Click the player below to listen to this episode of Let’s Talk Dentistry with San Diego holistic dentist, Dr. Marvin.
In this episode Holistic Dentist Dr. Marvin is back once again answering your calls and the dental questions that are important to you. Dr. Marvin is unique in the dental industry, in that he focuses not on fixing your teeth, but rather on healing your whole body, and this is evident from the very first question on today’s episode of Let’s Talk Dentistry. Let’s Talk!
You’re listing to Let’s Talk Dentistry with Dr. Marvin. This show is sponsored by The Center for Natural Dentistry in Encinitas, where they take a holistic approach to dentistry and your health. Hello. Good Morning. This is Dr. Marvin on Let’s Talk Dentistry. We have a great show coming up for you today. Actually the show is going to be about you. I want callers, and I want them today. And what I am going to do is I am going to do something special. If you call in today, I am actually, and you are a new patient, if you haven’t been a patient of our practice of our office before and you’re always waiting to figure out when is the best time to schedule that exam you have something going on inside your or you want to know what is going on inside your mouth and you just can’t pinpoint in and your trying to figure this out on your own or your trying to figure out if your dentist can figure this out. I want to see, and you keep on thinking in your head, you want to go see Dr. Marvin or you want to go see Dr. Godes. And you want their opinion and their approach. That’s what I want to do. I want somebody that has to call in right now. Our phone lines are 866-KPRAISE, 866-577-2473. Ernest will talk you call, screen it and shoot it over to me.
But I want someone that has a problem going on inside their mouth and they are not sure if they are getting the right information. They are not sure if the information that they are getting is what is best for their overall health. Is it best for the teeth or best for you? That what I always say. And if you do I am going to give you a free bottle of breathDr mouthwash. And when you come in for your exam I am also going to be doing a free cleaning on you. So with your exam and x-rays, our 3D cone beam x-ray, will give you a free cleaning. If you are on the radio show. Please call in today. I would love to speak to you. I would love to hear your comments I would like to hear your stories. I am born or natural troubleshooter. Ok. And I want to trouble shoot your main problems, not from the tooth angle but also from your overall health angle. If you are healthy, if you have gone to a lot of doctors. If you have gone to a lot alternative doctors then you need to really consider coming to, looking at your mouth. Looking at your dentistry. Because dentists could be your missing link.
I have to tell you it feels really really good when a lot of people have gone to other providers then they come to see us and we do one simple thing, maybe it’s a bite balance, maybe it removing a tooth that have been infected or is infected they feel better. And that’s the passion that I have that’s the reason why I do what I do. And that’s the reason I have this show. I have this show, not because I need patients, ok we are booked out 6, 7, 8 weeks at our office. It’s not because we need patients it’s because I want everyone out there to just be aware and to think and know what is going on inside your mouth. And figuring out that the dentistry that is being done through the world for the last 100 years is the wrong dentistry because they don’t look at you as a person so I want you to understand that if you want to schedule an appointment with us do not wait until the end of the year. If you have HSAs or MSAs and you have this cafeteria plan that you have to use the money and stuff like that. Get in now call our number, its 760-536-1199. 760-536-1199. and leave us a name, number and we will get back to you. And I wasn’t you to try and get scheduled with us so that we can go ahead and take care of your issues. Alright. We have a caller, Sally.
(Sally) Hi.
(Dr.Marvin) Hello, how are you?
(Sally) Good. I have a question about root canals.
(Dr. Marvin) Ok.
(Sally) I have a root canal and kind of one on my front teeth, so I guess it’s the next one over from one of my two front teeth. And I have always been told they are really bad for you.
(Dr. Marvin) Ok. By who?
(Sally) I had a naturopathic doctor, I have some swelling above my, the bone in front of, I can’t think of the name of the bone is. But I have some swelling in my neck. Not by the thyroid but off to the sides.
(Dr. Marvin) Ok.
(Sally) And the naturopathic doctor told me that can be related to a root canal that’s infected. And another thing I have is I get sort of frequent bloody noses on the same side of the root canal. So I didn’t know if that might have something to do with it or what you know about those.
(Dr. Marvin) It could. Any swelling, any infection. Any infection causes an immune response which is your body way of trying to defend its self. And it can cause certain symptoms such as swelling around the neck because your lymphatic’s which it drains that way. Lymphatic’s works through gravity. So it’s kind of working down into your neck area so any infection that is going on inside your mouth or higher up in your head can drain that way. And it can cause some inflammation. And some localized issues near the apex of that tooth which happens to be near the nose. So either of those two symptoms could be a problem, so and of course you don’t deal with the symptom you deal with the cause. And one of the potential causes and your naturopath is right, is possibly a tooth that has a root canal. But more specifically, and I always mention this, it’s the bone that’s around the tooth that has the root canal which could have the infection. So solution is to A to get a, go to a dentist that doesn’t have biases towards keeping all of the teeth at all costs. You go to a dentist that looks at the whole body approach and can look at the bone to see if the bone is infected. Because if there is an infection if I, Sally if I said you have an infection in your body, what would you like to do about it you would say I want to get rid of it. Well most dentist doesn’t look at the bone. They only look at the tooth, and if the tooth is still there and there is no pain and they don’t care what distant problems it causes and they are going to say let’s leave it alone, ok. Well if I asked you this, what would you rather have, would you rather have health or would you rather have front teeth?
