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In this episode Dr. Marvin is focusing on some of the secrets in Dentistry and the way it can negatively effect the dentistry that is performed, its a huge problem and its something you need to know. So with that, lets get going on this week’s episode of Let’s Talk Dentistry!
— Transcript of Today’s Show —
Good morning, you’re listening to Let’s Talk Dentistry. I’m Dr. Marvin. Great show today; thank you for joining me every week, same time, same place. This show is about natural dentistry but a whole lot more. We talk about teeth, but we also talk about your health. Unfortunately most dentists don’t talk about this stuff; they talk about your teeth and gums, thinking that your teeth and gums are separate from your body, but not here.
I have an office, my name is Dr. Marvin Pantangco. I’m located here in San Deigo, where patients come from all over the world to get my advice and to get our treatment, because our treatment is definitely a lot different from what other dentists do. We still do exams. We still do cleanings, fillings and crowns, but we do it a whole different way.
Actually, I just read an article earlier today. It was something about corporate dentistry, and it’s very interesting, so I’m going to read some excerpts on corporate dentistry. You may have noticed that everything is becoming more corporate, such as optometry. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that the small mom and pop optometry clinics (the small private practices) are all going by the wayside. Everyone’s starting to go to Costco and Lenscrafters and Target Optical.
That’s starting to become more common in dentistry. You’re not going to notice it, because the names could be changing or you just probably don’t care. Most patients or the average Joe out there doesn’t know the difference between a crown. We professionals know there’s a difference between a crown, but more and more people are starting to be attracted to the glitz and glamour, the organization, or the nice discounts and specials that these corporate dentistry practices are providing. I know this, because I know from personal experience. I worked in one for a very short period of time, because I knew it wasn’t for me. I knew it wasn’t right for the patients.
A few things that are commonplace amongst all of these corporate dental practices are that they rely heavily on HMOs and PPOs. An HMO is a type of insurance. It’s not really insurance, but it’s a type of program where the dentist has signed up with an insurance company. If your employer selects that company for their employment, you are required to go to that one practice. The dental practices get money on a monthly basis– because you signed up for them– even if you go or don’t go. When you do go, they’re going to lose money, but what they’re going to do is try to sell you on treatment that you may or may not need. That’s what happens a lot in these corporate practices.
One of the common characteristics of these practices is that they have to see more patients, because their profit margins are lower. Since they have to see more patients, they have to start over-selling, or what they call up-selling patients into a more expensive treatment. Maybe it’s a more expensive crown, maybe your insurance covers a metal crown and you don’t want to have metal in your mouth, so you start choosing a porcelain crown, but now you have to come out of pocket eight or nine hundred dollars more. Or a filling. Maybe your insurance company or the HMO pays for a silver filling. You don’t want to have silver, because of what you’ve heard on this radio show, and you have to be upgraded to a white, plastic filling.
The other common scenario is that they have to see more patients. Because they have to see more patients, they’re not doing comprehensive work. The only thing that they’re doing is, if you do have a cavity, they’re going to try to fill it pretty much without speaking to you. They’ll tell you that you have a cavity, your insurance is going to pay for it, or even if your insurance isn’t going to pay for it, to try to get you in and out. One particular doctor, as quoted in this article, said that he had to have roller skates on, because he had to roll from room to room to room, probably seeing four to five patients an hour, patients in four to five different chairs. He has to juggle all that time, so that he can continue to produce.
Speaking of which, it reminds me of a friend of mine that used to work for one of these companies. He would go to these practices, figure out what their numbers are. He’ll determine, ‘Oh, you’ve only done 80 crowns this month. You’re supposed to be doing a hundred crowns.’ They’re going to tell the doctors to start prescribing more crowns. To me that’s unlawful. He actually got out of the business, because that’s not how we should be treating patients. We shouldn’t be over-selling treatment just to meet our numbers. That’s what corporate medicine, or corporate dentistry is coming to.
Hopefully you agree that not all dentistry is the same, because if everything becomes corporate, then it will be the same. Dentists are only going to be working at these corporate places, because those are the only places that will have a job. If you think that all dentistry is the same, of course you’re going to go to the corporate dental practices, because that’s what the employers are signing up for.
It’s getting difficult out there for the general practitioner, the private practice, to make ends meet, because the corporate dental practices are using special treatment like getting patients in and out and offering discounts on first visits and trying to sell them. Hopefully they’ll convert that patient into a paying patient, but if not they don’t really care about their reputation. I want you to go online, and you’ll see on Yelp and Google all the poor reviews of these corporate dental practices.
