Feb. 25, 2026

EP 50: Does Treating Anxiety Before Teeth Improve Whole-Body Health?

Fear shouldn’t shape your dental experience, yet it does.

We talk with Dr. Preeya, founder of The Whole Tooth in Dallas, about how regulating the nervous system before, during, and after care transforms outcomes. From guided breathwork and acoustic resonance to NuCalm and natural light, these practical tools make dentistry safer, calmer, and more effective.

Dr. Preeya explains what the mouth reveals about overall health—how mouth breathing, narrow airways, and clenching reflect stress—and why stabilizing the oral ecosystem and nervous system matters before making irreversible choices like root canals or implants.

We cover the oral microbiome, nutrient support, and small daily practices like nasal breathing and red light therapy that help both patients and teams reset.

If you dread the drill, struggle with sleep, or wonder why teeth keep breaking, this conversation offers a roadmap that starts with breath and ends with better healing.

Subscribe, share, and leave a review with one change that would make your next dental visit calmer.

✨ About the Host & Ways to Work Together

Melissa-Sue Methven hosts Not Alone with Melissa-Sue Methven, and is an author, speaker, and breathwork facilitator guiding emotional, nervous-system, and spiritual healing. She uses storytelling, expert conversations, and lived experience to help people reconnect with their body, release stored emotions, and return to wholeness.

Available for:

Speaking engagements & keynotes
Breathwork & nervous system workshops
Podcast guest features & collaborations
Faith-based, wellness, and integrative health events

🔗 Inquiries: https://www.melissagratitude.life

📘 The Truth Behind the Smiles explores grief, emotional suppression, faith, and the journey back to self.

📕 Amazon: https://amzn.to/4mSAcEt

🎧 Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/B0DG5ZZN5C

🌱 Coming Soon: The Gut God Connection & Gut God Blueprint Coaching Program, focused on gut health, nervous system regulation, emotional healing, and faith-aligned living.

✨ Join the waitlist: https://www.melissagratitude.life

🎧 Subscribe to Not Alone, share episodes, and leave a review.

You are not alone 🤍

00:00 - Meet Dr. Praya Gens

02:50 - From Dogma To Whole-Person Dentistry

06:45 - Toxicity, Mercury, And Dentist Burnout

12:15 - Designing A Calmer Dental Experience

16:30 - Inhale And Exhale Suites Explained

20:35 - Replacing Nitrous With NuCalm And Breath

24:30 - Provider Wellbeing And Patient Outcomes

28:10 - Barriers To Changing Dental Models

33:20 - Why The Mouth Drives Whole-Body Health

38:20 - Airway, Sleep, And Hormones

43:30 - Gentle Onramps Instead Of Data Dumps

47:10 - Root Canals, Risks, And Tradeoffs

WEBVTT

00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.959
Welcome back to Not Alone with Melissa Sue Methfin.

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Today I have a very special guest.

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I am so grateful for her time and honored to have her on.

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It's Dr.

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Praya Gens.

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She is the founder of the Whole Tooth Dentists in Dallas, Texas.

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But how we met is very special.

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I was asked by Dr.

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Delphine here in Sedona to be part my breath work facilitator for her retreat for seven wonderful dentists last February.

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And I was honored to meet Dr.

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Praya.

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And we I still remember going for hike, and you explained your dental practice in Dallas.

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And I was just in awe uh that uh your foundation was actually in treating the nervous system before their appointment, during and post.

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And it really got me intrigued in finding out more of what you provided in the dental practice.

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And I was like, wow, more practices need to lean into treating the nervous system along the way because I do truly feel fear is the number one thing that people patients feel when they're in the dental chair.

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And unfortunately, as a provider, we try and take that on.

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But what if so the way that you treat the nervous system as part of the treatment plan is like nobody else that I've heard.

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You know, I'm sure there is others, but I I know you do it differently.

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And I know sometimes that can be kind of lonely as well because you are doing it differently and you're navigating a different path in the dental practices.

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And but I truly felt that you can be that blueprint for other dentists that want to go this route but don't know how.

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And you can guide them along the way how you got started.

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So, anyways, I don't want to take all that on, but I really want to give an outlook for the listener what we're gonna dive into.

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And it's really what if we introduce nervous system regulation in a dental practice and how that can benefit the patient and the dentist overall.

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And so, welcome.

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I'm just really excited to have you on.

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I'm excited to be here.

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I know it's taken us a while to actually coordinate this, so I kept on going nudging, plunging that seat.

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I'm like, come on, we're gonna do it one of these days.

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With your busy star, although and and so that's why we're here today and it's all divine timing.

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Uh and I'm just so curious because I don't think I ever heard as to why you got into uh whole um biological dentistry, holistic dentistry.

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What opened that door for you?

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Such a good question.

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I think it's happened over time.

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I've always been a more holistic thinker in everything that I do, and I've always been very curious.

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I always love to meet and converse and connect with people and understand what makes me tick and why.

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And so I think the first prerequisite to biological dentistry is to be very curious and to ask why and ask why again, and be open-minded because the answers you receive are not always the ones you expect.

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So for me, um, I grew up in Canada, like you, and uh to an Indian family.

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And so we never really went to the doctor unless there was like a really pressing need.

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Um, most things we could heal truly by just allowing time to pass, right, and to nurture your body.

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Um, as I got into dentistry and dental school, it was much more dogmatic, right?