(Sally) Exactly.
(Dr. Marvin) Ok. And that’s up to you. I am going to tell you that there are a lot of patients that would say no, I wouldn’t give a million dollars to walk around with a missing front tooth. And that’s fine. That’s just my way of doing things. I prioritize health, and I know that you do too. So we need to do an examination and 3 dimensional x-ray and we need to see the extent of the infection in the bone. Because in the bone you have 2 types of bone. You have one bone which is the hard cortical bone, which is the white part. If you look at a dog bone or a look at any bone. That is the white part on the outside. That’s the hardest part of the bone. The inside of the bone is the bone marrow, it’s the cortical bone. It’s not that hard, but it’s kind of hard. And because it has minerals in it. So what we do is when we look at the x-ray, the 3 dimensional x-ray, we look to see what the density of that bone marrow around that area. And it could be different than that density around other areas and hence there is changes going on in that area. And if there are changes going on, we actually decipher that and that will help with a decision whether to take out the infection, take out the tooth in the infection or do any of our other conservative treatments that we provide. So it’s all up to the diagnosis because you don’t want to talk about treatment unless you have a correct diagnosis.
(Sally) So what are the alternatives, I mean if I had the tooth removed do you believe in implants or do you, I mean what are the other alternatives to like the implants?
(Dr. Marvin) Ok. In dentistry we need to look at what is ideal, ok, what is ideal for your health? Then we have to figure out what compromises and then what other options we have and what are the pros and cons. So let me go over the main ones. First of all you have to remember that this is the front of the mouth. The front of the mouth means that the dentistry is 10 times harder, ok. The reason is because we cannot rush the healing process, the aesthetics are very very high. We need to figure out how high your gum line goes up when you smile. We have to figure out where, what your neighboring teeth look like. If we do a restoration can we make the restoration look like your neighboring teeth? And which restorations are we going to put in based on what you are compatible with. And then we have to look at what are the issues on the neighboring teeth. Does it cross the midline? Do you have big fillings on the neighboring teeth? Do you have root canals on the neighboring teeth? Or do we not even though the neighboring teeth and we just deal with something that is more uncomfortable, which is, one example is a flipper or a removable partial. This looks very similar to a retainer that you may have had as a child with a fake denture tooth. Now no one really likes having something that is removable or something else that you have to take care of but that can be the most conservative treatment available. Because a you’re not drilling into the bone like you do with a dental implant, and you’re not grinding on other teeth like you are with a bridge. So you need to go over all these options with you. Now you mentioned dental implants so let me tell you a little bit about my philosophy on dental implants, ok. Number one is some people are very sensitive to materials, so if you are sensitive to materials or if you are very chemical sensitive you obviously should get tested before you start doing something permanent in your body. I have a lot of patients that have come to see me after they have had teeth extracted, after they have had bone grafting material, after they have had implants placed and after they have had a crown and everything looks fine and pain free but they end up within one or two years having an infection around the implant. And it’s hard to know this is a lot of money, a lot of time spent, and they were thinking that this is going to be there for the rest of their life. And once it’s done it’s done. They don’t have to worry about it anymore. But that’s what I am trying to avoid by being more proactive and more understanding of how everything works. So in the front of the mouth, the mouth the tooth that you are dealing with is a lateral incisor, ok. It’s one of the smallest teeth in the mouth. There is also not enough room, ok. Off to the sides, the two side teeth are bigger. They are k-9 one of the longest roots and so are they front teeth they are wide and long, the central incisors. So you need to also know that the front of the mouth is also angled, ok. It doesn’t go straight up and down it flares out forward and the other thing is that when you have the front of the mouth there is not much bone even when there is tooth there. So we need to kind of see where the bone is if we are going to place an implant. And we are going to see where the bone is, how is the gum tissue? Is it thick or thin? What color is it? Where does your lip rise up? How do your teeth come together if you have a deep bite, where your lower teeth are tucked in way underneath your upper teeth when you bite down that means that when you flare your jaw forward or you grind your teeth when you are biting it may add more pressure to the tooth? Another thing is that if you place an implant do you place the biggest implant possible while it is still in the bone? Or do you just go with something that fits? Or do you go with the longest implant possible or do you go with the minimum length? And when you put the implant in, is the implant in the right position? Is there enough bone there? Is there enough quality bone? Which goes back to the first question is when they extracted the tooth did they move all the infection out? Because you don’t want to place and implant in an infected area because the chances of it surviving are a lot less or when they place the implant it’s not strong. Can you see all the different aspects that go on?