The problem that you have as a consumer is that you’ve never seen, and you don’t know the difference between corporate and non-corporate. That’s very discouraging. I want you to realize that not all dentistry is the same. Dentists know that, but as we get more and more into such things as corporate dentistry, corporate medicine, Obamacare and all of these socialized programs, you’re going to realize that it’s not in your best interest. What’s in your best interest is listening to shows like this, trying to get educated, learn about what’s going on inside your mouth, because it does influence your health, and also making decisions based on what’s best for your health, not what is being pressured on you.
I had a patient this last week talk about how she knew that she wasn’t supposed to get a root canal, but because her tooth was in pain and she hadn’t been to the dentist in a while, she ended up getting a root canal. Now she’s paying for it. She’s not only paying for the root canal, but she’s also paying from the health point of view, and she knows that she needs to have that taken out, because the root canal did not solve the infection that was in her mouth. That’s very disappointing. As more and more people try to cut corners, try to go the cheaper route, they end up paying more from the standpoint of they’re paying for all the bad treatment, then they’re paying to remove the bad treatment, then they have to pay for treatment to replace teeth. It goes into a vicious cycle, and I can’t stress enough that people need to make smarter decisions. I’ve got to tell you that you’re just smart just by listening to this show, because everyone that I know that comes into the office listens to the show and they say, “Man, you’ve got great information. That’s great stuff.” They tell other people, and that’s what I really love about this show.
Speaking of which, in the next couple of weeks we’re going to be making a big announcement, so I don’t want you to miss out on any of the future shows. We’ve got a big announcement coming up, and I just don’t want you to miss it.
You’re listening to Let’s Talk Dentistry. This is Dr. Marvin. It’s on KPRZ.com or AM1210 every week, Saturday, 8:30. If you want to join into the show, you can call in or typically I just talk about some great topics. If you’ve ever been to our website, that address is trynaturaldentistry.com. If you go to that website, you’ll find a lot more information. We’ve had a lot of activity on our facebook page. I posted last week about this video, and it was very shocking. I like to go into my iPhone to read the news, and I found an article on Fox News, actually a video with information about dentistry. It was a great article. Actually today I wanted to expand on that video.
The title of the video is Five Myths That Are Debunked. I really like the dentist that was on there, because he said some stuff that I’ve said a lot. I say this stuff all the time. I say it to my patients; I’ve said it on this radio show. I just want to emphasize a little bit more about some of the myths.
Myth number one was, “Sugar causes cavities.” Of course sugar causes cavities, but it’s not really the main cause. It actually causes cavities indirectly. If you’ve always thought that eating sugar or eating candy causes cavities, it’s actually an indirect effect. What really happens is that the bacteria feeds on the sugar. The bacteria that’s on your teeth, the plaque on your teeth feeds on that sugar, and that sugar as a was product becomes lactic acid. As the acid starts eating away at your enamel it starts demineralizing. When it starts demineralizing, it starts to become decayed. When it becomes decayed, then it becomes a cavity. A cavity, if you break it down is really a hole. The hole is created from the very beginning by acid secretion. If you do a very, very good job of keeping acid out of your mouth– you can get acid from the drinks that you eat, from the foods that you eat, a lot of carbohydrates produce acids in your mouth, then you’re going to get eating away, so it’s not just sugar. The myth is that sugar causes cavities. In reality, it does but it also doesn’t. It’s not the main cause. We like to point at sugar and candy as the cause of cavities, but let’s not forget that it’s the acid. Acid in our food and acid in our drinks. The more acidic our mouth is, the worse off we are. It goes to show that if you take any medications that decrease your salivary flow, your saliva acts like a buffer. It’s basic. When bases react with acid, it neutralizes them. Know that if you are decreasing your salivary flow, you’re actually increasing your acidity. That’s another reason why you need to be careful with the medications, and you have to watch what you eat, so be very careful. There are hundreds of other reasons why sugars are bad for you, and therefore I don’t promote people start eating sugar because it’s a myth that sugar causes cavities. Sugar does cause acid, but it’s also very harmful. It’s very harmful to your brain, it causes increase of insulin, which causes diabetes. It’s really a poison, and a lot of the sugars are refined. There’s a lot of natural sugars out there, and even those we have too much. Why would we want to toxify our bodies with these artificial sugars or refined sugars when we have enough in our diet through the fruits and vegetables that we eat, such as carrots and apples. Just kind of keep that in mind. Sugar does not cause cavities, it causes it kind of indirectly, but it’s not what your focus should really be on. I would really want to harp on that. It’s a great video on our facebook page, facebook.com/naturaldentistry
If you want to schedule a visit with me or Dr. Godes at The Center for Natural Dentistry, that number is 760-536-1199.
