Beyond the Tooth: Exploring Holistic Oral Health with Dr. Sam Peterson

In the latest episode of "Restore the Real," host Randy Michaux invites Dr. Sam Peterson, a biological dentist from Southwest Idaho, to dive deep into the world of holistic dental care. Dr. Peterson, a former finance professional, shares his unconventional journey into biological dentistry, driven by personal experiences and a desire for a more meaningful career path.

The podcast uncovers Dr. Peterson's transition from finance to dentistry, catalyzed by his daughter's autoimmune diagnosis and his wife's insights as a dental assistant. Dr. Peterson's story is not just about career change but a journey towards understanding and embracing a holistic approach to dental care. Listeners will find his insights into the oral microbiome, the harmful effects of conventional dental practices like mercury fillings and fluoride, and the connections between oral health and overall wellness particularly enlightening.

The episode also explores the innovative techniques used in biological dentistry, such as examining the oral microbiome through microscopy and employing ozone therapy for treating gum diseases. Dr. Peterson emphasizes the importance of understanding the mouth's role as a gateway to overall health and the need for a paradigm shift in dental care.

Listeners interested in holistic health, dental care, and personal transformation stories will find this episode both informative and inspiring. The podcast invites everyone to explore the connections between oral health and overall well-being and to consider the broader implications of dental care choices. Tune in to "Restore the Real" on iTunes, Spotify, and other podcast platforms, and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review if you love the show.

Connect with Dr. Sam Peterson:
www.biosmiles.com

instagram - theboisenaturaldentist

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

It's time for real discussions about health. Hi, I'm Dr Randy Michaud of Total Body Wellness Clinic, and each week on Restore the Real, I'll sit down with the guests to discuss how developing or overcoming health challenges has shaped the way that they live their lives, what they've learned, what they've changed and how they're moving forward. Restore the Real is a podcast that is unafraid and unapologetic when it comes to getting honest about the nuances of health and wellness Mind, body and spirit. Hello, hello, welcome back to the show, welcome to Restore the Real. Today we've got a great guest on. He is local here in southwest Idaho, so if anyone is looking for a biological dentist, I welcome Dr Sam Peterson. He is a biological dentist, he's a husband, he's a father, he is a junkie for continuing education and research. Really, that huge passion of his. And yeah. So, sam, dr Peterson, welcome to the show.

Speaker 1: 1:16

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here, absolutely. You know one thing interesting and I'm going to let you share your story. But most people that are in this space are in it because they had to be. I mean, they didn't have to be, but like they had a condition that led them into here. But your story is. When you shared that with me a few weeks ago, I was like dude, that's awesome. So I'd love for you to share what led you into biological dentistry and what were you doing before this and why did you change.

Speaker 2: 1:51

Yeah, that's a good question and that's kind of a big story, but yeah, as long as short of it is. So I was actually working in finance. I had no intention at all of working in the medical field. I, you know, didn't really have a whole lot of interest in that. Nobody in medicine in my family and I actually went to school for finance and went to work for Merrill Lynch right before the 2007-2008 crash and I had a very interesting road as far as that goes, just kind of getting a front row seat to everything that went on with that.

Speaker 2: 2:22

So, seeing yeah, I mean really just kind of how the big corporate inner workings are and how really intertwined the financial markets are with the government. And over the course of a number of years I kind of became disenchanted with the financial world and my wife was working as a dental assistant at the time and she would tell me all the stuff that her doctors, she was working before, we're doing, and I just kind of joke around about how I, you know, should have been a dentist and I'm like man, that sounds interesting. No, that sounds fun, you know, just hearing all the different things they were doing. And anyways, eventually a good buddy of mine who actually he was working as a pharmaceutical rep at the time and he called me and he was like you know what, I've had enough of this nonsense. He's like I'm going back to dental school. And I was like well, it's crying out loud if he can do it, you know, maybe I can do it, you know. So I actually, you know, I left my job, left my you know nice situation in the financial world already kind of had established some roots and stuff that way. And we went back to school, went back to dental school, and while I was in school as well, I was one of four students that got a tandem master's degree in oral biology in addition to the DMD program that I was in at the university level. So so, yeah, so that was kind of what led me into dentistry.

Speaker 2: 3:35

And then, right around that same time that we were making that shift, and right before we started dental school, my oldest daughter was diagnosed with an autoimmune condition. And to you, so, to your point, right, most of us that find our way into some alternative medicine spaces, it's because of that, because of a necessity, because something, something shakes us out of our apathy and out of our, you know, traditional way of thinking. And the condition she had was it was vitiligo. So we went to the dermatologist who was losing some pigment. Vitiligo is one where the melanocytes and the skin get attacked, and so she was losing pigment. And we went to the dermatologist and they said we don't know what causes it, we don't know how to cure it. You know, here's some, here's some cream that you know some steroid cream. People have good luck with, you know, good luck.

Speaker 2: 4:23

And that was that, was it, you know? And frankly, that was just an unsatisfactory answer. And so, while I'm going through the, the program of dental school and stuff. You know I started a deep dive into, you know, books on gut health and autoimmune disease and you know I just just really kind of opened my eyes to this completely different world that existed. And we were not, you know, crunchy at all and we were, you know, eating all the traditional American nonsense you know which, when I look back on, it's pretty disgusting. But we, you know, so we made some some drastic changes while we were in dental school and stuff, and we're able to, you know, reverse to a good degree her condition and we were able to, you know, up to this point she hasn't had any relapses, hasn't had any additional pigment loss and stuff.

Speaker 1: 5:15

So yeah, so you, you got a degree in oral microbiome and in the oral microbiome you got your DMD. But then I mean, biological dentistry is not readily taught in dental school. So why that? And what I loved about what we had talked about previous was the importance of questions. And how did that? Because it's a big jump right, and then you can be looked at as what are you doing that for? Like, just be a dentist.