(Sally) Yeah. That’s a lot to have to deal with.
(Dr. Marvin) Oh absolutely. And believe me, this is why I think it’s some of the hardest dentistry in the world. And people just plow right through it because the dentist is just looking at the dollar signs. Oh they can go, yes we can do it. And they just put their hand up yes, we can do it, it cost whatever four thousand, five thousand but then they are always back peddling when you say what about this, and they say yea that could happen or they do it and they have to redo it and then they have to go through the awkward situation of ok do you pay for it to be redone and you have all that time and inconvenience. I am going to tell you that front teeth dentistry, I love it. I love it because it’s a challenge but I hate it because it’s very very unpredictable. if you listen to me on the radio show before I am not about unpredictability because I am going to tell you of all the things I do I really stand by my word and I don’t like getting into things that I can’t finish so I try to give tons of information ahead of time and get people to understand that don’t get your expectations so high best case scenario and worst case scenario you have to know before doing it.
(Sally) you mentioned infections in the bone. How do you tell, like if I have had other teeth removed how would I tell if I had an infection in there? Is that something…
(Dr. Marvin) Or if you have one? Ok. It’s kind of like this is, you know, do you have bacteria in your mouth? Do you have bacteria in your gut? Ok. Is it normal bacteria or is it harmful bacteria? And then if it is harmful bacteria is your body controlling it or is your body losing the battle and the bacteria is getting bigger and spreading. And if it is the bacteria in your mouth, is it causing problems elsewhere in your body? And if it is how much trouble is that? I mean there are so many questions that could come into play. I am going to tell you no one, people can have great tools. They are going to tell you that we have phenomenal tools of ways of determining infections but most doctors jump straight to treatment, without explaining why thing occurred. So what I am telling you is that yeah, there probably is bacteria in there, the question is how you are individually handling it. And the providers that you go to are they only looking at symptoms as a determinant if there is an infection or not. Because it’s always easier for a practitioner to treat symptoms and it’s also easier for the patient to agree with treatment if there are symptoms. It’s very difficult for a practitioner to convince someone that doesn’t have any symptoms to order in order to do something, any treatment and to pay money for it. So you have to look at the mindset. If you do have bacteria there, and if you have a tooth that has a root canal I am going to guarantee you that that root canal treated tooth is not clean. And so the two options are that you can take out the infection, surgically or not surgically, you can take out the infection and leave the tooth there and you can take out the infection and take out the tooth.
So there are so many scenarios and we will go through every single option with you and why. The two ways that we really work on finding out if there is an infection. It’s very very unique with myself and our dental practice is number one the 3 dimensional x-rays, this is $175,000 machine that we take that we purchased a couple of years ago and we get to look at your density the bone density around the tooth that is check to see what the density is and see if it is infected and I’m going to tell you that because you don’t see it on the x-ray does not mean that there is no infection. You have to know a little bit about tests, ok. I can have a test and culture that area and you can have bacteria there but does that mean that you have a lot of bacteria there or is that part of the normal bacterial that is there? There are always some negatives for some tests, that’s why you take multiple tests and you go to practitioners that know how to interrupt the tests, ok. You don’t go to a radiologist that is fresh out of school that hasn’t seen a lot of x-rays? Or do you see one that has seen them for like 20 or 30 years? There is a difference and so if I can, if you can come to my place and take get a cone beam scan or a 3D x-ray and you can have 10 different people look at it you can get 10 different opinions. So I am going to tell you that I end up looking at x-rays a lot closer than I did two years ago. And because I have done a lot of surgery, using these x-rays telling me where to go I can actually get a better idea than most dentists that don’t do this treatment that don’t do the surgery for this and get a better idea of how big is the hole where the infection is in relationship to where the x-rays look like. Does that make sense?
(Sally) Right, right. Yeah.
(Dr. Marvin) Ok. So I am going to tell you that when I do surgery, when I pull out this tooth and I clean out the infection the major question is, where do you stop? Ok. If you have an infection how much bone to do you take away? Because you don’t want to take away too much bone, because you’re taking away healthy bone. But you also don’t want to leave anything there because you want to be though you want it to be done the first time and most doctors most dentist don’t know how to determine that. Because the obvious is true. The obvious is that if the goal is to take the tooth out you know when the tooth is out. The not so obvious that they don’t want to talk about because they haven’t learned this part is when you scrape out the infection how much of the infection do you take out. And that’s where most dentists are confused is because they don’t know when to stop it’s a feel issue. And so I don’t like taking any chances, that’s why when I do my extractions I do it and I probably do a little bit more than most dentist or a lot more than most dentist because I have that understanding that you’ve got to remove the infection. Ok. Have you ever heard of applied kinesiology or muscle testing? (Sally) Yes. (Dr. Marvin) Does your naturopath use it? Or have you been to a provider?
