Oral Health And Its Link To Chronic Disease

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Hi, Laura. Thank you for having me. I’m excited.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Me too. I want to introduce you to our audience, and then we’re going to jump right into this. You’re a double-board-certified periodontist and a seasoned nutritionist. You’re not just a biological dentist. You are what I would call a game-changer. Not only are we bringing you on to this summit to speak to our viewers, but you have worked in my mouth and my husband’s as well. I trust you implicitly. That’s why I’ve got you here today. Now, you’re the founder and owner of Beverly Hills Health and Dental Wellness, and you have multiple locations in Southern California. You’re an expert in the oral microbiome and the founder of Orasana, which offers natural science-based products to brighten your teeth and nourish your mouth. Our viewers can find you on your YouTube channel. Ask Dr. Sanda and your podcast, The Holistic Dentistry Show. You’ve written a book called Heal Up: Seven Ways to Faster Healing and Optimum Health. 

Today we’re going to connect how oral health is linked to inflammation and chronic health conditions, and how if you don’t solve these things or if you don’t go looking for these things, you may be in an endless cycle of trying to solve your symptoms and your health problems. As we jump right in here, can you link for us oral health gum disease and how that contributes? I guess gum disease is not just it, but oral health in general, because we’re going to talk about a lot of things. We’re going to talk about all the things that happen in our mouths. But how does oral health contribute to systemic inflammation and chronic disease? I can remember that in my practice for years in Western medicine, I always knew that your mouth was a doorway for infection into your body. We know that in Western medicine, we tell people to keep their mouths clean, get their cleanings, and take good care of their oral health. Well, Western medicine is missing most of the boat, so take us there.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes, because most doctors don’t look in the mouth. That’s the biggest problem unless we’re working, of course, with integrative physicians. But the number one problem with gums, especially when bleeding gums start to occur, Most people ignore that, like, “Oh, my gums don’t work hard; they bleed a little bit, so what?” Well, if your hand was bleeding, how would you feel? Just spontaneously bleeding. 80% of the population has some disturbance in the microbiome, and when gums bleed, bacteria from the mouth have an opportunity to enter the bloodstream and create inflammation. That’s systemic. For example, periodontitis, or gum disease, has been linked with coronary artery disease. We know that bacteria from the mouth are found in arterial plaque, which could lead to increased rates of heart attacks and strokes.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So there’s more to this, though. I want to explore today. I want to explore habitations. I want to explore root canals. I want to explore amalgam fillings and talk about all the ways that the procedures that we’re doing in modern dentistry are contributing to our overall sickness, not our wellness. We may be doing more harm than good in many instances, and I’m sure you’d agree. Let’s start with oral pathogens and what you’re seeing, and maybe this is a good time to talk about habitations and what that means. It’s not a cavity, what that is, and how we find them.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

A cavitation is a hole in the jawbone, just like a cavity is a hole in a tooth. How do holes get in the jawbone, one might ask? Well, typically, holes are in the jawbone because the bone hasn’t healed. Something is there that’s preventing healing. Typically, what we find in these holes in the jawbone are bacteria, parasites, and viruses. How do I diagnose someone with cavitation? Is a cone beam CT scan, which in biological dentistry is now so important I cannot diagnose? I cannot treat patients without one. That’s why we have a cone beam CT scan at all of our locations. It’s part of a biological dental exam. Why? Because regular, traditional X-rays only show us 50% of the problems.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