Speaker 2: 5:46

Right, right, yeah, and that's something that I've always been, especially with that history in in finance and stuff. And, like I said, I I'd become kind of disillusioned by some of that and seeing some of the blatant corruption and, and you know, conflicts of interest and stuff, and it was just like Cause there's none of that in medicine.

Speaker 1: 6:03

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:03

Well, and that was kind of the funny thing too, is I. I was, on the one hand, you know, my eyes were like wide open, but on the other hand, I was still like very blissfully naive cause when, when I made the shift to dentistry and stuff, I was like, you know, finance is corrupt, there's a lot of, there's a lot of problems here. You know what's still untainted medicine? You know that's a, that's a pure field where you can like treat people and you know, anyway, so it was. It was kind of kind of funny to then, you know, get into it and be like wait a second.

Speaker 1: 6:33

Wait, maybe it's not. Wait a minute, maybe it's more.

Speaker 2: 6:36

Yeah, you know, arguably you know just as much or more so. So, but yeah, so I've always been one who asks questions and if something doesn't make sense to me I'm going to pull it that thread until it does. And you know, even before I'd gone into dental school, I had watched a number of, you know, documentaries on, okay, you know, fluoride and mercury fillings and stuff. And it's like all right, if I'm going to be around this stuff, I want to hear the other side, what, what do they got? And you know, a lot of those arguments were pretty compelling and so when I got to dental school, even it was kind of like, okay, well, let's hear what, you know, the institution has to say about these things, you know. And well, I mean, some of the arguments didn't really like stack up in my mind and they've got plenty of data, they got plenty of research and stuff.

Speaker 2: 7:22

But you know, it's still one of those things where, just in the application of it, where, like we would place an amalgam mercury laden filling in somebody's mouth, you know, in our clinical rotations we had to do a certain amount of Malcolm fillings and to show our competency and whatever, and then we had to take them like we'd have to take the scraps. And we had to take the scraps, you had to like double glove and take the scraps and put them in a special container and put that container in another container. And then the EPA comes and picks that up and, you know, disposes of it in some safe way, because it's illegal to put it down the drain, it's illegal to put it in the garbage can, but it's completely safe.

Speaker 1: 8:04

Safe to be in your mouth. Yet you have to take all these precautions to.

Speaker 2: 8:09

But so the only safe place that it can be is in a patient's mouth, where they're chewing on it and looking at it, and you know all that, and even the conditions in which, like mercury, offgassing occurs from those mercury and Malcolm fillings is where there's heat, where there's abrasion and where there's galvanized currents, which is the condition. That is your mouth, and so it's to me. It's just you know like I understand, you know when, like they were created, like back in the 1830s. It's an 1830s technology. I understand. Okay, you know, maybe back then, but we have better stuff now. We have better materials. We've progressed to a point where you know that type of stuff is no longer necessary in my mind and should be reconsidered.

Speaker 1: 8:56

I'm curious, before we get into like the nitty gritty on this what was? How are you received? You're asking questions. You're curious. You're in dental school where you know the institution is the authority. How are you received when you pushed back on stuff that you didn't?

Speaker 2: 9:15

appreciate. Yeah, I mean, well, some of that stuff, I mean I would just ask questions. It was just an honest inquiry, right. And same thing with, like fluoride and stuff. It was like, well, you know, I was just kind of the guy in the back that you know would raise my hand and be like, well, hey, you know what about that Like or what about this, and I wasn't being like argumentative or total contrarian, it was just like, hey, could you explain this? Because what you just said doesn't quite make sense, given this factor, this factor, this other you know thing that you just explained. And it was like, okay, so just, could you, could you go over that a little bit more? And you know, so it's one of those things.

Speaker 2: 9:50

I wasn't like met with a whole lot of animosity or anything in dental school. It was, it was, it wasn't that, but it was more. Just, some of the answers in my mind were just kind of, you know, left me wanting, they were kind of inadequate. And then, you know, the other thing is, a classmate of mine was also, he's a biological dentist as well and his, his dad, was a biologic dentist and stuff. And so, you know, he and I are still great friends and stuff, and when his dad would come into town, you know we get together and I'd be like, all right, okay, so like what about this?

Speaker 2: 10:22

Because you know some of the stuff, even that I was like, okay, I can get on board readily enough. It's like. You know, fluoride is toxic and mercury is toxic. That's, that's kind of the easy stuff. But some of the other things it was like same thing, like, prove it, prove, prove to me that that this road is really better or less toxic.

Speaker 2: 10:40

You know it's like, and so some of that took, took a while for me to come around to as well. Just, you know, I didn't want to abandon one dogma just to subscribe to another. You know, because, because even even in the world, as I'm sure you've seen, in the world of functional medicine, in the world of biologic dentistry, sometimes people can get, you know, just as dogmatic and kind of. You know they're like a little little bit of a zealot mentality. You know they're like, oh, it has to be this way, because it's, you know, x, y and Z, and it's like well, you know again, I try not to get too dogmatic about any of it and show me enough research, show me enough data, and I'm willing to change my mind on any one of these topics.

Speaker 1: 11:23

And I think that's so important that one, this curiosity, is there to explore and and then, second, to be open about Okay, let me just process and filter this and and, based on that data and what I, what resonates with me, what I feel, then let's, let's move that direction and to not be afraid to do that.

Speaker 1: 11:43

I think a lot of people are afraid to question authority, whether it's Dr Dennis, whoever it is, because of experiences in the past. But I mean, as you've, as you've so outlined, like that was instrumental and critical in where you were, where you are, you know where you were, where you are now, and and so I just I love that you shared that and that you're open to if you see new data and things changed and it's like you know what I'm open to, that I'm not closed off, and I think that's really important to I can not become so dogmatic, because it's really easy to take any one of these things in functional medicine or or health and say, well, it's just this, this is how it is, and and we see that in camps with nutrition, with vegan, keto, paleo, it's like, well, I'm really defining your entire existence by it almost, because it's on religion, right, where where there's that kind of zealousness.