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You do this, you do that.

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It's very prescriptive, it's very within fractions of a millimeter and angles like if you don't have perfection, you you're dead in the water.

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And um, you know, made it through dental school, and that was fine.

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We did what we did to to make it through.

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And then I started practicing, worked at a dock in a box in Virginia for almost a year, and it was awful.

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Um, we'll not dwell on that, but you know, all of these things are formative in the experience.

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Um, but even then, I mean, my remember I my first day practicing, we saw like 30 patients, and I'm like, I'm used to seeing one patient in the morning and one in the afternoon, maybe if we're lucky, and now I'm seeing 30 with paper charts and film x-rays, and like this is not fine.

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Like, I don't get to connect with people, I don't get to talk to them, I don't need get to understand anything about what's going on.

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It's just like you see what you see, you tell them what they need, and they leave, and hopefully they schedule and they come back and they do the work, and it's just kind of this roach cycle.

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Um moved to Washington State after that to work at what I thought was kind of the dream dental practice, where I started learning more about comprehensive dentistry in a way I hadn't learned before.

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Um, it was with a clinical instructor at the Koyce Center, which is in Seattle, and John Koyce is very big on looking at the whole person, even though it's not holistic dentistry per se, but looking at the person and considering all of the different risk factors that go into what we see in the mouth.

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And so really thinking about each patient as an individual.

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Um, all of his teachings are very based on evidence and changing evidence.

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And he shows you his mistakes, he shows you, you know, things that he's been doing for years, and oh, wait, something new came along that's better.

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Let's adopt that, let's not just stick with what we've always been doing.

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So as I learned that, and as I realized that wherever I went, I was that dentist who wanted to spend time with her patients in the face of like, well, you need to be productive, you need to produce, you need to be faster, you need to, you know, do the things.

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But the issue to me was like, but if the person's not truly comfortable and they are very anxious and they have a story that needs to be told, like, how do they possibly heal?

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How do we actually make the difference that we need to make?

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And so for many years, up until really 2018, when I finally bought my own practice, and this is I started in 07, um, bought my own practice, named it the whole tooth, not realizing exactly what I was doing when I named it.

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It made perfect sense.

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I had this image of like the what's the man?

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Da Vinci's, you know, the man with the armor.

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Da Vinci Code, yeah, yes.

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Um, I'll come, I'll remember at some point.

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Anyways, that was the image I had in my mind of this just interconnected human being, and and we're at the center of it.

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The mouth is that portal.

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And um I thought of holistic with a W, right?

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We're looking at the whole.

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And so started building this practice.

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And as I built it and also knowing, like with my daughter, she was born in 2012.

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Um, with her, I live, we lived in Washington State.

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We were, you know, I was very big into breastfeeding, cloth diapering, um, really trying to make things as clean and natural for her as possible.

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So even, you know, all the dairy she was consuming, I was bringing all the food to daycare and to to school because I was like, I don't want her to have whatever, you know, the USDA dictates is healthy.

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This is garbage.

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And so it was one of those opportunities for me to align what I was doing in my own life with what we were doing in practice.

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And the more I learned, I saw people who have, I mean, as dentists, we were in a super toxic environment, right?

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So we're constantly like at one point placing metals, mercury, and then we're removing this stuff.

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And it's like, I mean, I remember holding it in dental schools.

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We're like working on a little type it on plastic tubes and like messing with stuff like this.

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Stuff is all over.

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It's in our systems everywhere, and it doesn't just stay superficial, it gets lodged in our organs and everywhere else.

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And so we're constantly creating and subjecting ourselves to toxicity.

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And as women, especially, I saw my peers struggling to get pregnant, start struggling to stay pregnant, children being born with just different challenges.

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And I thought, like, this seems like a lot of people within this one field who are having these challenges, and why is that?

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And so, all of that kind of you know, all the stars.

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Did you ever get tested for mercury levels at any point?

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Um, not physically tested.

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I've had some energetic testing done, and I'm high in mercury that way.

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Um, the physical testing is challenging, um, and it's starting to be more of a conversation in dentistry, even like amongst people within like the COIS center, graduates and stuff.

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Um, and what they don't necessarily realize is that if you're just doing like a hair test and it comes out either negative or positive, that's fine.

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At least if it's coming out with something, you're detoxing showing up in our hair and our tissues.

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But what you don't detect unless you do a provoked test with chelation is that there's a bunch of that stuff in our organs, in our brains, in our, you know, lodged in our bodies that you can't detect with a simple blood test or a hair test or any of that.

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Um so I mean, I think anyone in the dental field has to be at least somewhat mercury toxic, and especially if you then have any kind of mutations, um, like the MTHFR mutations, like you're not excreting that stuff.

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Yes.

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Yeah, I got tested for that and my kids as well.

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Once I heard about the MTHFR gene.

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And and if I did the metal testings on my kids, and interestingly enough, what I learned, and I don't know if you've heard that before, that mercury levels could be passed down as well.

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So my kids had mercury, and I was like, oh, well, how do they, you know, well, of course, vaccines and things like that too, but I did hear that could be passed down.

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And Scott, I know all he did was remove amalgams.

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He was a cosmic cosmetic dentist forever.

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So I know that played a big role in his mental health, absolutely.

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Oh, for sure.

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And that's the scary thing, right?

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We see the dental suicide rates even even present day.

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Oh, yeah.

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And that's gotta be.