What are you seeing in there when you do this? What are you looking for? Is everybody qualified to read a cone beam CT scan?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Not everybody’s qualified, but there is a great dental radiologist. If you don’t know how to read a scan as a dentist, just send it to the radiologist, and they’ll give you a full report of what’s going on there. When I see areas that, let’s say wisdom teeth, were taken out and, for those of you remembering, I had a dry socket while in that dry socket, what does that mean? Bacteria from the mouth invaded the bone, and it didn’t allow it to heal, creating a dry socket. The traditional treatment at the dentist is just to pack it with some gauze and medication and just let it heal on its while, in the process of healing, bacteria, viruses, and fungi get trapped inside the jawbone, and some of them morph into organisms that don’t need oxygen to survive. they just live there. Our immune system keeps up with it. It doesn’t typically cause pain. Some of my patients come in, and I’m so chronically fatigued that I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I have brain fog. My doctor tells me I have high inflammation in my body, and there’s very little to know about dropping. A lot of times, it’s just tightness that patients feel right here on the side, or maybe tonsillitis that is recurring. That’s typically a sign that you might have a cavitation on the side, but typically there’s no pain associated with it.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

It’s unbelievable. Now, because of you. You’ve got some crazy stories about what you found in people’s mouths. I’ve seen some pictures of some of the stuff you found. Can you tell a parasite story?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

I love to share a story. I have several. One of them that I can think of is a young patient. I recently posted a YouTube video about this. She was in her late twenties for the last couple of years and could not get out of bed. She couldn’t hold a job because of the brain fog. She used to be a cheerleader and had a lot of energy. One day I could just fall into bed. I couldn’t get up anymore. What happens is that we get this glass that’s filling up with all kinds of inflammation. Up until one day, Achilles, the drop that spills the bucket, and our immune system can no longer keep up with it. That’s what happened to her. 

When I took her cone beam CT scan, she had perfect teeth, no cavities, and perfect gums. But when I looked in the area where her wisdom teeth were taken out, there were huge black holes on the CT scan. What I did to treat these cavitations was make a small incision in the back and open it up. As I opened it up and pressed on the gum, these gray, squiggly, worm-like structures just came out of the gums. I’m like, Oh, that’s it. I had to record this. I got some footage because it’s hard to believe that something like that can get stuck in there for years and years. She couldn’t believe it herself. I treated her, I want to say, about a year ago, and a few months after I treated her, she went back to work. She’s holding a job again. Her mind is clear. She got her energy back.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

That was crazy. Did you treat her with ozone? Can you talk a little bit about that and what the application of that was?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes. The way we treat these kinds of lesions in the jawbone is to open it up; I have to scoop out all these microorganisms, and I always like to biopsy because if this stuff is in the jawbone, it’s not just there. Some microbes like to hide themselves from the immune system. Our immune system is not great. That can detect everything every time. But some particles do escape, some microbes do escape, and they can be launched in other places in the body. That’s why we believe bacteria from the mouth lodge in the brain. That’s why it causes brain fog. once we remove the source or the breeding ground through ozone, and ozone is something that sterilizes bacteria, viruses, pathogens, and parasites and doesn’t injure us. That’s why I love ozone. Now I clean everything up. I draw blood and use someone’s growth factors to put back in the site to promote healing. I never, ever do something synthetic, such as a bone graft that comes from a cow, which, by the way, can cause an immune reaction in itself just by using the patient’s natural healing potential. But exponentially magnified.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

What you just described is one of the hallmark signs that you’re working with a biological dentist and that you’re not going to be using synthetics or bone grafting. You’re going to use much more natural and healthy alternatives to help people solve their oral problems. Now, this brings us to root canals, and this is a huge topic. It might seem like we’re cramming information here, but I’ve got so many questions for you in the time that we have together. Can you talk about root canals and their danger, and maybe also talk a little bit about why they’re so prevalent in our modern dentistry? What’s the deal here?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes, and I have to share my story with root canals. I had a root canal when I grew up in Romania when I was 14 years old. I didn’t. I didn’t know anything back then about biological dentistry. That root canal since I was 14 over the years, it started turning dark, and I was looking at it. I’m like, Why is this turning dark? I finished dental school. I started by being a biological dentist and learning more about the dangers of bacteria on the jawbone. As I was flossing it, I started to detect the smell. Looking at the X-rays, people were saying, There’s nothing wrong with it. Your tooth is fine. Well, I listened to my gut, and I said, I’m going to take this tooth out. I took it out. It just so happened that it was going to be on the meridian of digestion. By the way, I didn’t take it out myself. I had a colleague. I took it out.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

