worked with over the age of uh 40,45. They're all on nexium or some type of proton pump inhibitor. And um and most of the time it's actually lack of stomach acid and that's, you know, a topic in itself but it's just important to understand that issues in the mouth can very, very much connect to the gut. And another really crazy thing is that when we have an abundance of um fillings, fillings, implants, sealants, even braces. Uh all of these materials contain different types of chemicals and metals. So one of the primary metals that's in your white fillings. Yes, the ones that we're told are really safe and better. Um one of the primary metals is actually cadmium and palladium. So those are both classified as heavy metals and then we have the silver fillings that most of us above the age of 35 have had at some point. And these are actually classified as amalgam that contain mercury. So when you think in your mind, well, I've had these forever. They can't possibly be causing a problem. The longer you've had them, the more worn down they are, the more likely they're detached from your tooth or the more likely they're cracked. And the more worn down they are, the more likely they are giving off vapor and leaching into your glands and also leaching into your stomach. So if you're the person who's been on all of the prescriptions for your gird, your, you know, um ulcer, your stomach acid issues or you've even tried to take supplements or you've, you know, done different procedures, you've worked with integrative doctors, you've changed your diet and nothing is helping. It's probably because you actually have heavy metals in your gut. This is way more common than people realize and it's something that you can definitely deal with and recover from. But if you have a um boat load of what we call terminator teeth. AKA, a ton of silver fillings, then, you know, you're going to have a continuous problem and you're going to feel like you're on a merry go round of not getting better.
**Host:** I just want to take a quick moment to thank you for listening and allow you to know that we work with clients from all over the world. You can check out more information @integrativewellnessgroup.com to learn a little bit more about how we work with our clients remotely.
**Host:** It was interesting we had dinner the other night and uh we just started talking about what we love, our profession and the guy sitting next to us uh was like he gave the 80/20 rule and how pretty much it doesn't matter what discipline you're in, 20% uh the top 20% of that field is going to be amazing and 80% are really just going by the industry standards. And the same things with dentistry. So it's like it's not just, oh, I have these things. Run to your typical common dentist. It's really about searching out that top 20% which is in a whole new field uh today and it's called biological dentistry. So it's really about if you have these things to be able to go to somebody with an expertise that really can help you because if you go the lower 80%, uh you can have actually and create even more problems and symptoms um because there's just when you're dealing with especially mercury, mercury in itself, uh it becomes both a liquid and a gas uh inside of us. So it's you have to be very, very extremely careful. They're literally in hazmat suits pretty much as they're
**Host:** Because of the heat of our body temperature.
**Host:** So you have to not only helping to detox you because they don't want to personally um have any of these detriments as well of the neurotoxins.
**Host:** Well, speaking of that is we're in this day and age right now that we're hearing about the silver fillings not being great so we are often, you know, going to the dentists and saying, hey, should I get these out? Should I swap them for the white fillings? And and usually the answer is, yes. And what's happening from there is that we're going in, we're having these traditional dentists make the swap and they're not necessarily using the proper precautions and depending on how many fillings you have, there has been a select few cases that have come through our doors that have had um their fillings removed and I'm talking upwards of eight silver fillings that were removed and replaced with the white all in one sitting. So that is a lot of fillings and that is a lot of opportunity for this mercury to become vapor and get absorbed into the tissues, including neurological system. And uh and in one particular case, we had a male that three months prior or I'm sorry, three months after having eight of his silver replaced with the white, um he was diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson's. And don't get me wrong. This guy had a lot of other stuff going on um between cardiovascular issues. He had other types of gut issues and toxicity issues. But this specific procedure was just the straw that broke the camel's back and his body getting flooded with the mercury was just too much. It was too much for the nervous system. It was too much for the immune system and the body just went into this emergency state. And uh and it caused really severe ramifications on his neurological system. So it's really, really important to understand that if you or a loved one has had this very abrupt neurological diagnosis or an abrupt tremor or abrupt memory loss is thinking like, have I had any type of dental procedures that could have been a catalyst to these symptoms? And the other thing too that we've personally learned over time um having colleagues that are dentists is that this is not even just about the fillings. This is also about root canals. And uh root canals are thought to be, okay, well, the root is compromised so go in, remove the root and, you know, uh put a crown on it and you're all good in the hood. But um what has come to light through the colleagues that we have in the biological dentistry world is that when you look at the anatomy of the tooth is that you have this center. You know, you have the tooth and in the center of the tooth, you have this hole essentially or this cavity where the root is. But coming off of that main cavity are hundreds of teeny, teeny, teeny, teeny little um canals. And those little canals is where the bacteria will pool. Because it's thought that, you know, a root canal is not an infection that only it can become an infection but it's not necessarily an infection. And from our colleagues in the dental world is they said every root canals is an infection but the infection is hiding in those teeny little canals that are off of the root. So every root canal should technically be a tooth that's pulled. And that's kind of a crazy thought when you really think about it is that, you know, there are people one of my recent patients she had ten root canals uh at one time. And, you know, there's definitely serious neurological complications that she has. And again, it's not just the dental. There is a lot of other factors. But her body was under serious stress and then that was just like the icing on the cake that her body went into like a straight uh survival, fight or flight, like haywire state and uh and she was, you know, practically bedridden for a couple of years. So it's it's just really interesting and it's something that I think a lot of people need to be aware of because, you know, we have some women even that come to us after having dental a bunch of dental procedures that now have a new thyroid condition. They're losing all their hair. They have massive postpartum depression after having a baby and it's not just, oh, you just have a thyroid problem. It's because you have a toxicity problem that is affecting the thyroid from dental work you've received.