Speaker 2: 12:44

And you know just just, yeah, I mean just even how people react. They have a visceral reaction if something goes slightly contrary to what they, you know, now hold as their, you know core belief. And you know, to me, like I said, I just I just said, ask questions, I follow the data, that's what I'm saying.

Speaker 1: 13:04

Yeah, and that's awesome and I love that. I love how you've you've talked about that and and sensing that from you as we talk and common sense right, because that's the other thing too.

Speaker 2: 13:13

There's, there's plenty of, there's, there's always and there always is right, because of these conflicts of interest and because of these different corporate groups and stuff that stand to benefit or lose out on on different things, right, like there's always research to support, said you know, procedure or material or whatever, but there's also then there's the research from the opposing camp, and so some of that too it's you know, taking in your clinical experience, but also just in common sense, just just like, think it through, does it make, does it make sense and does it resonate? Does it you know? Does it? Does it feel right? And and you know, and you know there's there's part of it. You know that goes that way as well, but does it sit well with your gut?

Speaker 1: 13:55

you know. Well, speaking of gut, then let's jump in to how to like really into the, into the nitty-gritty. So what are, when you look at someone's mouth, and maybe even if someone at home, you know, look in the mirror and look at their mouth, what are some things that you see right off the bat that are indicators to you that hey, we, we have a problem here.

Speaker 2: 14:20

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:21

And and then, and then, if you would not from a well, from from your standpoint. But can people look at that and see things at home that are like, hey, wait a minute, this, this isn't right. There's something going on here that could be a bigger problem.

Speaker 2: 14:35

Sure, sure, yeah, I mean really it's. It's pretty amazing what we can see. You know just by looking in the mouth, and I'm sure other people who are trained in other you know specialties and stuff you know, feel the same way when they, you know, look at their, you know extremity or body part or whatever right that there's generally. You know there's a lot that they can glean from you know certain, certain things that they see, but definitely in the mouth. I mean it's a treasure trove of information. People open their mouth and right away you know we can see potential. I mean airway issues is a big one that we screen for and stuff you know. So whether it's a tongue tie, you know the Malin potty scores or something that I look for. That's how much you know room is in the back of the throat. Are the tonsils getting in the way as a soft palate, drooping, as the, as the tongue you know particularly large as impeding the airway. You know so so that right there, right airway, if they've got any issues with sleep apnea or potential risk for sleep apnea, you know. You know the consequences that come from that. Or you know high blood pressure, elevated cardiovascular risk, dementia. You know higher risk for different autoimmune diseases. You know, and that, and, and I'll see that right away, right when I look in their mouths, right, so we're able to identify those types of risks right away.

Speaker 2: 15:51

On the teeth themselves, there's oftentimes there's little, you know, there's pitting, there's a difference between pitting, there's a difference between wear and attrition, and we're able to see, you know, is there an acid reflux problem? Is there a? You know, either it's either an intrinsic or extrinsic acidic contributing factor. That's that's, you know, damaging the teeth and sometimes that, right, if they have GERD, if they've got silent reflux, you know that increases their risks of esophageal cancers, among other things, you know. So you know some of those things that we see, we see right away.

Speaker 2: 16:24

There's specific decay patterns that if we're seeing a lot of interproximal decay or the cavities right in between the teeth, generally, that's either one of two things either your diet is not where it needs to be, you know, there's usually a significant dietary contributing factor when we see a lot of that type of decay, you know. But if your diet's super clean and everything's you know as it should be that way, and we're still seeing that type's decay, oftentimes it points towards a hormonal issue, you know. So then I'll be sending people to have their thyroid checked and their you know, their adrenal function and stuff, because that plays a huge role in the internal defense systems of the tooth, you know so. So it's just kind of, you know, there's a number of those things that just by looking you know that's not swabs, that's not DNA testing, that's not any of this kind of stuff, that's just a visual. You know, once over that it's like, oh, we've got this type of risk, this type of risk, you know and there's, you know. So it's pretty amazing what you can see.

Speaker 1: 17:24

That's cool. I'm curious on the tongue ties. You see that and you don't see pediatric. You're not set up for pediatric clinic right now.

Speaker 2: 17:33

Correct, we still see a lot of kids, but you know we see 10 and over and stuff, so we definitely check for that and I spring the adults as well.

Speaker 1: 17:40

Do you see that, like, is it more common than what people would think? Because you know you're born and doctor looks at it. Oh great, no tongue tie, but I've heard that it's actually more way more common than what is screened for.

Speaker 2: 17:54

Yeah, to me. That's another one of those things. That's a. It's kind of a personal issue for me, but I definitely screen for it in adults and it's something that we see, you know, fairly regularly. It's not every patient and stuff, but this is a but you know again where it's such a contributing factor to. You know those sleep apnea and those issues In kids. If you catch it early and change that and release that and stuff, it can actually significantly impact the way their face grows, the way their actual facial development. Stuff ends up In adults your face is already set.

Speaker 2: 18:27

But if you can eliminate a risk factor for sleep apnea or alleviate some of the symptoms maybe that the people have been having you know my mother she is. You know she was diagnosed with an early onset dementia. She's really not that old, she's 72, and she's, you know, a few years into this cognitive decline and which is this is awful, I wouldn't wish that on anybody. And you know it wasn't until after she was diagnosed that we also noticed that she's got a significant tum tie. So it's something that she hadn't been screened for and she was diagnosed with a severe sleep apnea shortly after being diagnosed with an early onset dementia.