To ask, do you do this yourself? You’re a crazy surgeon.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

After I removed that, I also needed the site. I had an implant placed right after removal, and no bone grafting was done when I left. When I was healing, I started to notice my digestion, which started to improve because this tooth was on the meridian of digestion. I couldn’t believe it. I had this tooth with me for almost 20 years by the time I had to remove it, my digestion was sluggish; I couldn’t tolerate certain foods. it. helped me by removing the stool. improving my digestion.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

So what’s happening there with root canals? Why are root canals such a problem, and why do you go looking for them when people come to you as a dentist? You’re doing a full health intake, and you’re learning about people’s whole health histories because what’s happening in their mouth can give clues to what’s happening with their symptoms in other parts of the body. But why are they so bad for us?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes. Root canals are dead teeth. That’s what they are. why were root canals? invented is. to help find a way to hold the tooth in the bone so people can chew with it. like, I don’t have to lose my tooth. But unfortunately, a lot of bacteria get trapped inside that root canal-treated tooth. There are many, many side channels. It’s inside a tooth. the endodontist or the root canal specialist. only cleans the main canal. The studies that we do have on our treated teeth show that they can hold 50 times more bacteria inside those little channels than healthy teeth. Once that bacteria is inside, the tooth spills into the bone, the tooth starts to turn black, and the bone turns around. It sometimes turns black as well because, as bacteria spills into the jawbone, it gets inside the blood vessels, and people start to feel sick. It increases the level of inflammation in the body. That’s the real problem with the root canals: the level of bacteria that they hold inside.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

People are watching right now and are thinking, “Gosh, I’ve had four or five root canals. What should they do as a biologic dentist?” What do you do about root canals?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

The first thing I would recommend is to have a clean CT scan. evaluate the root canals thoroughly. If you go to a dentist and they just take those two-dimensional X-rays that you would normally get, those are not enough to diagnose and to know that things are okay. You must see a biological dentist, get a cone beam CT scan to analyze the intricate structure of those seats, and see if there are any bacteria that’s spilling into the jawbone. especially for those of you listening who are not feeling well; you have chronic fatigue and brain fog; you’re dealing with autoimmune issues; and these are the root canal treatments. Teeth are going bad, or they’re starting to develop cysts. We recommend removal. Typically; there’s also a process called pretreatment or redoing the root canal, but the likelihood that it’s going to work is only in the 75% range. It depends, in order to achieve a good resolution, I’m always a believer in long-term stability. If our root canals have gone bad, my recommendation is to remove and replace them with a ceramic implant.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Let’s talk about ceramics since you mentioned that a lot of people have metal implants, and there’s a difference between metal and ceramic implants. In fact, I even learned from you, and we’ll get to this in this interview. We’ll talk about amalgams and mercury and replacing fillings. We put ceramic fillings in my teeth where my mercury fillings used to be amalgam fillings. Why do we want to use a ceramic implant?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Great question. A lot of people still don’t know, even dentists, that ceramic implants exist. Some people do have a problem with titanium implants. Titanium implants, just to give you some history, have been around since the 1980s. It wasn’t an accidental discovery. The scientist, Dr. Brånemark, wanted some pins to point. He was studying bone growth, and he found some pins in the lab. They just so happened to be titanium, and he put them in the leg of an animal, and he couldn’t remove them. After six months, they had fused to the bone. This process is called osseointegration, and there are only two different substances that fuse to the bone: titanium and ceramic zirconia. Titanium was first, and then about 20 years later we got into ceramics. Ceramic dental implants have been on the market for about 40 years. They’re not that reason. People don’t know that. We do have a lot of studies. 