**Host:** Or it could be going back and looking like, you know, you said that one was connected to the pituitary. So it's like, you know, this from the HPA access, HPT access, you know, is that pituitary. Is that what's messed up there from the oral cavity but that's what's actually affecting the thyroid or the adrenals or even the reproductive system with hormones for the HPG access, so.
**Host:** Yeah, and it's unfortunate because a lot of um young women are getting their wisdom teeth removed during um, you know, the onset of their hormones or their hormones changing. So um so if you, you know, it could be a perfect storm is, you know, right when a woman is moving into, you know, her menstruation cycle and then if she has all of her wisdom teeth removed that can definitely cause um some significant hormonal imbalances that then create really bad PMS or terrible cramping or really heavy bleeding. And guys it's not always this cut and dry but it's always something to be considered um as, you know, being part of the puzzle as well. And and understanding that not it's not that, you know, every filling is or every dental procedure is classified as safe and it's, you know, why would they ever put anything in our mouth that isn't. It's just unfortunate that when it comes to the world and especially in the US, the way that we are testing and approving chemical compounds is there really is not proper studies being done, proper testing being done. So there are a lot of chemicals that are on the market that are being used in dentistry. They're being used in our personal products. They're being used in our home cleaning supplies. They're being used in everything. And, you know, later down the line they're like, ooh, yeah, sorry, that's bad. You know, we found out that causes cancer. It's even asbestos. There's still asbestos in people's homes and, you know, after years upon years of using it, they're like, yeah, well, sorry guys, you know, you're all going to get lung cancer now. And it's just it's crazy. It's just not um it it's a world that we would expect is being um regulated properly and it's just not always being regulated the way that we would expect.
**Host:** No, and you can't you can't put that foundational trust into that governing system. So it's like you have to really just look at yourself and take the best care you can for, you know, it's like is your immune system functioning optimal, you know, do those detox pathways are they functioning great because we're always going to be learning something, you know, it's like Teflon used to be amazing and now we learn that eh, not so much. So it's like, we're all going to make decisions in life that sometimes don't turn out to service the best but if we're constantly being preventive on our own health and our detox and how our immune system is reacting then, you know, those little things never become a big problem.
**Host:** Yeah. Well, and I'm happy that you said that too because, you know, there's patients that constantly are asking us, you know, I I really want to get these silver fillings out of my mouth. You know, I know that they're bad. You know, what do I do? Um how do I do it? Et cetera and, you know, we usually will recommend them depending on where they live to a biological dentist that we we know and trust but we also, you know, some of the patients we're like, hey, this is this is something that we want to explore but not yet. And that's really based off of their testing and their physical evaluation because if they have really inflamed sinuses and they have overloaded tonsils that are saturated with strep and maybe they have really clogged lymph nodes through the neck all the way into the armpit. Then we're those that means those detox pathways are not working. So we're not going to say, hey, okay, go get all these fillings removed and let's hope for the best. Instead, it's let's do a little foundational groundwork. Let's get these pathways working. Let's decrease some of the inflammation. Let's make sure the garbage cans can handle it. And then from there, you know, we can set you up when it's the right time to potentially, you know, get this procedure done through a trusted dentist and a lot of them are like, okay, that actually makes a lot of sense. So it's really it's all about timing. So don't listen to this podcast and just go and get all of your fillings removed. Please don't do that. Um because it can definitely it could backfire. So it's always about timing and it's always about strategy.
**Host:** It's not what you do.
**Host:** It's how you do it. Thank you. Um and also too for those of you that are maybe looking for an at-home tip to get your get the ball rolling is um one of the things that we uh recommend to a lot of our patients we use it ourselves is it's called uh detox DO, D-E-O. It is through a company called Biopure. And uh you can actually if you head over to our site integrativewellnessgroup.com and you go to the current patients tab, um we actually have a uh links to all of our trusted supplement vendors and uh Biopure is on there. But they specifically have this deodorant that they've created that helps you detox your lymph nodes and uh glands. So it's very, very helpful in the event that you're trying to clean up the lymphatic system of the neck. So you pretty much rub it all over the neck before you go to bed. You rub it into the armpits and even down um underneath the collar bones because that's the pattern of your lymph nodes. So that's definitely something that you can start using. That's really, really helpful. Uh one of our favorite companies that makes Chlorella is called Energy Bits. Uh Chlorella has been proven to be amazing at binding um heavy metals and different types of chemical toxicities. So this is something that can actually help with um cleaning that up in your gut. But if you chew it, it actually will help to eradicate out saturation of heavy metals that are in your gums and also bacteria. So unfortunately, my dad it was a couple weeks ago. And but I think it was was it New Year's?