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I almost get a text now, uh, you know, monthly, if not, you know, it and it's it breaks my heart every time because people will know to reach out to me and say how I could maybe talk to the the wife and now they have the kids and how I process that because there's so much logistically when you own a dental practice too.

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And now you can keep things running.

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And anyway, so it always breaks my heart.

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And that's why I got curious too, asking, well, why?

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Why is the dental profession uh is so high in suicide of burnouts, and and so I love that you bring that up, that awareness of the environment alone, of the toxicity, and I'm sure you know, sensory overload, I know is a big one too.

00:11:00.720 --> 00:11:03.279
Yeah, sensory, the sounds that we listen to.

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It's interesting, and I think we see that in our patients as well, where people who have more capacity heal better, right?

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So if you're in a situation where you're toxic or you're not sleeping well, or there's some stress or strain, it's only a matter of what straw is gonna break that camel's back.

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And so within dentistry, yes, we're faced with stressors galore from running a business to um, you know, doing micro brain microsurgery in a dark, wet environment three inches from the brain, on someone who's wide awake and doesn't want you to be in their space, who has a bunch of trauma.

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And like what we're asking for for trouble, and then we're taught in dental school that perfection is the standard and perfection is micro microns, right?

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Fractions of microns.

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And so it really kind of sets us up for some sort of burnout or failure if we don't have built-in ways to to tolerate it.

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And I think we do ignore the concept of toxicity as a major contributing factor in all forms.

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In all forms, and I'd love to kind of what you see, because now explain to us like if I came in to be a patient, I know you had talked, you have you have a treatment plan for them where it you actually get to spend more time getting to know what's going on as a whole in their life and where they're at.

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Are they the patient that's pretty calm or are they coming in and they're hectic, they're a lot of stress and whatnot.

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And so you you really try and and create a safety network with them first.

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And you also have, I I know you've mentioned some breath work.

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So guide us through the appointment with you.

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Sure.

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So um this is in perpetual evolution.

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So in the latest state that it's in, um, what we're seeing a lot of is people are just overwhelmed with the state of the world and the economy.

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So they're coming in stressed, more stressed, more strained than ever.

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Um what we try to do is first of all, our space is just very calming.

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And so we try to keep fluorescent lights off.

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We use a lot of natural light.

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Instead of walls, you have a window that you're looking out over into our garden, which is not looking great right now because it's winter, but it's still nature, and we see birds and squirrels and other things in there.

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Um, but we have the space kind of curated to kind of help calm the nervous system.

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So we do have essential oils usually um flowing, and we've got music that's relaxing, not quite spots, usually kind of like chill Texas sun music, um, little crong bin.

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And then the team, we're not in white coats, we're usually in in black box scrubs, and and just a little bit more comfortably to sort of exude that level of comfort as well.

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Um, and then we have we have an exhale suite, which I think is really fun.

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I love that.

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And so um patients are offered tea, and we have a couple custom blend teas that are actually from um New Mexico, and they can come sit in the exhale suite, although that's about to shift.

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But exhale suite is um it's kind of in the center of the practice, kind of the heart of the office, and it has um like a little salt lamp and some dim lights, and we have an infrared sauna in there, a far infrared sauna that you can sit in before or after treatment, and then um also a Reiki table that has a red light, like a soluma red light that goes over the face or can really go anywhere over the body, but we we encourage our patients to keep their clothing on, so usually it's more just facial in nature.

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Um, and then we have the aromatherapy choices as well.

00:15:00.799 --> 00:15:11.200
So typically the exhale suite is designed for post-care, post-treatment, and the idea is that it helps us to detoxify, recover, and kind of reset our bodies and reorient to the world.

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What we've developed for this year is our inhale suite as well.

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And so our inhale suite is an operatory that we bring patients into.

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We typically are going to take a swab of their saliva or their biofilm and put it under the microscope to look at and evaluate like who's swimming around in there.

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But more than that, this is now a space where you're kind of like taking your shoes off and leaving the world you just were in sitting in this space.

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You've got a beautiful view, and we'll walk you through a guided uh breath work to do prior to care.

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And um, we're also starting to introduce Sonu, which is um it's a headband that uses acoustic resonance to clear your sinuses.

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And they say that like within two and a half to three minutes, it puts you into more of a delta state.

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And so the idea there is also that we're just continuing to calm the system and make it more receptive to whatever procedures are about to happen.

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Um, because if they're in a fight and flight state, if they're nervous that come from the world, I'm sure you've seen as a provider, they're not they can't heal properly.

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They can't heal, they can't receive.

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I mean, even doing some of the simplest, I say simplest, simplest to us things are putting their system into just a tizzy because they're very afraid.

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And in Texas, we're required to take blood pressure before we start any anything.

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Um, and so we're looking at these blood pressures and they're through the roof because where are they?

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And what did they do to get here?

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They were probably driving fast, Dallas traffic is terrible, drivers are terrible.

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I mean, you're playing like Mario Kart on the on the street on your way in.

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Like, this is it's not the place where you can just suddenly calm down, and it's the place where people are more more typically anxious.

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So, um, yeah, we're really trying to treat that system first so that it can receive the care it needs in a way that it can then heal from it as well.

00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:21.599
Um, and so even in the chair, a lot of times we use Nucom, um, which is kind of my replacement for nitro nitric nitrous oxide.

00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:26.799
Um as soon as I purchased this practice, I took the nitrous out because I don't like it.