The ceramic implant that I use today, called ceramics, has over ten years of studies—15 years of studies—and has been used in thousands of patients. It is just as successful as titanium. The big difference between titanium and ceramic is that we want to release ions, such as in titanium, which is titanium being a metal. What happens in a moist environment is that it corrodes; it goes through the process of corrosion. Ceramic implants don’t corrode. They don’t release ions in the environment or the mouth, for that matter. We know in the case of titanium implants from periodontal studies that titanium particles are found in the surrounding tissues of the gums; they’ve even been found in the lymph nodes. The clinical significance of the fact that we know more about autoimmune disease is that people with autoimmune diseases should not get titanium implants with the information we have today. We didn’t know this ten years ago, but today we know that in people with autoimmune disease, titanium can make that worse. not just titanium, but any metal like mercury, for example.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yes, people are watching this right now. “Oh my gosh, I have to. I have root canals, I have titanium implants, and I have mercury fillings. What am I going to do?” Well, I have a burning question. Why isn’t conventional dentistry using ceramic if it’s so much safer?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

It’s because they haven’t learned it. even though we have a company that’s trying to promote it, I’m a frequent lecturer on the ceramic dental implant system in the dental community, and I offer hands-on courses through their program. There’s not a lot of interest because it’s hard to learn something new, and it is a little bit more technique-sensitive to place a ceramic implant. There are more and more specialists who are providing ceramic implants because more people are asking for them. There’s more education on it, and people can understand the difference. There’s an awakening to understand that if you’re putting something in your body, you better know what it is and not trust the doctor blindly.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

We’re going to do this interview in two parts. We’ve got about 5 minutes left on the first part of it, and I want to spend that time on amalgams. Amalgam fillings have mercury in them. I came to you for help getting rid of mine, which was placed 20 years ago. My husband’s were placed. Oh, gosh. When he was a teenager. They were 35, 40, or almost 40 years old. What did you notice when you got into Sam’s mouth? His were older than mine. When we came and you looked in there and we did all of our combined sets, did you notice something about Sam’s amalgams?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes, they’re expanding. They were corroding, expanding, and cracking the teeth. That’s something that happens with mercury fillings. A lot of people don’t know this, but I lost a tooth because I had a huge mercury filling that eventually crushed my tooth in half. You can lose teeth that way. A lot of people say, Oh, what’s the big deal? All these mercury fillings don’t hurt me. Why should I remove them? What happens, and there’s a great video online called The Smoking Tooth. Essentially, we know that anytime you eat, you brush your teeth, and you’re eating, especially hot foods, small amounts of mercury come off the teeth. Where does it go? We ingest it so that mercury gets attached to the fatty tissues. It’s a neurotoxin. especially for mothers who are listening or mothers to be that mercury gets passed on to the unborn baby.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I was researching; we were just recently writing a big blog post about toxins in the environment. I was doing some research on mercury, and I was looking up research articles. Of course, I came across FDA Website recommendation funds. The Centers for Disease Control and everything that came across was propaganda that mercury is safe. We won’t talk about that for a second because the government’s telling us it’s safe, and we’re here saying no amount of mercury is safe. Zero. It’s one of the most toxic things to the human brain and the human body. There is no safe limit for mercury. Let’s talk about that.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes, it’s a political issue at this point, Laura. In a lot of European countries, mercury fillings have been banned. But sadly, here in the United States, we still place them, especially among low-income people and kids. Studies in sheep show that the moment you place a mercury filling in somebody’s mouth within a month, in this particular study, the sheep’s liver, kidneys, and brain were full of mercury. This happens to humans as well. it’s irreversible. Yes, we can chelate and I went through years of collation to try to get it out of my body, but the best way is to avoid it and educate yourself about it and not let the dentist just put in, especially on Medicaid, Medicare, or medical, just any filling that they have available.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yes. When we went through the process of removing ours, I had a long discussion about it. You have a team of people that work with you, so one of your dentists did mine, and he was explaining to me. I was concerned, like, is this safe to remove? This disrupts the amalgam and disrupting the mercury. Am I going to be at risk? There are a lot of precautions that go into place when you’re removing an amalgam. But what he told me that struck me as fascinating was that he was at more risk than me. The people working on my mouth were at a higher risk of getting exposed to the mercury than I was while they were removing it. You talk about that.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

