Click the player below to listen to this episode of Let’s Talk Dentistry or scroll down for a transcript of todays show!
In this episode Dr. Marvin is diving head first into Ozone Therapy, and the amazing ways in which it can help protect our bodies. So with that, lets get going on this week’s episode of Let’s Talk Dentistry!
— Transcript of Today’s Show —
Thank you for tuning in to Let’s Talk Dentistry. I’m Dr. Marvin, your host of Let’s Talk Dentistry. Today we’ve got a great show. If this is your first time listening to us, join us for the next 25 minutes. You’ll learn something new; I guarantee that you’ll learn something new.
Over the last two weeks we’ve talked about a lot more than just dentistry, but specific topics in dentistry that we’ve talked about are bridges. If you’ve ever had bridges, we talked a lot about that last week. We talked a lot about x-rays and the difference between different types of dental x-rays. What kind of x-rays do we do? Why should you take x-rays? Why do dentists recommend x-rays? We also talked about some new digital technologies, like digital impression taking. Some of the advantages are that you don’t have to come back for a second, third or fourth visit; you don’t need temporaries, you don’t need to have much tooth taken out. We use more bio-compatible materials, and none of that goopy stuff in your mouth causing you to gag. There are so many reasons why you should be listening to this show, hands down.
If you want to schedule a visit with us, Dr. Godes and myself do have open appointments this month in January. If you want to schedule with us and start 2014 on the right track, then give us a call at 760-536-1199. You don’t want to forget this number, because there’s going to be a time when you’re going to have an accident, or your tooth is going to start to hurt, or some weird symptom is going to occur. When that weird symptom occurs, you’re going to be like, “Man, I need to call Dr. Marvin. I need to get him right away.”
You can also go online. That’s probably the best way to learn more about what we do. If you want to go online, that website is trynaturaldentistry.com. You want to make sure that you spend some time on our website, because there is a lot… there’s oodles and oodles of information available to you. It’s extremely important that you get knowledgeable, because this is your health, this is your mouth, and this is your decision. Don’t go to a dentist or to a doctor that’s left in the dark. If you are interested in overall health, if you are interested in removing toxins in your body, because you know that toxins are the number one cause of chronic illnesses, then you need to go in and see a very good biological dentist’s office. Of course, I recommend us.
Today’s topic, we’re going to hit it straight hard with ozone. Ozone therapy. A lot of people are unfamiliar with ozone, especially doctors. When you hear the word ozone, you automatically think of the ozone layer. Ozone is super volatile oxygen. It’s not O2, it actually has three oxygen atoms instead of two. Because it has this third oxygen, it’s very active in going to oxidize things. It’s very active, it wants to be released. This ozone actually protects us from the harmful radiation of the sun. That’s why when they’re talking about the ozone layer being depleted, it is harmful to us humans, because the harmful radiation of the sun is actually getting to us. This ozone layer is actually being depleted for a number of reasons, but the reality is that ozone is there to protect us. Another benefit of ozone is that it is an excellent anti-microbial. It kills bacterias and can help a lot with infections.
We have applied a lot of these principles to our dentistry, because we love using more natural treatments as opposed to using pharmaceuticals. When we use pharmaceuticals, that’s when we have side effects. You’ve seen it all the time. If you watch the shows in prime time or the afternoon, lots of pharmaceuticals. They’re touting how great there drug is for one problem, but they also have to warn you about all the side effects of that same drug. Once you have a side effect other doctors will want to give you a drug for the side effect. If you have one problem, you don’t have one drug, you have one or two drugs fighting the problem, then you have side effects from those drugs, and you get more drugs to fight off those side effects. You get into this vicious cycle, and the reality is that if you’re taking care of these symptoms, you’re really not necessarily taking care of the cause.