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Um, a lot of people with NTHFR can't detoxify from it.

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I'm just short waisted and I can't work over it and I would get headaches, and I just didn't feel that that was necessary.

00:17:37.039 --> 00:17:44.240
Um and honestly, I haven't had a need for anyone to to use that in our office.

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Even some of the most anxious patients, we can get them to a place where they're they're comfortable and they're okay with us being in there, um, which I think is great.

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It is really good.

00:17:55.599 --> 00:18:05.680
And do you see, I'm sure you see a shift maybe even for you, if they're calm and if you can work with them, then you're not taking that on on a daily as a provider.

00:18:05.759 --> 00:18:15.759
Like, have you seen a shift like from when you started and not doing these kind of protocols to how you felt at the end of the day compared to how you feel now in the environment that you're in?

00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:20.400
Yeah, I think it's very different because you know, we are energetic beings.

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And so, especially as dentists, when we're touching people, we're receiving a lot of that energy.

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And so when we can kind of better contain it, I think that really helps us and the patients to not have that anxiety there.

00:18:35.599 --> 00:18:43.440
Um, and really, I mean, we want to focus on doing what we do best, not on managing the anxiety that surrounds it.

00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:47.279
And so with the newcom, especially, that was a dramatic shift.

00:18:47.440 --> 00:18:52.559
Um, it's great because it does provide some benefits neurologically and cognitively.

00:18:52.640 --> 00:18:59.039
So they'll use it in like the Olympic village for recovery between events for the athletes.

00:18:59.680 --> 00:19:15.920
Um added benefits there, but then patients, they don't say that they describe it as like this incredible experience, but once they're in it, they're still in the passage passage of time is somewhat irrelevant and they're just kind of there.

00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:24.319
And so we're able to do what we do, and they're just semi-present, semi-absent, and it's it's a beautiful way to do dentistry.

00:19:25.039 --> 00:19:26.720
Yes, yeah, absolutely.

00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:27.519
Absolutely.

00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:37.359
If they could be calm and then you can focus on what you do, instead of them being so tense and half the time they're like twitching because they can see the, you know, either if they see the needle coming in or oh, what's this tool?

00:19:37.519 --> 00:19:37.920
You know.

00:19:38.480 --> 00:19:39.119
Exactly.

00:19:39.359 --> 00:19:39.680
Yeah.

00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:43.440
So I think that's what I love about the what you're incorporating.

00:19:43.519 --> 00:19:53.680
Because I've as I got curious as well, it it really was important to learn to incorporate breath and nervous system tool in a dental office.

00:19:53.759 --> 00:19:58.480
And that's why I'm telling dentists, even for themselves and between patients, you wash your hands every time.

00:19:58.640 --> 00:20:01.599
Why don't you take a few deep breaths while you're doing that?

00:20:01.759 --> 00:20:19.519
Or when you're doing local anesthesia on the patient when uh when you're numbing them, allow to do breath work before you inject them and just make them feel calm because that gives them so much anxiety to see that needle, and how we can shift the environment, the sterile, you know, the smells.

00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:22.640
A lot of people complain about the smells and the lighting.

00:20:23.039 --> 00:20:29.279
So I think where do you see dentists find challenges to shift this direction?

00:20:29.440 --> 00:20:36.640
Because in the retreats that we were at, there were seven dentists, and you were the only biological dentist there.

00:20:36.799 --> 00:20:40.880
But since then, I think almost all of them have been open to change.

00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:45.759
And I am really passionate to see more of that happen.

00:20:45.920 --> 00:20:56.559
But I think there's a block because of how, and of course, you need more time, and they're like, well, I need to stay afloat, or uh, you know, time currently, I won't see it be productive.

00:20:56.960 --> 00:21:00.880
And and also we need to show the patient the value of doing that.

00:21:00.960 --> 00:21:20.319
It's not just extra fluff, it's actually gonna help them heal, like even explaining how let's say you you you have to do an extraction, but if they're in a fight and flight, well, this could cause them to not heal properly in a long term, maybe get an infection, which is called cavitations, right?

00:21:20.799 --> 00:21:32.880
And or what about, you know, go into root canals and and so this could play a major role in the long term for them to heal and avoid any infections or gum disease.

00:21:33.200 --> 00:21:42.160
Yeah, I mean, I think it's I think it's the way to do dentistry for everyone, but there's a lot of different obstacles in our path.

00:21:42.319 --> 00:21:47.680
I think it starts with us um shifting our mindset.

00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:52.000
And it's easy to fall back into the the old mindset that we've been taught as well.

00:21:52.240 --> 00:21:59.759
Um, we've been taught to believe that we again we have to produce, and we do, you know, we've got to keep our doors open, our lights on, and our teams fed.

00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:21.839
Um but there's an element of like I guess because we're doctors of the mouth that we feel uncomfortable almost asking patients to do some of these things because they feel woo or they feel like it's gonna take extra time and I don't have that time.

00:22:21.920 --> 00:22:26.319
And a lot in conventional practices are built that way, right?

00:22:26.640 --> 00:22:40.160
They're built to maximize the number of patients in the chair, the amount of care rendered, and how much they're collecting, especially if they're insurance-based, because you have to be respectful of your overhead.

00:22:40.240 --> 00:22:44.559
What's it costing to stay open versus what am I making?

