Tooth Body Blog
Gratitude 9 Ways
Here's something to be grateful for this Thanksgiving: practicing gratitude can be a boon to your health. Repeatedly, scientific research has shown gratitude's benefits to mental, social and physical health alike. It's a stress buster and immune booster. That's...
Are Electric Toothbrushes Really All That?
Even Consumer Reports seems less than fully committal, saying that a “good soft-bristled manual toothbrush” is good enough – presuming “you take the time and effort” – but that powered brushes can be helpful. But they can also be pricey – up to nearly $150 pricey....
Gum Disease vs. the World (or, How to Not Be Among the 11%)
According to a review recently published in the Journal of Dental Research, more than 700 million people globally have severe gum disease. That’s more than the populations of most countries. It’s 11% of the world. And that makes it the 6th most prevalent health...
How Much Sugar Is OK? Not Much.
Most every adult in the US – 92%, to be exact – have experienced cavities. What’s to be done about it? Quite a bit, actually. Such a high rate of decay is unnatural, and we know the culprit: added sugars. Every time you eat hyper-processed food or sip a soft drink,...
More Progress Toward a Mercury-Free Future
Even if you’ve never had a “silver” mercury amalgam filling in your mouth, you’re still affected by them day in and day out. Improper or careless disposal of amalgam waste ultimately pollutes our water, our air, our food – in short, all the stuff of our existence....
Not “Silver” but Mercury
Although current concerns about dental amalgam and mercury-related illness emerged just a few decades ago, it’s not like no one was aware of the problem before then. In fact, the nation’s first dental association – the American Society of Dental Surgeons – made a...
Fluoride & Informed Consent
About a year ago, voters in Portland, Oregon, said "no" to fluoridation. And since then, it seems the pace of change has really picked up, with more residents in more towns and cities standing up and saying no to this well-intentioned but misguided practice. Here...
A Role for Homeopathy in Treating Gum Disease
Homeopathy can be a big help in dentistry – a point underscored by research published earlier this year in the scientific journal Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice. The study involved two groups of patients with chronic periodontitis – severe, ongoing...
Don’t Like to Floss?
Let’s face it: Committing to flossing regularly is a tough task for a lot of people. The most generous surveys say only about half of us floss daily. Others put the figure around 20%. Some folks never floss at all. Maybe flossing feels awkward or icky. Maybe it...
What You Need (and Don’t Need) in Your Toothpaste
The typical toothpaste can contain a lot of things your teeth don’t necessarily need or want. Fluoride, of course, is one. Sodium lauryl sulfate is another. And one more is now banned in Minnesota: triclosan. According to AP, a bill signed in May by Governor Mark...
A New Solution for Dry Mouth Syndrome
Several months ago, I attended a biological dental convention. Several excellent speakers presented insightful information regarding heavy metals toxicities found in the oral cavity, chelation techniques for our patients, ozone therapies for dental applications,...
Got a Toothache? Remember to Check Your Bite
There's nothing worse than having a nagging toothache. It will not only occupy your time but zap your energy while you try to find relief from the pain. Sometimes it may last for only a day or two but in some cases it could last for months and even years. What is...
From the Earlobe to the Mouth
What does your earlobe have to do with your dental health? If you can embrace the tooth-body concept once again, then you certainly will be able to follow the message that I wish to share with you in this article. Before I was introduced to biological dentistry...
Eliminate Root Canals with Stem Cell Regeneration
What does dentistry and stem cell research have in common? The answer may be more enlightening than you can imagine. Scientists are working diligently to discover the abilities of cell regeneration within the human body. Dentistry is playing an important role in...
Digital X-rays for Biological Dentistry
Dentistry has witnessed some incredible advances over the years that have improved the ability of our profession to deliver a higher quality of care for our patients. Several examples include the air driven dental drill, light-cured composites for dental filling...
Microscopes and Oral Spirochetes: Visual Images With Impact
Five years ago, I purchased a phase contrast microscope for our hygiene department. My intention was not to become a microbiologist but to observe and identify live samples of the bacterial activity occurring in our patients' mouths. I was particularly interested...
Is There A Battery In Your Mouth?
That's a strange question to ask or is it? Did you know that most metals found in your mouth have the ability to create an electrical charge? This charge can be responsible for numerous side effects that are rarely associated with the dental work found in your...
A Key To Good Health: Probiotics
A common theme throughout my practice of Biological Dentistry is the importance of establishing and maintaining a healthy body balance. This simply means encouraging a lifestyle that continues to support rather than undermine the basic needs of our bodies....
An Integrative Health Care Approach to Biological Dentistry
If you ask most people, "What effects do your teeth have to do with your overall health and wellness?" the answer most likely given is, "I never really thought about it," or "I didn't know that my teeth had anything to do with my overall health." However, if you...
Healthy Diet, Healthy Teeth
Although the heading seems to state the obvious, you might find this article quite interesting as we uncover the underlying events that actually occur to our teeth when our diets become compromised. Poor diets eventually invite a decaying process to develop within...