Speaker 2: 19:09

And you know, and it's one of those things, my mother is a she's a very petite lady and a lot of people associate sleep apnea and stuff with like being obese, right, and she's not. She's always been very thin, you know, very deep woman, but she, you know, as a kid, we, we, we, we almost thought it was funny because, you know, like if mom went and took a nap or something, we'd hear her in their son logs and so you know, we'd hear this, such a loud noise, you know, coming coming out of this tiny woman and and you know, as a kid, we thought it was, you know, kind of funny. Well, you know, fast forward to that, after years, years, night after night, I've actually been deprived of oxygen, to the point that now you know that's a huge contributing factor to cognitive decline and it's, that's not funny. It's not funny anymore, you know it's. He said that's my, your, mom, I'm on, you know how.

Speaker 2: 20:04

So so it's personal to when we screen for these things, you know, like when we when I notice a severe tongue tie in an adult and stuff, you know, we still make the recommendation that, hey, you know, especially if you and is it consistent? Have you been having, you know, sleep disturbances? Oh, yes, I have. Okay, well, what about this, what about this? And it's like, yeah, we should probably get you in as well to consider having a revision done so that you know you're 40 now, but what happens in 20 years? Right, you know.

Speaker 1: 20:33

I bring. I bring that and thank you for like sharing so much of that. I I read James Nestor's book called Breathe and it you know they. He did all sorts of experiments on himself with other people and and it was incredible, when you know they, they, they plugged his nose and he was breathing through his mouth only and help fast His body started to I'll say a road in the bacteria that developed in the mouth and in his body and what happened to him physiologically and it was incredible.

Speaker 1: 21:06

And then when they unplugged his nose after 10 days and there's just only 10 days, this is not a lifetime, this was 10 days and then they unplugged and he said it was like hell. At day nine, day 10, he was just praying that I can't wait for these plugs to be removed. And then they were. And how quickly his body recovered and changed, like this whole bacteria overgrowth that had happened in his body now began to revert. And so and you get to see this you are one of these frontline people that can see what's going on in the mouth, right away to where adults may have no idea that their mouth has anything to do with sleep apnea. They're given a CPAP machine and just told go home and use it it would stretch the mouth out further.

Speaker 2: 21:52

You know, Right, and when it is what it is, they've got to be able to breathe. But yeah, I mean, that's a huge contributing factor as well where sometimes people come in and they're like I always struggle with cavities and stuff, and it's like, okay, you know, when you point some of these things out, it's like are you breathing through your nose? Are you breathing? Are you a mouth breather? You know what's going on and it's like, well, yeah, I've been a mouth breather forever. And it's like, okay, well, just that, just to your point there, that it does that there's a shift in the oral microbiome when your saliva can't flow and keep the teeth, you know, covered and protected.

Speaker 1: 22:27

Right, yeah, Well, let's get to that. This was. I was fascinated when I came to your office and you do something that I've never seen another dentist do, where you'll take like a saliva or the plaque and put it under a microscope and show it to the person. Right, I do that with live cell in the blood. It's pretty fascinating what you see in the blood. I've never seen this done with the mouth. So I would love for you to one describe what you're doing, why you're doing that, and then just take it away and share your screen and let's give people a visual so really important.

Speaker 1: 23:08

If you're listening, you want to go to YouTube and take a look at this. And this is the word stunning, I don't think, does it justice. When you see what's going on, and because the microbiome is so elusive, it's like, well, yeah, it's in our gut, it's in our body, what does it look like? You know what impact is what I'm doing having on it? Well, this shows impact of what your health decisions are having, and it is just by maybe a little piece of plaque or saliva and it's crazy. So, describe what you do, why, and then let's turn on the camera and let people see.

Speaker 2: 23:47

Sounds good. Yeah, so this is something that's kind of wild. So you know, and again, I'm always asking questions and I'm always looking to improve and get more information and stuff, you know. And so this was something that we actually brought on this last year in our office and, as well as saying it was pretty mind blowing to me too, because it's as a dentist right, we talk about, like I'm sure some of the listeners here can relate to this but when the dentist says, oh, you need a deep cleaning right which I actually I hate that. I hate that terminology I always had when it would be oh you need a deep cleaning, and I understand they're like they're just vernacular, they're trying not to use too big of wordy. You know medical terms and stuff, but the actual medical term for it is scaling and root cleaning, which is also terrible, mate.

Speaker 1: 24:32

Right, and then it makes it sound, doesn't sound like.

Speaker 2: 24:34

Oh no, like who wants to get their roots scaled and planed Like Esca Carpenter, if they want their roots scaled and planed. You know it's like, no, I don't think so. You know so. But when people use that terminology and they're like, oh, you don't need just a regular cleaning, you need a deep cleaning, one is that kind of implies that like our regular cleaning isn't deep, kind of makes the makes it sound like it's not very thorough, they're not really doing a whole lot and you pay extra for the deluxe cleaning like this is just a basic cleaning or something you know. So I just hate that, hate that terminology.

Speaker 2: 25:06

It's a completely different procedure. So a cleaning, the terminology for that is a prophylaxis, which is trying to prevent this disease process from happening. So what a cleaning is? It's a prophylaxis, which is we're trying to prevent gum disease from happening. Scaling and root planning is a surgical procedure. Okay, it's a surgical procedure, which is why the, the hygienists, have to numb you up for the procedure. They're actually going underneath the gums and they're busting up and cleaning out and de-briding this, you know, infected tissue and these bacterial colonies that set up shop below the gums, and so that's what it is. So when they say a deep cleaning. That's not. It's very different.

Speaker 1: 25:53

So with that included, like would that be? Like you're breaking down, opening up biofilm, cleaning out like that? And for people that don't know what biofilm is biofilm are these microorganisms, viruses, bacteria, molds, that they essentially form this protective force field around them so that our body, our immune function can't access that but they can send out these endotoxins that are wreaking havoc on our tissues, gets into our lymphatic system, the vascular system, and this can be a huge point of chronic inflammation and infection, chronic illness, because of how that does get into the vascular system, in the lymph. So that's really cool. I didn't know that. I didn't know that difference. I didn't. I never understood that.