He’s right because we’re being exposed daily to this removal. What happens when we come into a mercury filling? The vapor that gets released is over 2,000% higher than the EPA allows in the atmosphere at any time, yet in dental school, we’re not taught to remove this safely. One of my colleagues got mercury intoxicated. She’s no longer practicing because she didn’t know any better. Unfortunately, she found out about it too late. Maybe it’s no coincidence that the highest risk of suicide is in dentistry, in terms of professions. because mercury is a neurotoxin. A lot of dentists were not taking precautions when cutting into mercury, which is for sure toxic, and it’s affecting them.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

There are precautions, though, that you take when you’re removing amalgams to protect me and to protect the dentist who was working on my mouth. Can you talk about it? I want our audience to be  It’s clear that there’s a very safe way to do this. once this was explained, and of course, I have full trust in you and the way that you practice dentistry. So I knew I was in safe hands, but I’m also very inquisitive, and I like to know how things work. Yes, so it’s about that.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

It’s very important if you’re considering having your mercury fillings removed to find a dentist who’s certified in smart removal and safe from Mercury. What do we use? We use this dam that isolates the tooth in question and prevents you from swallowing any of the material that’s coming off the felling. Also, it’s got this huge suction that we put in front of you to suck the toxic vapors. The dentist and the assistant are wearing gas masks, as you notice, to protect themselves from the environment. Don’t make the mistake I made. I had my mercury fillings replaced in dental school when I knew nothing about safe removal, I googled a lot about it, and I got headaches from that blurry vision. I didn’t feel well, and I couldn’t understand at the time why I was feeling sick. It wasn’t until a couple of years after that that I had my mercury levels tested by a naturopath, and they were through the roof. We know. Yes, the smart removal certification and the process that comes with it are tested to prevent the ingestion of mercury.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

This has been so valuable so far. Dr. Moldovan, I want to thank you so much for joining us today for this talk on oral health and how it pertains to the root causes of chronic illness for our audience. I hope you found our conversation insightful and helpful. If you’re a summit purchaser, stay right here because we’re about to dove even deeper into this discussion with Dr. Moldovan. We’re going to cover the mouth microbiome and what you should look for when you’re searching for a biologic dentist in your area. 

If you’re not a summit purchaser, click on the button on this page to get access to a continuation of this conversation and many others and get the tools you need to reclaim your health. If you’re watching this continuation of my talk with Dr. Moldovan, thank you for being a valuable member of our community, and we’re going to dive right back in. Dr. Moldovan, I would love for you to talk now about the oral microbiome because this is a huge area of expertise of yours. You have a whole line of products that support the microbiome, and this is a passion topic for you. Why are people even surprised to hear what I thought was just in our gut? But here’s our gut in your mouth.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Exactly. The mouth is the opening of the GI tract. We must look at the bacteria that live there. Yes, I’m a periodontist. As periodontists, we look at the terrain of the mouth, and this can be out of balance. The same thing happens to the gut from stress, from using too much Listerine, for example, or too many chemicals in your mouth. If you’re killing all your bacteria, more of the bad bugs are going to grow back. In my practice, one of the first things that I do, especially for people with bleeding gums and bone loss around the teeth, can be about 80% of the population, mostly from poor oral hygiene, and not wanting to floss. It is therefore important to practice good oral hygiene. But some of this bacteria is passed down to us from our parents. Some people say, “Oh, yes, my mom lost her teeth at an early age,” so you might have inherited genetics, plus the bacteria that goes hand in hand with that. The simple tests we do are a swish and spit test. You swish, you spit in a test tube, and we analyze the 11 different kinds of bacteria that can cause oral inflammation as well as brain fog, rheumatoid arthritis, gut issues, etc.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You have a whole line of oral products that are geared towards supporting the oral microbiome.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes. We’re going to have to step away from trying to kill everything because, after all, there are ten times more bacteria in and on our body than there are human cells. We’re never going to win that battle. In the battle of constantly using antibacterial mouthwashes, we have to nourish the good microbiome. I recommend that you use something natural. I have a whole product line of Orasana products on orasana.com based on nourishing the microbiome. Don’t use fluoride. Fluoride is not necessary.  Using the mineralization probiotic tooth powder that I created, it has a calcium-hydroxy appetite. nourish the enamel as well as prevent cavities. Many studies to date show that having a probiotic after brushing and flossing can help decrease gum inflammation, decrease cavities, improve breath, and even help with sinus and airway health when our mouths are healthier.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You brought up something that I’ve got to know more about. What’s the deal with fluoride?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