00:22:44.799 --> 00:22:47.200
And so it in dentistry is expensive, right?

00:22:47.359 --> 00:22:50.400
Every single thing we do has a dental tax added to it.

00:22:50.559 --> 00:23:00.960
You can buy an autoclave for a veterinary office that's doing the same thing, it's the same exact model, and it's like quarter of the price, which is crazy.

00:23:01.279 --> 00:23:01.519
Yeah.

00:23:01.599 --> 00:23:02.079
Oh, I know.

00:23:02.160 --> 00:23:03.279
We're having dental chair.

00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:04.640
Yeah, well, we need a new dental chair.

00:23:04.720 --> 00:23:05.680
Well, that's so expensive.

00:23:05.839 --> 00:23:07.119
Everything, every little thing.

00:23:07.519 --> 00:23:12.319
But then, like a spa chair that's almost the same is a fraction of the price, and so it's frustrating.

00:23:12.559 --> 00:23:20.400
But point being, what we do just the cost to do general dentistry the normal way is one thing.

00:23:20.640 --> 00:23:25.920
When we suddenly decide to not suddenly decide, but when we want to take more time.

00:23:26.319 --> 00:23:29.759
So instead of seeing five patients an hour, we're seeing one.

00:23:30.640 --> 00:23:43.519
And we need to have the knowledge to back it up, which means we are seeking additional education, we're seeking ways to perfect what we're doing or go deeper or ask better questions.

00:23:43.680 --> 00:23:54.240
All of that's taking more time and education and knowledge and time away from our families and the things we may otherwise want to do so that we can deliver this other form of care.

00:23:54.480 --> 00:23:56.400
And then maybe we need other resources.

00:23:56.559 --> 00:24:00.480
Maybe we're ordering or buying a machine that makes ozone.

00:24:00.640 --> 00:24:01.920
Maybe we're doing these different things.

00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:15.599
And now that we're doing these different things that are not in the conventional realm, we're having to also kind of protect ourselves legally because we have to stay in our lane and we have to do things that are safe.

00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:22.000
And those that are overseeing what we do don't understand it.

00:24:22.160 --> 00:24:33.759
And so there's just this crazy tension of things that make things cost more, take longer, create fear on top of the okay, now we need to treat these patients.

00:24:34.000 --> 00:24:39.680
And everybody deserves to have extra time with their medical provider.

00:24:39.839 --> 00:24:45.279
Everybody deserves more time and expertise, but there's only so much time we can give.

00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:51.039
And so it's it's interesting and it's tough.

00:24:51.279 --> 00:24:54.559
And you have to really, if you're gonna do it, you kind of have to do it.

00:24:54.720 --> 00:25:07.519
You can't really go dip your toe in and just do that because you're not serving yourself or your patients the way you ought to if you go part of the way.

00:25:07.680 --> 00:25:08.799
I don't know if that makes any sense.

00:25:08.960 --> 00:25:20.079
Yeah, that makes sense, and then I'm sure once you go all in, that what keeps you going all in is probably seeing the changes in your patients, in yourself.

00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:27.279
And so, okay, you start believing in this technique and it really works because a lot of it is not going to be covered by insurance.

00:25:27.599 --> 00:25:36.240
And so it's also building that trust of patient to understanding why it's not at every dental office right now, because there's a lot of fear.

00:25:36.319 --> 00:25:38.720
It's not what your foundation was at school.

00:25:38.880 --> 00:25:41.039
So they have to, it's kind of like it in life.

00:25:41.200 --> 00:25:52.000
We have to shed layers of all beliefs that we were taught as a young child that was ingrained in us by, you know, like you said, dogma or whatever society or environment.

00:25:52.240 --> 00:25:58.400
But as we get older and we do the work, the inner work, and we trust our intuition, we're like, oh, you have to shed these layers.

00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:01.839
And that's kind of the same thing in the profession that I'm seeing now.

00:26:02.000 --> 00:26:02.960
Is that okay?

00:26:03.119 --> 00:26:11.440
Yeah, this was built on an old foundation, but we're finding out new findings now and how we can follow the profession.

00:26:11.599 --> 00:26:14.640
Obviously, this this is huge right now.

00:26:14.799 --> 00:26:17.359
We're we're losing a lot of dentists to suicide, right?

00:26:17.440 --> 00:26:22.799
And there's so many people not wanting to step into a dental office right now because of fear.

00:26:22.880 --> 00:26:28.880
So they'd rather have infections, mouth aches, all the things because there's so much fear just stepping in there.

00:26:29.039 --> 00:26:37.759
So if we start educating the patient that there are offices that offer this where they would be so held in safety.

00:26:39.039 --> 00:26:46.640
And this would change because like you said, the mouth is interconnected to all of our organs.

00:26:47.680 --> 00:26:57.839
So if we don't start looking in the mouth first, which I think I know for us, when people had dental emergencies and we weren't open, and the only day we weren't open was Sunday, they had to emergency.

00:26:58.079 --> 00:27:04.240
Well, none of the providers there were prepared for oral infection, then anything dentally related.

00:27:04.559 --> 00:27:11.279
And but I think there needs to be more knowledge that a lot of it does start in the mouth.

00:27:11.519 --> 00:27:12.400
It does start.

00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:13.119
It's a mirror.

00:27:13.279 --> 00:27:16.799
It's a mirror of what's going on in their life.