Speaker 2: 26:38

And I said, as well as things are just for this common vernacular used in dental offices, where it's like, oh, you need a deep cleaning. And it's like and patients, that's how they interpret it is they're like, wait, what they're like. I came here for this. Like you know, my $60 cleaning, you're running a special and like, and now you're trying to sell me on this like $500 cleaning. And it's like, no, this is just surgical procedure. Like this is like this is much more than just a deep cleaning, you know, but you know to your point.

Speaker 2: 27:05

Just there, with the microscope, we're able to see. We're able to see in real time, you know, how balanced the oral microbiome is. Now, what we were able to see on a microscope, we're able to see the morphotype of the bacteria. So that's like the shape, right, we're able to see. Is it spherical, is it a cocci, is it a rod, is it a spirochete? You know, we're able to see a number of these things. We're not able to tell the genotype. We need a specific DNA test for that. So I can't look at it and be like, oh, this is what it is. But we can look at it and, just knowing what we know about oral biology, we know which ones are bad, like spirochetes are always mean, you know. So it's like, and there's always good bacteria in the mouth and there's always bad bacteria in the mouth. And then, on a healthy slide, sometimes we'll see a spirochete over there or we'll see, you know, some of these things over there, and that's fine. That's fine.

Speaker 2: 27:53

It's when they start to coalesce, it's when they start to overpopulate, you know. It's when the terrain of the host, right it's been compromised to some degree and their immune system has, you know, it's taken a hit. And these opportunistic infections happen where some of these bacteria overpopulate and start coalescing. As they coalesce and aggregate, they actually start to synchronize their movement and as they synchronize their movement, their biofilms become more virulent. Their biofilms become more toxic, become more damaging and over time the tissue and bone are lost around these teeth and the teeth I've extracted a lot of teeth on people who are they don't have cavities at all, but they've the bone that supports the teeth has been completely destroyed by this chronic inflammatory process and, you know, they end up in a complete denture because the oral microbiome is just completely out of whack and destroys the tissue and bone.

Speaker 1: 28:57

That was pretty wild. When you showed that to me, the coalescing of those and the movement together, it was like, oh my gosh, that's incredible. There's something called quorum sensing where it's like you know one bacteria. It's like, hey, hey, come over here, come hang with me, come hang with me, come hang with me. And I often know it's how patients that all these bacteria, that they're normal in the body. But it's like if you get one teenager, great, not every deal, you get 50 teenagers together or 100, put them in a certain direction and say, hey, just have at it. It's like, oh, they're gonna, they're gonna, let's, yeah, right, they're gonna give you some damage. So, and not all teenagers agree I love my kids but nonetheless, bacteria starts to act differently when it's in a group than it would when it's separate, which was amazing. To actually visualize that and see it. That was incredible.

Speaker 2: 29:53

And this is why it's so powerful is because you can actually see what we're talking about, because I could show people like this is what a healthy slide is, and that's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna, I'll share my screen here in just a moment and I'll show people. Okay, let me do that now. So let me see here we go.

Speaker 2: 30:09

Okay. So for those that are watching on YouTube, you'll be able to visualize this and stuff, but for those that are listening, I'm just showing us an actual slide. So the 4K video of one of the slides that we have and on this is this is this, is this plaque or is this saliva? So it's actually a cravicular fluid. So we go underneath the pockets, like so, where the gums kind of butt up to the tooth, and we take a little sample of this cravicular fluid and we we put that on the slide. So sometimes there's a little bit of plaque and stuff that gets on there and stuff, and that's fine. But yeah, I mean this is a fairly healthy slide and you can see there's some bacteria over here, there's some bacteria down here and they're not really moving much. Let's see.

Speaker 1: 30:56

So again, because those that were watching that slide was pretty clear, there was not a whole lot on there.

Speaker 2: 31:01

And so this is a little better one right here, where you can actually see some of the bacteria moving right. So there's a few here and there. You see them kind of dancing around, but there's not a whole lot of activity going on. And this is a healthy mouth. This is a healthy mouth. We've got bacteria present. We want it there. We don't want a sterile mouth, but when we see things that are, so, this one is more of kind of a moderate, what I'd call microbial dysbiosis. So things are just quite out of balance and things are starting to pick up. This is the teenagers really starting to get busy.

Speaker 1: 31:35

There's a lot more bacteria and they're moving around.

Speaker 2: 31:38

Yeah, so, and then you've been to these long filamentous ones. So let me go back just a little bit. So, right here, kind of these longer filamentous ones Again, I can't say specifically if that is what I think it is, but it's usually what's called fusiform nucleotom, which is a bacteria that's a moderate risk for periodontal disease, but it's also a significant risk for a number of cancers and a whole host of other systemic conditions. But when we see that in the mouth, it's one of those things, especially when it gets overpopulated. So let me and I'll just pull this other one up.

Speaker 2: 32:10

So this is another one where there's a lot of these filamentous ones going on. So these are typically, like I said, that fusiform nucleotom. Let me go back. There we go, and these right here, these are white blood cells. So we actually see, we see the body's immune reaction to these. So these are all white blood cells right here, right there, right there, and we have just a whole host of these longer filamentous types of bacteria which are can be a problem. Some of these things aren't like this little green area and stuff that's chlorophyll. That's probably had a salad for dinner last night or something.

Speaker 1: 32:42

Stay on there for a second. I think and this is fascinating that here is your body in action. Right, we can't? You never see this until now, and can we appreciate, like, the intricacy that our body has? Like, we have all these white blood cells the cert, you can't see my cursor, but like the circles were white blood cells, right, yeah, and they're working to support our body, but yet, based on lifestyle factors, based on toxicity, exposure to different things, it's gonna disrupt and change that. So there's an interesting I can't say that word a complexity to this. That is pretty amazing and beautiful how our body works. It's incredible.