I’m sorry I got cut off for a second.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

What’s the deal with fluoride? To use it or not use it?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

I am not a fan of fluoride, and I looked at their studies on fluoride We don’t have good studies to show that fluoride kills cavities. There’s a great documentary called Fluoride Gate that explains how fluoride ended up in our water supply.  It ended up in our water because of an agricultural byproduct. That’s what fluoride was. They didn’t know what to do with it or a great way to get rid of it through the water. However many European countries and many communities have banned the use of fluoride in the water in the United States, which is still happening. They just decreased the limit from one part per million to 2.8 parts per million. I’m not even sure why this decrease in fluoride may be because they ran out of the stash that they were supposed to dump in the water. I don’t know.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

What’s the danger of fluoride? We’re taught, as we raise our children, that we should be giving them fluoride treatments and that we should be having fluoride in the toothpaste. But what is the danger to the human body from fluoride?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

The danger of ingested fluoride is that it can weaken the teeth. People who have fluorosis, or these brown spots on the teeth, are the result of too much fluoride in their water. This can cause more brittle teeth and more brittle bones. The biggest problem, though, is not the effect that it has on the teeth, but the effect it has on the pineal gland. It will calcify the pineal gland. We know that fluoride decreases the IQ of kids. There was a study done to show that kids with higher levels of fluoride in the water had lower IQ levels.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Yet we still use it here in the United States.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

we still use it, and we don’t need it. The thing is, even as adults, sometimes you go to the dentist because they want to do these fluoride treatments. No, you’re better off using a calcium hydroxide appetite in your food, lowering your sugar, etc. Change your diet if you’re prone to cavities. There are many other ways to protect your teeth. then music fluoride, which doesn’t even work anyway.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

This is becoming such an enlightening discussion. I want to keep going with the comparison of conventional dentistry to biological dentistry. Could you share with our audience if there are other materials or procedures used in dentistry or procedures and dentistry? We’ve talked about a couple. We’ve talked about amalgam versus ceramic fillings. We’ve talked about ceramic versus titanium implants, and we’ve talked about root canals. But I’m sure there are other products that you have to stay away from.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes, the estrogen disruptor is BPA, and it can hide in a lot of the, let’s see, mouthguards and nightguards. Now we can choose BPA-free, fillings as well. A lot of people go to the doctor speaking of mercury replacement, and they say, Oh,  give me the white fillings, but not all white fillings are created equal. Those can be toxic as well. We use a BPA-free filling in our practice, but you can ask your dentist, Is this filling BPA-free? If they don’t know, it’s a huge problem. They should know what they’re using.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Well, I hope mine is.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

I have one of those. Yes, well. Oh, yes, hard to tell. I just, but if you look at the recent ones in our office, they were 70% filled with ceramic. It’s a liquid ceramic filling. It’s a material that comes from Germany, and it’s much more stable. What’s the problem with plastic? If you put it in hot water, it starts to become soft. That’s the problem with plastic fillings. Not only that, they release BPA every time you eat something hot, but they shrink a lot more than ceramic fillings. You end up replacing this filling a lot more often because it starts to leak underneath.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Next time I see you, can we look at my white filling?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Make sure it’s no longer there.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Concentrated on the amalgam.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