We at the Center for Natural Dentistry want to make sure that we not only suppress one or two symptoms, but we feel a certain passion to get to the root cause and to discuss why things happen. If you can address and then treat the root cause, you may not only eliminate one or two symptoms, but you may eliminate 20 or 30 symptoms, or symptoms that are coming around the pipeline that you just haven’t gotten yet. Doesn’t it feel better when you actually go after and eliminate the cause than to actually just suppress any symptoms? My good friend, Dr. Bill Kellas, who has a show right after this, talks about going upstream. I love that idea, because you’re really just asking a better question. That better question is, “What caused that?” That’s the question, it’s, “What caused that?” When you’re talking, think in your head, “Well, if that is happening, then what caused that?” You keep on asking that.
These are different questions, because doctors especially… since they spent a lot of money, they’ve gone to school, and they took all these tests, they got all this training, and now they are out there, supposedly the experts. When they go out there and they’re the experts, they don’t want to be questioned. They like the questioning to stop, because they can’t answer, “What caused that?”
Getting down to what we do at the Center for Natural Dentistry, we want to focus on what the causes are. Sometimes the causes can’t be eliminated. For instance, if you work in a dangerous chemical… Let’s say you work in a laboratory where you deal with chemicals all the time. You’re just going to be exposed to chemicals. Unless you want to quit your job and look for a different job, you’re exposed. If you’re in the construction business, and you’re exposed to all this dust, you’re going to be exposed to it. You can minimize your exposure, but the fact is that that’s your job, and you’re going to have exposure to it. I’m a dentist. I am exposed to other people’s mercury fillings. That’s part of my job. I also have neck, shoulder and back problems, because I’m a dentist and I’m leaning over in odd positions, so that I can get the best view to provide the best dentistry possible. That’s my job, and I live with that. Realize that there are certain things you can’t control, but there are other things that you can. Those things you can control, I want you to understand and do something about it. That’s what we’re doing by using ozone in our office.
Again, ozone is not commonly used among dentists, so they’re unaware of it. I actually spoke to a pediatric dentist who said that she was faculty of a big school program that teaches pediatric dentistry. We have a common patient, and I was talking to her about the benefits of ozone therapy and the results that we’ve seen and all the great information that is on the internet. I thought I was helping her, but she did not know anything about ozone. In fact, she tried to discredit me, and said, “We don’t teach this in our pediatric dentistry programs.” I encouraged her to go figure that out. I don’t know if she ended up going and figuring it out, but the reality is that they’re not teaching these type of therapies in the schools. The doctors that are coming out of the schools, if they’re not opening minded, if there’s not opening to new ideas and possible new solutions and new cures for people, then they’re not going to be on the cutting edge. They’re the ones that you probably do not want to go to. If you think that dentistry and medicine is an exact science, you are so far off. People, dentists, doctors, they only know what they know. The reality is that our bodies are so complex. God created us in a miraculous way to be able to adapt to life, to toxins, being able to adapt to everything that’s around us, being able to have a brain, to eat good food and thrive with it, and also eat bad food and still cope with it. Our body has an amazing immune system that we really don’t appreciate. Unfortunately, doctors out there just don’t get it.
If you want to be healthy, you have to do two big things:
Number one is do not introduce more poison or toxin into your body. There are different ideas on what the toxins are and what those poisons are, but the idea is make a conscious effort not to introduce more toxins.
Number two is recognize what the toxins and poisons are in your body and do something about it. That’s right, don’t sit on your butt and think it’s going to go away by itself. You need to find providers or learn. Go on the internet and figure out what’s in there, then make a conscious effort to remove it. If you don’t put bad stuff in, that means you’re putting good stuff in. If you’re actively trying to remove the bad stuff from your body, the body is going to respond in positive ways. It’s going to respond by working better, attacking the bugs, attacking the bad things easier, and your body is going to start functioning better.