00:27:16.960 --> 00:27:23.279
And it should be kind of the first place providers look at is in the mouth and what's going on.

00:27:23.599 --> 00:27:27.200
It is it's so fascinating that we just forget about it, right?

00:27:27.440 --> 00:27:37.680
And and interesting because we're real quick to make sure that superficially our hair, our nails, everything's done, everything's maintained.

00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:41.519
You'll drop 300, not you specifically, but you know, people will drop$300.

00:27:42.720 --> 00:27:44.079
I don't know what you do.

00:27:44.319 --> 00:27:46.240
Um, but you look beautiful.

00:27:46.400 --> 00:27:48.799
So we'll we'll drop we.

00:27:49.119 --> 00:27:50.480
Let's just go with the we collecting.

00:27:50.640 --> 00:27:50.799
Yes.

00:27:51.119 --> 00:27:57.920
We'll drop a lot of money every six to eight, 12 weeks to make sure that things look good on the surface.

00:27:58.160 --> 00:27:59.440
And that's great.

00:27:59.759 --> 00:28:08.640
But then when it comes to here, it's like, oh, well, I'm only gonna do with my insurance covers and I'm only gonna do it every six months because that's what that commercial on TV told me.

00:28:08.720 --> 00:28:10.160
That's what every dentist has told me.

00:28:10.319 --> 00:28:11.759
Everybody's told me the same thing.

00:28:11.839 --> 00:28:13.519
I just have to come in twice a year.

00:28:13.680 --> 00:28:23.680
I just buy a toothpaste that has fluoride and maybe it's a sensitivity toothpaste, and I floss, which I don't, but I do all those things and I should be fine and everything's good, right?

00:28:23.759 --> 00:28:24.400
I can focus on the floor.

00:28:24.559 --> 00:28:25.759
So just give me the whitening.

00:28:25.839 --> 00:28:26.720
Can I just have the whitening?

00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:28.880
And you're like, okay, cool.

00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:29.839
That's great.

00:28:30.079 --> 00:28:36.720
You know, what if if we focused on this mouth part of things and this was healthy?

00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:46.720
Is it possible that your hair and your nails and all that stuff might grow better because what's happening here impacts what happens outside?

00:28:46.799 --> 00:28:50.960
So it's that beauty from within starts to radiate because this is healthy.

00:28:51.200 --> 00:28:52.799
And I think that's really true.

00:28:52.960 --> 00:29:02.960
Like if you actually were to pick a place to invest, I would start here because so much of the things that show up as symptoms in the rest of the body.

00:29:03.119 --> 00:29:08.640
Well, it, you know, blood sugar, cortisol, weight gain, all of that's coming from the mouth.

00:29:08.880 --> 00:29:09.839
Yeah, can you explain that?

00:29:09.920 --> 00:29:13.279
Because there's so many people that'd be kind of the last place they look.

00:29:13.440 --> 00:29:21.200
What you've just mentioned, weight gain, cortisol, and then sugar is like glucose right now, is just uh high.

00:29:21.680 --> 00:29:25.599
So, can you explain that as to why it would be in the mouth?

00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:26.640
Like, what have you seen?

00:29:26.960 --> 00:29:27.440
Absolutely.

00:29:27.599 --> 00:29:34.960
So, I think one of the biggest things, and someone asked me at a party a while back, like, what's your number one piece of advice as a dentist to patients?

00:29:35.039 --> 00:29:39.519
And I was like, it's not gonna be what you think, but it's breathe through your nose.

00:29:39.759 --> 00:29:49.839
Your nose is the thing that's designed to filter the air, heat, and humidify, and do all the things that allow us to breathe efficiently and effectively.

00:29:50.160 --> 00:30:10.640
But for most of us, the mouth becomes that thing, and when the mouth becomes the filter, nothing else is good because it starts to become inflamed, the tissues dry out, the pH or the acidity of the mouth, the acidity increases, the pH decreases.

00:30:10.880 --> 00:30:24.640
We are no longer using our saliva to buffer and to clear pathogens from the mouth, and so it creates this opportunity for bacteria and parasites and all sorts of pathogens to start living in this system.

00:30:24.720 --> 00:30:31.680
And this system is so intimately connected to the body, you're three inches from the brain, you're right into the blood vessels.

00:30:31.839 --> 00:30:36.240
The fastest way to get medications into your body and absorbed is beneath the tongue.

00:30:36.480 --> 00:30:39.839
So if this is not healthy, number one, that's what's happening.

00:30:40.079 --> 00:30:48.880
The other thing that's happening when we breathe through our mouth is our airway gets smaller, and it doesn't allow us to effectively breathe well while we're sleeping.

00:30:49.039 --> 00:30:52.240
Um, and this is kind of a chicken and egg cause and effect thing.

00:30:52.319 --> 00:31:05.200
But structurally, our jaws are more receded, our mouths are too small to house the tongue that lives inside of it, and our tongues are often restricted or tethered, and the tongue can't function the way it's supposed to.

00:31:05.279 --> 00:31:10.720
So it's not helping our mouths to grow properly, it's not helping create the proper seal when we swallow.

00:31:10.799 --> 00:31:22.400
So we're swallowing air, it's blocking the airway when we're trying to sleep because it falls back into our throats, um, causes snoring, lots of issues there that begin in the mouth.

00:31:22.640 --> 00:31:26.480
So then you don't get the quality oxygen that you your brain needs.