Speaker 2: 33:30

And one other. I'm gonna show you two more, but this one here, this one. So this here. This is a C, an absolute C, of white blood cells. So this is just the all color less. This is a ton of white blood cells all over the place. And when we see this, right, I mean somebody's immune system here is completely amped. So sometimes we see that maybe they just got over the flu, maybe they just came off a cold. But usually when we see this complete wall of white blood cells and the immune system completely gone, dialed up to the nines right, we spend a little additional time looking around on the slide to see is there something else obvious on our end that's driving this heightened inflammation? And so this is one of the ones. This is actually one of the more intense slides that I've seen. So one of the crazy things that we pick up on on these slides is not only we see the bacterial dysbiosis, but we see parasites. Well, we'll see parasites in the gums.

Speaker 1: 34:29

Okay. So for those of you that think that you don't have parasites, just know that everybody with a pulse has parasites. If you're alive, you have parasites.

Speaker 2: 34:41

Yeah, and sometimes we'll pick up on these. The most common one that we see in the mouth are amoebas. There's another one that we'll see which are trick of nomads that are typically an STD, but we'll see those from time to time, but definitely the ones we see most frequently. I'm gonna pull this slide up and you'll really be able to see. There's just so. This is a 20 year old patient and the only complaint is my gums are sore. My gums bleed when I brush and she comes in and her gums are completely inflamed completely inflamed. We take this slide and it's kind of alarming. So we see, this is where we can actually see the synchrony Down here on this corner. We can actually see how they've coalesced this bacterias coalesced, and we can see how they're actually synchronizing their movement. Can you make that any bigger?

Speaker 2: 35:22

Yeah let me see here. So yeah, we can there we go, there we go. So let me go back so we can see how they've, the movement of these bacteria are actually syncing up right. They're actually flowing together. We see this movement stuff where it's just kind of pulsing in there, and this is a mature colony, if for it to synchronize like that. I mean, it's been here for a while.

Speaker 2: 35:45

So just again, just all these spirochetes all over the place. And then into the nature of these spirochetes. You can see them, you can watch them. They burrow, they burrow in the tissue, they puncture white blood cells. I've seen slides of you know these spirochetes literally tearing white blood cells apart. They lead to gum permeability and the gum lining breaks down, and that's where you start seeing it is. These spirochetes get into the bloodstream and then they start showing up on your blood work. But the other thing here that I'm gonna point out and then we'll go back to the normal screen but right here is all of these this here, this here, this here, this here these are all amoebas. This is a tiny little sample in this person's mouth that we took from the just one little. We take it from four different pockets. Like you know we sample four different areas of the gums, but in that tiny, tiny, tiny little sample we have, on just this one slide alone, literally hundreds, if not thousands, of amoebas. As I scrolled through this, slide.

Speaker 1: 36:47

And amoebas, for those that don't know, are single-celled parasites. Right, this could be like. Malaria is a type of protozoa. Amoeba babesia one of the co-infections with Lyme is a amoeba protozoa. So, and they're vast. Those are only two examples. But and you can't I mean what you've said you can't look at this and then diagnose and say, oh, it's this. You'd have to actually get down to the genotype and do DNA testing on it. But seeing this, you know there's a problem.

Speaker 2: 37:18

Yeah, I mean this patient, I mean I said all the only symptom she had was, oh, you know, just that my gums bleed, something's not, you know, something's off, but yeah, you know.

Speaker 2: 37:29

So she's like, yeah, my gums bleeding, they're sore, and so I just figured I better come to the dentist, you know, and I come in and it's like, oh, my goodness, like you're actually you're sick, you know, you've your body's been compromised and you've got a serious situation going on.

Speaker 2: 37:45

And so you think just proximity, again, you know, proximity to major things your eyes, your brain, you know to have that big of a bacterial and parasitic infection going on. You think of the square footage that your mouth takes up, you know, and if you had a parasitic infection that large that you were told you had that type of an infection on your leg or your arm or something you know, I mean you'd be like, oh, my goodness, you know. But a lot of times, when it's something's like that's going on in the mouth, people say, well, you know, it's not really bothering me, my gums bleed a little bit, but you know, and it's like, oh, like this is a, your body's sending up a flare, it's in trouble and it needs some help, it's, it's. This is a huge red flag.

Speaker 1: 38:26

And I think that's critical to recognize is that these are these symptoms, whether whether we think they're significant or not. Our body's trying to communicate something to us. And I think this is also the beauty of our body that if we have an awareness and if we can be still with certain things, we can hear and feel our body trying to express there's a problem. I'm crying out Like, do something about this. And sometimes you don't know what to do. But in this case you're giving people the opportunity and the visualization to see hey, here is the problem and this is just a piece, and I love what you said that with these Pyrokeets they can burrow into things and then get from the mouth into the bloodstream, into the lymphatic system. And it's really interesting. Often when I test people if they have with chronic illness, I will do muscle testing and look at their gums and their sinuses and it's fascinating, crazy, to see what we find up there Different types of parasite, different types of nematode, protozoa, and then getting up into the sinuses. And some people are like, wait, I have parasites up here and it's like, yeah, that may be where the first place they came from, why it's so prevalent in the body, and we think of.

Speaker 1: 39:51

Where are portals of entry? Yes, our skin, but you go back to what we kind of started with, with mouth breathing and you're breathing in contaminant hair. Sorry folks, glyphosate is measured in some places in 75% of the air and the rainwater In the US. This is not outside, this is in the US, where that's measured. And then you have stuff that's sprayed overhead, that cloud seeding and whatever they want to call it. But if we're breathing in through our mouth or even our nose, right, this is still coming in to our body and our body has to fight it off. And so where's the portal of entry? It's all around us. You're breathing, you're living. Thank goodness we have an immune system, but I really feel, with the rate of toxic exposure that we have, that it's really hard for our body to make up the difference and combat what's going on.