The next dental myth that we’re going to talk about today is teeth whitening damaging enamel. Now, there’s many different ways teeth whiten, but for the most part teeth whitening is a bleaching process just like you put bleach in your laundry to whiten your whites. Bleach goes on your teeth. One thing that’s for sure is that if you do it properly, then it doesn’t damage your enamel. It may make it a little bit more porous, but it’s more porous because you’re not hydrating your teeth. You’re dehydrating your teeth. What’s happening is when you put bleach on your teeth, either in a tray or a swab or those Crest whitening stripes, or even in the dental office when they apply it to your teeth, it should not stay on your teeth very long. That’s one of the reasons why we have a very unique, very effective way to whiten your teeth at the office. It’s not only safe, but it’s super effective. You’re not going to get any sensitivity, which is the problem. In general teeth whitening products do not damage the enamel, they just cause it to have a lot of sensitivity, AKA pain. If you want to know how we do it, we’re the only ones that I know that do it this way, that whiten your teeth without causing any sensitivity, then surely come to our office. For the most part it does not damage your enamel, but it does effectively remove the stains that are in your teeth. If that’s what’s important for you, then I suggest that you get it done properly and get it done in our office.
The next thing is mercury fillings, and I’m not going to talk too long, because as you know if you’ve listened to my show in the past, my views on mercury fillings are long and wide. I like the dentist that’s on the video. He’s a dentist from New York. He’s a conventional dentist, but I like what he said, which is that no amount of mercury is safe. He also mentioned that mercury fillings are 51 – 52%. It’s actually between 50 and 60% mercury. I read an article this past week about a dentist saying, “Oh, it’s not mercury. There’s only a small amount of mercury in these mercury fillings,” which is 100% incorrect. One of the things that you have to realize is don’t read everything on the internet and think that it’s fact or that it’s science. Just because a dentist has written it, they’re basically just saying what their opinion is or what they have been taught or what they were brainwashed to say in dental schools. The new, healthy way is to just not place mercury fillings. If you do get them, take them out. You have to get them taken out properly, and we’ve talked about this extensively on other shows about how we remove it. If you want to have your mercury fillings removed, better yet, if you want to have an exam to determine if the mercury fillings in your mouth are causing you harm, then please, please do. Please come to our office, schedule an appointment, and at least get the information to figure out what the level of toxicity is for you or what your sensitivity is to mercury fillings.
The next topic that they debunk is mouth washes with alcohol. Are they OK? We haven’t really talked too much about it. I did in the past, but alcohol dries out your mouth. When it dries out your mouth, it actually kills the collagen and you can actually have sloughing, which means layers of the inside of your cheeks an your gums come off because of the dehydration caused by the alcohol. Which mouthwashes have alcohol? All you have to do when you pick up a mouthwash at Target, Walgreens, or wherever you go, look on the back and it will say alcohol content. You want to have no alcohol content. There are other things in the mouthwash that could be bad for you, such as the pretty blue color, the pretty red color, the pretty green color, the artificial sweeteners from the saccharin to the aspertame, which are all cancer forming, there are many things wrong. In particular alcohol, because some of the more popular brands such as Scope or Listerine have alcohol in them. That’s why they’re getting a bad rap, so a lot of these companies are coming out with alcohol free mouth washes. They’re cheap, relatively cheap. You can get a big bottle for about 3 – 4 dollars, but the reality is that even if it’s cheap, you’re causing more harm that good. One of the criteria we have with alcohol is don’t use it in your mouthwash.
In the office we sell a special brand of mouthwash called Breath Doctor. Literally only three ingredients. Here are the three ingredients: Organic peppermint oil, that’s to freshen breath. It has nothing to do with anything else, just fresh breath. It gives it a nice flavor. It’s not necessary, but people want to have that strong flavor. It’s not really that strong, but you still get a nice minty flavor. The other thing is deionized water, which basically means that it’s filtered water and it’s not ionized, so it’s not active. The third thing is what’s called stabilized chlorine dioxide, which is incredible. It’s really the main ingredient, which kills the bacteria and really freshens your breath. It kills the volatile sulfur compounds that are on your tongue and in your mouth. Great for swishing after meals; you can do it before you brush your teeth. There are so many good uses. It’s kid friendly. They can even swallow it; it’s that great. If you want to pick up a bottle today, it is more expensive that Listerine, but again you’re not causing yourself harm and you’re actually doing yourself something good. Breath Doctor Mouthwash. Come to our office, pick that up. It does not have alcohol in it, obviously, but it also doesn’t have any of the artificial colors or artificial sweeteners. It’s just good for you.