00:31:27.359 --> 00:31:27.839
Exactly.

00:31:28.079 --> 00:31:38.799
And then as we age, you know, there's ways they always say, you know, you've got that child who's got ADHD and they're bed wetting, and they always have all the ear infections and strep, and it's this perfect storm.

00:31:38.880 --> 00:31:46.559
And I look at the child in their faces, they've got like, you know, hollows under their eyes, the bags into their eyes, their mouths are hanging open.

00:31:46.799 --> 00:31:49.359
There's, I mean, there's so much happening there.

00:31:49.519 --> 00:31:53.119
And their doctors will say, Oh, they'll grow it, they'll grow out of it.

00:31:53.359 --> 00:31:54.400
They'll be fine.

00:31:54.559 --> 00:32:09.680
They don't grow out of it, they grow into it, their airways grow down back, they become more of a mouth breather, they aren't sleeping well, their bodies, their anxiety levels are higher, their focus is never quite the same.

00:32:09.839 --> 00:32:14.799
And sure, their bodies adapt to manage it, or they take medication to manage it.

00:32:15.039 --> 00:32:18.799
Or they have surgery, they're told to have, you know, sinus surgeries and things like that.

00:32:19.119 --> 00:32:19.680
Yeah.

00:32:19.920 --> 00:32:26.720
And so many times we can fix it just by shifting how they're breathing and what their tongue posture is and creating the structure they need.

00:32:26.960 --> 00:32:38.160
And you know, we don't really see children under the age of 12 for the most part anymore because I have tried to create this environment that is more conducive to relaxation and less stress.

00:32:38.319 --> 00:32:42.319
And so as my kids grew, I was like, I don't kind of want to do this anymore.

00:32:42.480 --> 00:32:46.640
Um, but what we do see is that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.

00:32:46.960 --> 00:32:59.680
So if your child's like that, look at yourself, look at the things you're dealing with, especially as I'm in this lovely phase of perimenopause where you know things don't operate the same way that they did.

00:32:59.920 --> 00:33:04.559
It's kind of like having like that old Honda that worked for like 20 years and it was doing great.

00:33:04.640 --> 00:33:10.319
And, you know, you replace the tires, you replace all the things, and so it's basically new, but in an old older body.

00:33:10.480 --> 00:33:16.240
And it's chugging up the hill and it's chugging up the hill, and it's chugging up the hill, and it's been compensating and compensating.

00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:18.240
At some point, the compensations end.

00:33:18.640 --> 00:33:28.799
And for us as women in the stage of perimenopause when hormones are doing their thing, I think that's where the compensations really start to be very obvious.

00:33:28.960 --> 00:33:32.559
And we see more sleep issues, more nighttime wakening.

00:33:33.039 --> 00:33:35.279
Um, you know, you're I hear that all the time.

00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:39.920
Oh, they're like, I can't sleep, I can't stay asleep, and uh yeah, oh, I hear that.

00:33:40.240 --> 00:33:41.359
Then you're taking all the things, right?

00:33:41.440 --> 00:33:49.359
You've got a melatonin, sour cherry cocktail, and magnesium, and you do this, you do that, you do the other, and you're like, okay, well, this is okay.

00:33:49.519 --> 00:33:51.599
I mean, now I just get up once like at 2 a.m.

00:33:51.759 --> 00:33:53.119
and then I'm fine.

00:33:53.920 --> 00:33:57.839
But the reality is, have you have you looked here?

00:33:58.000 --> 00:33:59.200
Have you looked at your sleep?

00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:00.079
Have you looked?

00:34:00.240 --> 00:34:08.559
I mean, so many of these people are wearing night guards, can't sleep without it, which is actually dangerous if you have a breathing issue.

00:34:08.719 --> 00:34:12.559
Um, they've got tension here, they've got all that tension in their jaws.

00:34:12.639 --> 00:34:16.480
You see recession developing on their teeth, and that's usually what brings them in.

00:34:16.880 --> 00:34:18.079
Clenching, yeah.

00:34:18.639 --> 00:34:27.599
Clenching, and that clenching isn't it's stress, but it's stress because the body can't tolerate the level of stress that's happening.

00:34:27.840 --> 00:34:33.199
And it's also a way that when you engage those muscles, it makes more space inside the mouth.

00:34:33.360 --> 00:34:37.039
And so sometimes that's an adaptation too.

00:34:37.280 --> 00:34:45.119
But it's like this perfect storm, and so everyone's like seeking these different answers and these pills and these things to biohack.

00:34:45.280 --> 00:34:59.599
But if we really started here, we could change a lot of things, and we could also probably save a lot of teeth because these are the same women who are like breaking and cracking teeth and needing root canals and extractions and stuff, and they're like, I don't know what happened.

00:34:59.679 --> 00:35:02.239
I'm just falling apart, I'm just getting older.

00:35:03.199 --> 00:35:06.800
Right, we just kind of make it like, oh, it's it's common, it's part of aging.

00:35:07.199 --> 00:35:07.679
No big deal.

00:35:07.760 --> 00:35:09.679
I'm like, no, it is a big deal.

00:35:09.840 --> 00:35:11.760
Like, I can help you, we can do things.

00:35:11.920 --> 00:35:20.480
You can actually have the vitality and the joy and the energy that you want and need, but we do have to start in the right spot and ask the right questions.

00:35:20.559 --> 00:35:30.239
And then some of those hacks are good and supportive, and some of them to me are just kind of a you're kicking that thing down the curve.