(Sally) Yeah I have. A little bit I think, yeah.
(Dr. Marvin) What did they do? Did they give you a bottle full of something or did they put a vile of something in your hand?
(Sally) Yes. Right. I think they did that with my daughter.
(Dr. Marvin) So they idea behind that is that your body is kind of like a lie detector test. So if you were hooked up to a lie detector and your body you can’t control the lie doctor because your body goes through certain changes electrically. Applied kinesiology is very similar. That’s how I like to do it. Is that your body can make some changes based on something placed on its energy field. Well that is one of the main technologies that we use in our office to determine if you have an infection and when we do the surgery how much of the infection do we remove, how much more and I am going to tell you that there are very very very few dentist in this world that really use it and that really know how to use it. And that’s one of our, if you want to say, secrets we use in our office that gets the results and we are confident because when we do it we know that the issue is resolved, ok, elsewhere in the body. So part of our exam is that we don’t just look at the teeth, we actually look at the teeth and gums last. And I don’t even look at your x-rays I actually look at you and I scan the whole body to figure out what is the priority going on inside your body. I don’t know any other dentist that does that. And so that’s one of the unique things, because I want to become confident that what we do and I want my patients to be confident that what we do is going to really make a difference about your overall body.
(Sally) Definitely.
(Dr. Marvin) Ok. And that’s the key feature about what we do. So did I answer your question, I know it was long winded.
(Sally) Yeah it was great.
(Dr. Marvin) I mean it’s very very customized, very very individualized. We are not a one size fits all. we are not generalizing things saying that all implants should never be done, but we do have some very strong stands about certain aspects of dentistry and you know, we will when we do our exam when we do our x-rays we’ll give you a customized approach and its really its really great because its really, we are getting down to the root cause and we are really helping people when we are going that.
(Sally) Yeah. Good. Thank you.
(Dr. Marvin) Alright. Thank you so much Sally for giving me a call. I know you didn’t expect to have that much explanation, but hopefully you get an idea through the thought processes of some of the hardest dentistry possible. This is front tooth root canal dentistry.
(Sally) Yeah ok. Thank you.
(Dr. Marvin) Alright, thank you Sally. And if you want to schedule an appointment with us, to get that customized treatment plan just call our office and leave your name, number and come on in. And we will be happy to serve you like we do every patient that comes to see us. Alright. So hopefully all you listeners got a lot of good tid bits from those, from that question that why I love having people call in, because it really gets my blood flowing and it really get my mind turning and gets me, gets that challenge going on inside my brain that you know, that I can really help people when I have specific questions. So thank you Sally.
If you want to schedule an appointment with us just give us a call or if anyone else out there wants to schedule with us 760-536-1199. That’s 760-536-1199. Like I said, Sally, if you want to schedule since you did call on our show today, if you schedule and exam and x-ray we are going to go ahead and provide you with a dental cleaning. That’s a $100 value. So if any of you have not been to your dentist in a while that’s ok, we are going to slap you on your hand we aren’t going to look at you with a sour face. We are not going to tell you, why didn’t you floss or why didn’t you do this? What I am going to tell you is thanks for coming in. We are going to give you a whole hearted honest opinion on what you should be doing we spend all our time with you. We are not distracted we aren’t one of those offices that schedules 3 patients and knows that one of the patients aren’t going to show up and then if 2 people show up then we are going to have to jump from room to room to see them. We see one patient at a time and its one of those qualities of our dental practice that I instilled because I do not, I do not want you to think that you don’t have my full attention. I don’t want you to think that I am treating 2 patients or 3 patients at the same time. This is what most dentists do. So if you want to schedule a visit with me or with Dr. Stacy Godes, call us right now. That’s 760-536-1199. 760-536-1199.
Next week I am not going to be here. I am actually going on vacation, ok. Much needed vacation. So we will still have a show, Jared will be on there so don’t be afraid. Save up your questions. If Jared can’t answer them he will forward them to me. You can also go to drmarvin.com. Drmavin. And I will answer my questions on there. So until next time. God bless, take care and I will see you next time on Let’s Talk Dentistry. Good bye now. You’ve been listing to Let’s Talk Dentistry with Dr. Marvin. This show is sponsored by The Center for Natural Dentistry in Encinitas, where they take a holistic approach to dentistry and your health.