It’s as simple as that, but most people want to give excuses. Don’t give excuses. The reality is that know what lifestyle you want to live, and if you want that lifestyle, you need to put in some work. Some of that work can be decisions about what you eat. Some of it could be exercise. What are you doing today to help your cardiovascular system get better? What are you doing for the future? What are you doing for your health? Are you just going to wait until something happens before you start doing something, or are you going to take action now. It’s very simple. I like this because it’s 2014, we’ve turned over a new year, we have so many new things to be thankful for, and one of the greatest things to be thankful for is our health. If you are healthy, you should be thankful for that, but also make a conscious effort to make sure that your health stays there. No one is looking forward to disease. No one is looking forward to aging. You can do something about it.
That’s the reason why ozone is a huge part of our practice. I’ll admit, at the beginning when we first started using ozone, I was a little skeptic, because I hadn’t heard of it before. Everything starts as skepticism, but then you start seeing results. When we started applying these protocols and using it for gum disease, for infections, for cavities, for general hygiene, we started seeing incredible results. When we started seeing incredible results, that spoke volumes. I was sold. We use ozone a lot in our office. We use it for healing, to combat infections. We use it in our surgeries. We use it when we take out decay and to prevent decay. We’re using it for sensitivity. We’re using it for gum disease, for deep pockets, for bleeding gums, for tartar buildup. There are so many applications for it, I can’t even list all of them, because we use it every single day. If there is one tool or one aspect of my practice… If I was going to start a new practice, the first tool that I can’t live without would be my ozone machine. It’s incredible what we can do, and we can apply it to dentistry. That is one of the key aspects of our practice that really stands out.
Just because a dentist uses ozone doesn’t mean that they use it the same way. When I was talking about ozone, I was talking about eight or nine applications. Just to say, “I’m going to this dentist, because they use ozone” does not necessarily mean that all dentists use ozone the same way. One of the questions you have to ask your dentist is, “What do you use ozone for? What have you had success with?” and “What other applications could you use?” Ozone in dentistry especially is fairly new. It’s a new idea possibly to you, if this is your first time listening to it. It’s also a new idea to dentists and to other healthcare practitioners. You need to find someone that has experience. I’m glad that our office is at that leading edge of using ozone therapy for these.
I’m sold. I am definitely sold on ozone for a lot of procedures, surgeries included. I can’t tell you how many surgeries we’ve done where we’ve used ozone in different forms. Ozonated water, ozonated oil, ozone gas in order to disinfect the area and also to prevent infection, so that when it heals people are leaving the office with just soreness. In the next couple of days there’s no infection, soreness, or pain. Remarkable! It could be a combination of a lot of things that we do, but I’m going to tell you that ozone is one of those things that I will always, always use whenever I treat.
Unfortunately, it’s not commonly used. It’s not taught in schools. If you go to those new dentists that are out there that are coming out of school with the latest, greatest and new ideas, they’re not using ozone. Most general dentists, surgeons, periodontists are not using ozone as therapy. Because they’re not, they’re using other things which may or may not work. I like to use something that’s more natural, something that works well in our hands and that gets us the results. I can’t tell you how happy I am that we incorporated ozone into our practice.
I did mention one thing about ozone, that it’s very, very good with gum disease. Let’s take a step back. What is gum disease? Do you have gum disease? If you were to take a toothbrush or some floss and were to floss your teeth, and your gums bled, then you would have some level of gum disease. Bleeding gums is one of the signs of inflammation. If you’ve ever heard of anything that ends in ‘itis,’ that means inflammation. You can have appendicitis, you can have arthritis, or you can have gingivitis. Gingivitis is one form of gum disease. It’s inflammation of the gums, or gingiva, so it’s called gingivitis. There’s another form of gum disease that is inflammation of the bone that is underneath the gums. That bone is called the periodontium, so inflammation of the periodontium is called periodontitis. That’s the second most common or recognized form of gum disease.
We use ozone therapy to treat gingivitis and periodontitis. If you’ve gone to an office, if you’ve ever had what they call a ‘deep cleaning’ or scaling and root cleaning (that’s another fancy term), then you’ve had some form of gingivitis or periodontitis in active or inactive form. If your dentists have been promoting things like antibiotics– one of the most popular antibiotics right now is called Arestin. It is an antibiotic that they put in the gums. It’s very expensive to buy as a dentist, and they pass the cost on to you. It costs anywhere between 50 and 100 dollars per site. If you have five deep pockets, you may be spending upwards of $500 just for the one single application of that medication. I’m going to tell you, I would back ozone over all of these other medications, because it’s a lot cheaper and doesn’t have the side effects that the pharmaceuticals have.