I’m sure we would have noticed something.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

You would have noticed. So what are any other things that are used in the regular dentist’s office that are dangerous to us?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes. Sadly,  we’re undoing so many things that were done in dentistry. What were you redoing them like in a safer way? One man’s food could be another man’s poison, which also becomes a dental material. The best way to avoid that is to do a biocompatibility test for fillings, especially for people who have high sensitivities to everything. The patients that come to our office— I’m sensitive to this. They have a long list of allergies. We say, Okay,  even though we know our fillings are safe or most people have allergy tests, and we use a test called Biocon to test us. Tell us what exactly is good or not good for that patient’s body.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

We’ve covered a lot of ground today. I’m going to have you. I’m going to have you share with our audience what we should be looking for in a biological dentist and where to find them. The questions you need to ask are: important because I learned from you and the other dentist who works in your office that anyone can call themselves a biologic dentist. That’s scary because it’s not like there’s not a regulatory board making sure that you’re doing everything right as a biologic dentist.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes, exactly. That’s one of my missions: to make biological dentistry more standardized and put it on the map as a healthier style of dentistry. There are some questions you can ask. Number one, do you use fluoride? If your dentist uses fluoride, they’re not biological. Number two, do you use ozone in your practice? Every biological dentist should use ozone because there’s nothing else that replaces it. They need to use ozone in the water inside their units as well as ozone gas underneath the filling to make sure that that area is sterile before it’s filled.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I want to make a distinction here. Not only do you treat me with ozone like you did with my husband, but the water flowing through your pipes that go into my mouth when you’re working on me is ozonated water, which is a huge clue that this is a real biologic dentist office. not only ask if they use ozone but also ask if they have ozonated water.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Absolutely. We also use it as a rinse in the office. You can also ask them another question: What mouthwashes do you use? If they tell you, Oh, we use Chlorhexidine, that’s toxic, and Peridex is another name for it or Periogard. It’s commonly used by most dentists, if you’re biological or holistic and you’re using that, then go find another dentist because they clearly do not understand that these chemicals shouldn’t be used in somebody’s mouth.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

What else? Give us some more. This is so good.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Inquire about fillings. What fit do you use? BPA-free fillings. Do you use BPA free-night guards? Do you have a cone-beam CT scan in your office? A reputable biological dentist now has a cone-beam CT scan in their office.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Or do you put amalgams in?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Oh, yes. Did you get certified for smart removal? That’s a great question to ask, for sure.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Anything else? Then where can we find biological dentists? Because everybody’s going, how am I going to find one in my area?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes. The best way to find a biological dentist in your area is to go to an IAOMT. I’m a member of our association, the International Association of Oral Medicine and Toxicology. iaomt.org, and they do have resources there for patients. You can go find a dentist in my area, and unfortunately, they’re not screened by the association. Some of them, just by paying a membership, are biological dentists. You will have to call and ask the questions that I gave you earlier to ensure that that’s the right place for you.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Now, as we wrap up here, I just want to give you the floor to talk about. I got asked a million questions, better than I do. What did I leave out? What does our audience need to know? What are the last pearls? Our audience is savvy. They’ve been working on their health for a long time. They’re learning from this summit that chronic infections, toxins, nutrient deficiencies, traumas, stress—all of this is blocking their ability to get well. I would put the topic that we’re talking about today into the toxin and infection bucket if we don’t solve these issues. What else would be just parting words or other concepts? We didn’t cover words of hope. What would you like to say if the floor was yours?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

The human body is so complex, and the mouth is oftentimes forgotten. That’s what we notice. People go to that. I don’t feel well. Let me check my heart. Let me check my oil. I’m going to do this detox. I’m doing I.V. ozone. But the mouth is typically the last thing to be looked at. If I’m not feeling well, I’ll go to the biological dentist, get a cone beam CT scan, and remember that at home, to be able to clean well, I want to give some guidelines here. Number one, you don’t have to use an electric brush. You can, but using a manual brush with the right toothpaste or toothpowder is also very important. Try to find natural products; avoid alcoholic mouthwashes. Okay, those can increase the risk of oral cancer when you use alcoholic mouthwashes, and a lot of them have a very low pH.