00:35:30.320 --> 00:35:31.519
Like eventually it's a problem.

00:35:31.679 --> 00:35:49.039
And that doesn't even start to, you know, that's not even thinking about like if your brain's not resting and resetting and you're in this sympathetic overdrive and it's not detoxing, that's where we start looking at Alzheimer's, dementia, stroke, all the heart disease things that are really big and scary.

00:35:49.119 --> 00:35:52.880
And you see it in aging parents and go, man, I don't want that.

00:35:53.039 --> 00:35:53.280
Yeah.

00:35:53.440 --> 00:35:53.679
Okay.

00:35:54.000 --> 00:35:55.519
Yeah, and it's getting younger and younger.

00:35:55.599 --> 00:35:59.840
Now I see it as some friends' parents, it's happening younger for them.

00:36:00.400 --> 00:36:04.239
And I am so glad you're bringing all this up because it is.

00:36:04.559 --> 00:36:10.400
I had dealt with got into airway with my son because I noticed it when he was three, always so tired.

00:36:10.639 --> 00:36:12.079
Like, oh, why is he so tired?

00:36:12.159 --> 00:36:17.360
So a few times he would sleep beside me, and I documented a couple times of him having sleep apnea.

00:36:17.599 --> 00:36:19.440
He he'd like stopped breathing almost.

00:36:19.519 --> 00:36:31.039
And then I started noticing, and I was like, oh my gosh, it's like his airway, and then he was a two-finger sucker, so it was like open and so all so we dove into all airway in our dental practice as well.

00:36:31.199 --> 00:36:32.559
And I see a huge shift.

00:36:32.639 --> 00:36:45.519
We're still doing, we're working with another oral uh orthodontist here with him, but it's you know, doing the expanders and the face mask and all that just because he was in the red for the quality of oxygen.

00:36:45.599 --> 00:36:52.880
And we all know neurologically to for brain health and and vitality, it's so important.

00:36:52.960 --> 00:37:00.000
And like you said, so many kids were can be misdiagnosed when it was an airway issue.

00:37:00.159 --> 00:37:03.760
And I love that you're like, well, if the child's like this, look at the parent too.

00:37:03.840 --> 00:37:04.639
And now it got me.

00:37:04.800 --> 00:37:08.480
Oh, for so many of my friends that their child has this airway.

00:37:08.559 --> 00:37:11.039
I'm like, oh, well, let's look at mom too, you know?

00:37:11.679 --> 00:37:12.639
Yeah, and dad.

00:37:12.800 --> 00:37:17.280
And dad's, you know, it surprises me how many couples sleep in separate rooms.

00:37:17.440 --> 00:37:19.199
Yes, because it's snoring, yeah.

00:37:19.360 --> 00:37:22.000
Yeah, and that's a that's a fixable issue.

00:37:22.079 --> 00:37:25.679
And if we don't fix it, someone's dying prematurely.

00:37:25.920 --> 00:37:32.559
It's just it that's the physiology behind it, but we don't take it seriously enough.

00:37:32.880 --> 00:37:34.000
No, no, we don't.

00:37:34.159 --> 00:37:34.480
We don't.

00:37:34.559 --> 00:37:41.840
I mean, I've heard so many, you know, with the heart issues and heart attacks, not never being interconnected to the mouth, but it really is.

00:37:42.000 --> 00:37:54.320
So I'm trying to not create fear because you know, sometimes I I put out this information and I know if their nervous system is already stressed, I'm like, oh, this is so much information, I don't know what to do with it.

00:37:54.559 --> 00:37:56.400
It's more of planting those seeds.

00:37:56.480 --> 00:38:00.320
You don't have to do something like right away, just one step at a time.

00:38:00.800 --> 00:38:04.719
My first step was would be find a biological dentist.

00:38:05.599 --> 00:38:08.480
You know, find one that is knowledgeable in airway.

00:38:08.719 --> 00:38:09.679
Go with that first step.

00:38:10.719 --> 00:38:15.519
You know, first step is finding someone that is knowledgeable and take you step by step.

00:38:15.679 --> 00:38:18.159
And I love for you how you differ do it differently.

00:38:18.320 --> 00:38:26.320
You're gonna work on their nervous system because you see that's a big part of their healing, and they have to believe in it as well.

00:38:26.480 --> 00:38:29.039
They have to believe in the process themselves.

00:38:29.360 --> 00:38:34.960
And so bringing that awareness of airway is been uh huge for my family.

00:38:35.199 --> 00:38:37.599
And now I cannot help but see it.

00:38:37.679 --> 00:38:47.119
And like I see little kids, you know, my kids uh's classes, and I do see the bags and the sinus issues, and uh, oh, they got the you know, the ear infection nonstop.

00:38:47.199 --> 00:38:49.599
And I I'm always about your tongue too.

00:38:49.679 --> 00:38:50.639
And yes, it is.

00:38:50.800 --> 00:38:56.800
It is because sometimes I do find I overwhelm the parents with the information that I have.

00:38:57.119 --> 00:38:58.000
Yeah, yeah.

00:38:58.400 --> 00:39:12.639
And that's the thing that I think in biological dentistry, and where we're kind of taking more of a step back in my practice too, is it is so easy to overwhelm because we have all this information and we we know we can help you.

00:39:12.800 --> 00:39:13.760