Deep cleaning and scaling and root cleaning are over recommended. If you’re going to a dentist that has recommended anywhere from $600 to a $3,000 treatment plan just for the gums alone, then you probably need a second opinion. The reason for this is that they have identified gum disease, and they’re going to fear you. They’re going to try to threaten you to get you to do treatment, because they think (and it’s possibly true) that the bacteria in your gums is going to affect your heart and cause you to have heart disease. There’s a lot of research that other dentists are touting in order to scare our patients into doing these deep cleanings and these treatments. Gum disease is completely separate. You need to understand that gum disease is a two way street. One way is that there is bacteria in your gums, but the other way of the street, the way that is not understood is your body’s response to the bacteria. The body’s response is inflammation, or the gingivitis. It is actually the gingivitis or the inflammation is your body’s natural defense against the bacteria. It’s that inflammation which breaks down the pockets making the pockets bigger. You need to look at it not just from the angle of the bacteria, but from the overall health perspective.
This is where the holistic part comes in. You need to look at the big picture. Is your body’s immune system working the best it can? Are you feeding your body the necessary building blocks and nutrients that it needs to work the best it can? That’s why we need to look at the mouth, the teeth, the gums, the periodontium, the soft tissue, the mucosa, the structure, and the bigger picture. You need to look at the whole body, the whole picture, the whole person. That’s what we do. You can’t not do that. Most dentists only look at the small stuff, because they only want you to think about the small stuff, and they want to do these little, simple procedures that are very straight forward in their mind. They’re going to try to sell you on that.
You have to kind of look at the big picture, and ask yourself, “Is this best for my health?” I got into a discussion with a dental hygienist, because we’re hiring a dental hygienist for our office. We were talking about fluoride. I’ve been telling her that we don’t do fluoride in this office. A lot of offices do, but we don’t do fluoride. I told her, “You know what? The research by dentists in dental schools may say that fluoride is good for your teeth, and that may be fine. It may remineralize the teeth, but it is not good for your thyroid. It is not good for your bones. It can cause bone cancer. So what is more important to me? Trying to remineralize a tooth, or to improve the endocrine system to make sure that my mind and my balance is working properly, making sure that my bones are nice and strong for the future? That is more important. That is the idea that I’m talking about here.
The doctors at the Center for Natural Dentistry (myself and Dr. Godes) want people to be healthy. We’re going to push aside the mainstream dentistry, which talks about mercury fillings, root canals, orthodontics, fluoride, x-rays and all of that. We’re putting that aside, so that we can provide you with honest-to-God, healthy, holistic dentistry.
If you want to schedule a visit with us, now is as good a time as ever. Start the New Year out right. Call our number, and if you’re one of the first three callers, we’re going to have what’s called a new patient BOGO special. What’s BOGO? BOGO is buy one get one. This is your chance for you and a friend, you and a spouse, you and your wife, you and your husband, you and your son, brother, sister, friend, or stranger. I don’t care. Give us a call right now; first three callers get the new patient BOGO special. That means you’re a new patient, never been to our office. You want to see what we have to say about what’s going on in your mouth. You’ll get your exam, x-rays, and if you want, a cleaning. All of that! You buy one, you get one free. Your friend will get one free, the other person. You can figure out how both of you are going to pay it, if you’re going to pay half and the other person’s going to pay half, or you want to treat your mom, you can do that. You figure that out. For the first three callers right now, this BOGO special is going to be taken up fast. 760-536-1199. Get on the phone right now and take care of that. If you’re number four, you’re too late.
Happy New Year everyone. Thanks for tuning in. I’ll see you next time. Same time, same place. I’m out.