I don’t recommend using a water flosser; it’s very, very important to clean around the teeth, around implants, and the veneers. Those of you who use string floss are great. But make sure you use it correctly. String floss art: flossing is very, very hard to master. Even if you use string floss, I encourage you and challenge you to do a test, use the string floss, and then use a water flosser to see if you get any more things out than with a straw. Most of the time, you. Well, and then, thirdly, don’t forget to check your tongue. We didn’t talk about that. The tongue can hold up to 60% of bacteria. I highly encourage everyone. Just look in the mirror, start looking at your gums, and stick out your tongue. If your tongue is coated in white, you have dysbiosis. If your gums are inflamed, that’s a problem. Don’t ignore these problems, even though they don’t hurt, because the smaller the problem, the easier it is to fix.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

I have a question. You have some chewable oral probiotics. Yes, I have them. They’re amazing. If you have that on your tongue, do you recommend tongue scraping? Do you recommend using the probiotics? Like, what do you do?

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Our water flosser comes with a tongue scraper. If you do tend to have a coated tongue, definitely use that tongue scraper. That’s in there. You don’t have to use it every day. What we do find, though, is that the chewable probiotics will turn the tongue pink and will clean the tongue without having to use a tongue scraper. Important to just check in with you once in a while.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

 Amazing. Where can our audience find you? I will tell everybody here that I live in San Diego. I drive North for an hour to get to Dr. Moldovan because she’s that amazing. For those of you who live in Southern California, you have no excuse not to go. She has three offices, and we go to the Huntington one, and it’s about an hour from us. But how do you have those offerings for people to come and see you? You also have products that people can get online from you. You have a passion for teaching practitioners as well, so there is lots of stuff available depending on who you are and what your interests are. Tell us all the places we can find you.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

If you’re interested in the way we practice, is beverlyhillsdentalhealth.com? Yes, we have locations in Newport Beach, Beverly Hills, and Encino. Also, orasana.com is a product I mentioned, and if you live too far from us, you can learn how to clean your teeth and take care of your oral microbiome correctly by visiting orasana.com. I have a resource tab there with all their research articles that are popping up on the oral microbiome. For those of you interested in drsandamoldovan.com, we are going to have practitioner courses and also consumer courses for people to learn more about oral health and even do some of the personalized testing remotely.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Tell us how to spell orasana, and tell us how to spell Sanda Moldovan. Let’s make sure everybody knows that.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes, orasana.com, ORASANA dot com and DRSANDAMOLDOVAN. Also my podcast, The Holistic Dentistry Show, highly encourages you. We have some very interesting topics in holistic oral health.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

This has been so good. Thank you for letting me pepper you with a million questions as quickly as I could.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

No problem. I had fun.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

We’re going to spend probably 20 to 30 minutes on any one of those topics and just go deep. But I want to give a broad view of why biologic dentistry is so important, why it’s why we’ve shifted in our family, and now we are a biologic dentist family. We love it, which is why I’m recommending my audience and clients seek out biological dentists in their area. Thank you so much for the work you’re doing. Your passion is infectious. I am so thrilled to be able to help you spread the word and get this out to consumers, practitioners, and everyone. I’m right there with you. We need to teach and learn more about the mouth, the microbiome, and safe dentistry.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Yes. Thank you so much, Laura. You’re amazing.

Laura Frontiero, FNP-BC

Thanks so much, everyone. Until next time. Take care. Bye now.

Sanda Moldovan, DDS, MS, CNS

Bye.