Speaker 2: 40:51

Yep, and one of the things that I always like to point out too is, like the just as most people in the functional medicine space and stuff and most people listening are gonna be familiar with the phrase of a leaky gut right, leaky gut is often what brings people to functional medicine. They start having weird symptoms or something going on right, and so they identify okay, I've got a leaky gut. Well, there's such a thing as leaky gums, and just as the gut is a protective barrier right, there's only certain things that are supposed to be let through right, and it's when those gap junctions in the gut get blown wide open and different proteins and things start getting through that gut lining that aren't supposed to be right, and then your body starts making antibodies against those or something and you end up with weird autoimmune conditions or those types of things start happening. Well, just as our gut lining is supposed to prevent certain things from getting through that barrier, the same is true with your gums. Your gums are a tough lining right. Teeth are the only. I mean, it's kind of a weird thing, but like teeth are like the only visible part of your skeleton right, like they're like protruding out of your gums. Well, your gums are, then a tight barrier that protect your body from everything on the outside. It's this tough rubber band like lining. You know that's super tough and strong. Well, if the gut excuse me, if the gums are compromised and these bacteria blow holes in it and the amoebasin parasitic infections contribute to gum permeability, well, as those gums become more permeable, we develop leaky gums.

Speaker 2: 42:30

And those leaky gums, you know, then proteins and bacteria and other things are able to get through that barrier that are not supposed to get in through that barrier and they start wreaking havoc elsewhere in the body. And that's why periodontal disease is implicated. You know it is one of the major contributing factors to, again, a whole host of issues from you know, cancer, again, diabetes, heart disease is a huge one, you know, among other things, you know, even down to like impotence and sterility. I mean it's. You know. But when you can see this visual and understand how these things work, that on my end seeing where they're like, how they're burrowing through the tissue, and then on your end as she actually see in that, that you're picking up on that in the bloodstream, yeah, helps really kind of connect those dots. They're like our mouth is not some separate entity that exists apart from our body, even though in the insurance world that's the case, but in reality, right, that's not the case.

Speaker 1: 43:30

Now here's a question. So some people might see that and they're like oh man, okay, I need to go home, I need to get some antiseptic. I need to get I forgot even the name of it but I need to get this stuff. I need to rinse. I need to do this every day. Is that a solution or is that a band-aid, or is that just the wrong route to go?

Speaker 2: 43:53

Yeah, well, I mean, it is one of those things. Definitely you wanna have some direction right, cause if people see that and they like rush to the grocery store and like swallow a bunch of listerine, a bunch of these, especially these commercial mouthwashers, they're frankly, they're garbage, they're toxic, you know, in their own way they're listerine. A lot of them have alcohol in it. It destroys the good bacteria and the bad and it's acidic, that's. The other crazy thing is, listerine actually has a very low pH lower, it's like around a four or something, you know, and the teeth start to dissolve around a 5.5. And so that's just kind of insane and unto itself.

Speaker 1: 44:31

So that would be eroding the enamel in the teeth. Yes, Thank you guys. Crazy. Yeah, let's give you a lot of that is helpful, but actually it's hurting.

Speaker 2: 44:40

You know, give you that dance for 10 minutes and then it destroys your bacteria and the road you teeth you know. So it's definitely something that you know. There's a method to the madness. Even as far as what we do then with that, and if you're, if they're under the care of a functional provider and stuff, you know we I usually have them, they're functional doc. You know, kind of quarterback, an actual parasite cleanse. We have parasite cleanses available in our clinic and generally works really well, especially for those that are kind of familiar with the process and stuff, and so so we can do that.

Speaker 2: 45:09

We also do, you know, ozone irrigations in the gums. These are anaerobic bacteria that don't like oxygen and so we blast it with a full dose of oxygen. And for those that are aren't familiar with ozone, ozone is, I mean it's pure oxygen, it's 03, the stable form of oxygen is 02. That's what we breathe. But the unstable oxygen on an, on an on an ozone molecule wants to peel off and bind to something and that oxidizes it and that oxidation process kills these microbes that like to hide out in the gums where there's not as much oxygen. And we can take it before and after slide. We take a slide before treatment and the spirochetes are all over the place. We take a slide after treatment and it's not sterile but we can see. You know, we do an ozone treatment in tandem with a laser treatment and then we take a slide and we're able to see the immediate difference in in what bacteria and stuff we're seeing on the slide and it's pretty, pretty remarkable in and of itself. And then we want to see people back and make sure that our therapies are working right.

Speaker 2: 46:15

There's a number of, there's some different supplements. We'll put them on, we'll. We'll, you know, like I said, put them in touch with a good functional medicine doctor they're not in touch with one and then they, you know, start working on balance and things. Because if you're, if your mouth is out of balance, I said, your mouth is a red flag, it's a, it's a canary in the coma most of the time that there's something else going on downstream, like what caused this, this situation, this opportunistic infection, to exist in the first place. And and so if we can correct that and, you know, get the, get the entire oral and gut microbiome back in balance, as we see it, or we see every time, we swallow right the extra thousands and thousands of those, you know, on.

Speaker 2: 46:55

Millions of those bacteria go down on the gut, you know so. So there's there's. There's a little bit more to it than that, but but but, between, on our end that's kind of what we do. We'll put them through a number of regimens and stuff, with the laser or the ozone treatment. They said there's a few different supplements that we'll put them on. Some of them, you know, target spirochete specifically, or some of these other things. But and then, and then we're able to, like I said, follow up and measure and check in real time, right, it's easy enough to reslide, it just takes a few minutes and see is our treatment even working? Is what we're doing working? And if it is wonderful, we stay the course.