**Host:** Yeah.
**Host:** But he uh he came out. He's like, yeah, my tooth is killing me and then he turned and looked at me and I'm like and his whole face was so swollen but I was like, Dad, smile. And he when he was trying to smile, his face was drooping. So the bacteria was getting into his nerve. And I was like, and he's like, is this bad? And I'm like, um, yeah, we're we're going to just deal with it tomorrow. And I just literally took a pack of Chlorella out of my purse and I'm like, just chew this right now. Chew this. Um but between chewing the Chlorella and then we also gave him a product called Paraclear B from Physician Standard and we had him take a scoop of coconut oil for uh oil pulling. Uh if you guys are unaware of what that is is you take traditionally, you'll take coconut oil about a tablespoon a tablespoon of it. You swish it around the mouth for uh 20 minutes. Yes, it's a very long time and then uh you spit it out and it binds to a lot of toxins. But if you actually pair that with uh the Paraclear B is it amps it up and it has antimicrobial benefits. So it'll start eradicating any like harmful bacteria out of the mouth. So um so actually speaking of that is many of us have been told since we were kids don't eat too much sugar because it's going to rot your teeth. And it's true but a myth. And I say that because too much sugar is obviously not good for anything. Let alone teeth. But one of the primary issues is that most cavities are driven by bacteria and sugar feeds bacteria. So the sugar is a problem but it's somewhat of an in an indirect way. Uh so definitely taking that into consideration is, you know, if you have kids that their teeth are a mess and they constantly have cavities is it's not always just about the sugar. It is also about bacteria that is in the gums or in the teeth that is being fed by the sugar consumption.
**Host:** Right on.
**Host:** You want to tell everybody about the favorite toothpaste.
**Host:** Um Biociden. Oh yeah, Dental side.
**Host:** It's from Biociden but it's called Dental side.
**Host:** Well, technically the company is Biotanical but they're known for their Biociden. They've had it in a liposomal form. They've had it in a um tincture form and they just uh took the Biociden formulation and they made it into a toothpaste which has been awesome. So the toothpaste is called Dental Side and that has been a really, really amazing product for people to also have another added tool to clear out harmful bacteria or toxins that are in the mouth and in the gums.
**Host:** And if you want to take it up another notch, uh this is, I mean, you can do it with oil pulling or sometimes you can just put a drop or two of that Paraclear onto the
**Host:** Toothbrush.
**Host:** Dental side into your toothbrush. That works really well as well. And my last tip is for those of you that were listening the whole time and said, oh, man, I drool all the time. What am I going to do about it? Uh an amazing product from standard process. It's called Parotid PMG. It is uh classified as a promorphogen of the parotid gland. So not to gross you out but it is a parotid gland that is sourced from an animal. Um dehydrated down and made into a supplement. So not vegan friendly but it works like a charm. So if you take Parotid PMG and you chew it, it will restore the function of your parotid glands and you can monitor your own progress because you will notice that you are not drooling anymore. You also might notice that you have fresher breath. You might also notice that um you're digesting your food better. You're having less reflux, heartburn, et cetera. So that is also an amazing tip to take advantage of. But um so clearly, you know, the biggest point of us giving you guys this these tips is to understand that there are a million options. There are so many options out there that people are just completely unaware of and we rely on everything. Um all the conventional methods and therapies but, you know, from getting rid resolving cavities to resolving bleeding gums, receding gum lines, uh abnormally large tonsils, thyroid conditions. There is a lot that can be done through different alternatives. Um so it's really, really amazing for you guys to understand this. And then obviously if you can't do it on your own, that is where integrative oneness comes in is giving you better testing to really know exactly what your body needs. Uh because we don't guess, we test. Man of many words, Corothers. So we hope that this was extremely helpful and that you guys have some awesome tools to take away. Uh one of our next episodes, we are going to be focusing more on pediatric issues that involve the ears, the sinuses, the throat and understanding what are some of the alternatives that are out there to resolve what your kids are struggling with and to also understand the ramifications that can develop later down the line if you don't support those systems in the right way. All right, guys, we will see you next week. We thank you for being a listener and subscriber to Integrative Wellness Radio. If you're looking to learn more about Integrative Wellness Group as well as Dr. Nick or Dr. Nicole. You can check out integrativewellnessgroup.com.
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Integrative You Radio is a root cause medicine and integrative medicine podcast hosted by Dr. Nicole Rivera and Dr. Nick Carruthers — two integrative doctors who build personalized wellness protocols from your DNA, minerals, hormones, gut, and nervous system rather than from a population template. Looking for an integrative doctor who reads your labs together instead of in isolation? This is the show.
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