Speaker 1: 47:30

And if it's not, if we still we're still having some issues, you know, then we retool and we redirect and stuff and we can do that I think that's really cool to be able to to reassess, right and and not just, hey, the procedure's done and and you're good, but to go back and be able to look and to make sure. I remember and this was, this was different, but I remember having a shoulder surgery years ago and you know it was physical therapy, but there was never a one appointment again with with the orthopod that he was like, yep, looks good and K see ya and and yet there's been chronic instability with our shoulder ever since. There's no way to, you know, follow up, and so I love the fact that you bring them back. You know, same visit, you can look at that, but hey, come back, let's look again to make sure what we have to do.

Speaker 2: 48:23

Because, right, you know like and and with and and even with, to get to kind of go back and revisit that. You know all idea of scaling and root planning and stuff. You know the that kind of kicks off the initial gum therapy, like, so, if that, if that level of intervention is necessary where we actually do need to scale and to bride underneath the gums, and then we, you know, and that's a whole nother level, like I said, that's a surgical procedure. Well, we do the scale and a replaning. We'll still do the ozone, we'll do the laser, but that kind of like kicks off the therapeutic regimen, right, and so many people too, they they're like, okay, I'll bite, I'll do this $500 deep cleaning that you're telling me about, you know, and then they do it.

Speaker 2: 49:04

And they're like, okay, I did it, I'm done, and then, and then they go, they, they disappear, and then they don't come back for for a year or two or something and they come back and their mouth is still a mess and they're like, well, your deep cleaning didn't work. And it's like, whoa, that's not, that's not how this works, it's not as much as I wish, it was as easy as just. You know, everybody nowadays wants the easy button. They just want to push it. And, like you know, push the button, swallow the pill, you know, do, do the do the thing the one time. And they're like, oh great, okay, you know, and now I should be cured. And it's like, well, this is not quite how this works.

Speaker 1: 49:37

Right. I mean that'd be like getting a whole exercise regimen and doing it one time like that, assessing a month later like how come I'm not bigger? I have what's going on, my performance still sucks.

Speaker 2: 49:47

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 49:47

So yeah, you have, and that's one of the things with health that people often ask me how long do I have to do this?

Speaker 2: 49:55

And I'm like well the lifestyle change.

Speaker 1: 49:57

Yeah, how long do you want to live, like, how long and not how long do you want to live? Saying that we can change you know lifespan or add years, but it's like this is not just a one time thing, this is your life. Right, this is lifestyle, this is improving quality of life, and so it's not something that you just do once or twice and then great, I'm good. Our bodies don't work like that. Well nothing works like that.

Speaker 2: 50:24

And it's just like when my daughter started showing signs of autoimmune you know it was that it wasn't like, okay, we can just like we'll just clean up our diet for a day, for a week. You know it's like, oh, it's not how it works, like it's, it's it's got to change period. You know so, absolutely so, yeah, so, anyway, so that's, you know, hopefully that's that's helpful to some people who may relate to that.

Speaker 1: 50:50

Well, this is. This has been fantastic. I think that the things that we've touched on one, the visual, will help, but then the processes that you've that you've shared, talked about how that happens, I think is so valuable and and I would tell people, please like and share this with others. This goes beyond. You know, this is, this is frontline, like, this is where, hey, if I'm, if I'm not getting this at my dentist and not again, you're the first person that I've ever seen use the microscope. But you know, just like in in medicine, not everyone's the same, not everyone does the same things and there's different specialties and there's different things the way that we look at things. So, if you're not satisfied with where you're at, with your dentist or your healthcare provider, ask questions, be curious, right, don't relent until you have the answer, kind of like what, what you did, and continue to do. Any final thoughts on on what we've talked about, on anything?

Speaker 2: 51:48

No, I don't think so. We covered quite a bit. You know there's always more to talk about, there's always more to cover and stuff you know and you know, maybe next time we can talk a little bit more about. I'd love to spend some time on, like the, you know, internal defense systems of the tooth and kind of, you know, tooth remineralization and all that kind of stuff you know.

Speaker 1: 52:05

That'd be great. I would say, yes, let's do a part two on that. I'd be very fascinated in that as someone personally that as a kid it didn't matter what I did, it was cavity, cavity, cavity, and it's like what the heck? I floss, I brush, you know I do these things, and yet and my dentist was like, well, some people, that's just how it is. I'm like, or let's, let's slap some more fluoride on it. I don't believe that. So, anyway, I would love to do part two and talk about remineralization of the teeth and how you go about doing that and what you found. That would be fantastic.

Speaker 2: 52:39

Yeah, so it'd be fun. Definitely have you back when?

Speaker 1: 52:42

where can people find you?

Speaker 2: 52:43

Yeah, so I guess. So I, my practice, is in Eagle, idaho. Biosmiles is the practice. Biosmilescom and I also am on Instagram is the Boise Natural Dentist, so you can find me in those places.

Speaker 1: 52:57

That's what it's at at Boise Natural Natural Dentist. Yeah, the Boise Natural Dentist, the Boise Natural Dentist. Okay, yeah, yeah, check them out, follow them. You put out a lot of great content, which is really cool, that helps to educate and helps people understand, like, how not just important, but like, dude, this is, this is your health. Yeah, it's not just you know this, this extension of your body.

Speaker 2: 53:19

And we try and have fun with it. We try not to be such a stick in the butt about it, you know so.

Speaker 1: 53:25

No yeah. This has been awesome. Yeah, thanks so much for coming on. Thanks for taking your time today, and we will definitely do a part two soon, okay, hey, thanks doc.

Speaker 1: 53:35

You're welcome, so please like and share. This is how we get this word out and keep it real until next time. Thanks for joining me on this episode of restore the real podcast. This show is supported and informed by not only my own deep personal work, but also the deep healing work that we offer our patients here at Total Body Wellness Clinic. In the show in us below, you'll find all the links that you'll need to hop on a discovery call with our team for some one to one support, follow along on social media or even learn about some of our favorite recommendations and products. Until next time, keep it real.