You ever go to an ingredient list and saw all the different ingredients and were like, “What’s the name? If I can’t even pronounce it, why are there so many ingredients? Shouldn’t it just be an apple or nuts or something that you recognize?” It’s not like that these days. So may foods are processed out of convenience. So many things are processed due to increased shelf life. It’s marketing. The packaging looks good. It’s the same packaging you’ve seen on a billboard. You’ve seen it on television. All of this stuff is working in their favor so that you can buy their products. Because these are big companies and they can produce these products and spread them out all of the globe, they’re able to make them cheaper. Since they’re able to make them cheaper, they can put more ingredients to make you enjoy it more, such as MSG. It’s just more and more processing. I hope you agree with what I’m saying. If you can’t recognize what it is and you have to ask questions, usually the more ingredients there are in it, probably the worse off it is for you.
That goes not only with mouthwash, but also with toothpaste. I’m releasing a new toothpaste, and I really, really enjoy it. I’ve been using it for a few weeks now, and you’re going to love it. One of the key differences with this toothpaste is that it doesn’t foam up like the ones that you’re used to. You know, from Crest, Colgate, Aquafresh, or Close-Up; there are hundreds of different toothpastes out there. Most of them foam up. What’s in that toothpaste tube is what’s called SLS, or sodium lauryl sulfate. Again, if you don’t know what it is, you have to figure it out. For the most part, it’s a foaming agent. Actually, some people are very sensitive to it. It’ll give you that false sense of clean because it’s bubbly. I personally don’t like those, because that will cause you to brush less. It will cause you to stop brushing sooner, because you have all that fuziness, and you didn’t brush long enough or you didn’t brush properly. You didn’t get into the right areas. Again this is all up to marketing, capitalism. Don’t get caught in the middle of it. It’s just not a good thing.
The last topic that they talked about on this video– they talked about 5 particular topics. The first one was on sugars and cavities, the second was on tooth whitening and damaging your enamel. The third one was about mercury fillings and silver fillings and how they should be removed. The fourth one was about mouthwash and its alcohol content and it’s drying effect. It actually can cause harm and actually cancers in your mouth, so don’t do that.
The last thing that they talked about was wisdom teeth. Should they be removed? This is something that traditionally wisdom teeth have been removed. It’s also tradition that patients have mercury fillings. It’s also tradition that patients get fluoride treatments, that they get sealants, they get braces when they’re a teenager. All of these are traditions, but these traditions need to be broken. Should wisdom teeth be removed? Try not to. The way that you try not to remove wisdom teeth is that you need to have the jaw be big enough. Lots of dentists, orthodontists included, say that the jaw is small or the teeth are too big. The reality is that the teeth are the size that they’re going to be. Most teeth are exactly the same size, including amongst people. Just because you’re a bigger person doesn’t mean you have bigger teeth. The issue is the jaw size. A lot of times the jaw has not grown to its full potential, and therefore the jaw is smaller, and therefore there is not enough room for your wisdom teeth. We need to be proactive, look at people’s jaws, look at their teeth when they’re four or five years old. I have my son (he’s four years old, he’s going to be turning five pretty soon) on a mouth guard that’s positioned his tongue, keeps him from grinding his teeth so his baby teeth are not shortening. It keeps his tongue at the roof of his mouth and he’s on his way to having enough big, wide, U-shaped jaw, so that he does have his adult teeth, including his wisdom teeth.
We do remove wisdom teeth at our office, but a lot of times it’s too little too late. Not everybody needs to have their wisdom teeth taken out. Don’t get caught amongst dentists telling you that you should get them taken out before they become a problem in the future. God gave you 32 teeth. Not 28, 32, so you need to do what you need to do in order to keep all 32 teeth. Not only keep them clean, but get them taken out.
This was a great show. I hope you got something out of it. We’re coming down to the end of this show. I want you to get on the phone right now and schedule an appointment with me, because most dentists don’t understand what I’m talking about. You understand what I’m talking about, because you graciously listened to the show. I want you to call. What I’m going to do is if you schedule an exam and x-ray, I’m going to give you a fee cleaning. I’m going to clean your teeth, I’m going to show you how to clean them. I’m going to give you oral hygiene instructions. I’m going to give you nutritional counseling. I’m going to tell you about what to eat and what not to eat in order to keep your teeth for the rest of your life. That’s right, you want to keep your teeth for the rest of your life. You don’t want to get cracks in your teeth, you don’t want to get fractures, you don’t want to get root canals, you don’t want to get crowns unnecessarily, you don’t want to get fillings, you don’t want decay, you don’t want your gums receding, you don’t want any of this. You don’t want TMJ problems, you don’t want pains, you don’t want headaches, you don’t want neck problems, you don’t want posture problems. All of these are related. You need to go to a dentist that understands that. That’s what we talk about. We’re comprehensive care. We see one patient at a time, and that’s why people come all over. Hopefully you enjoyed this show. Call the number, 760-536-1199. Call, get this special while it’s still here.
Stay tuned to the next couple of weeks. We’re going to make a big announcement, and hopefully you’ll take a big part of that. I’m Dr. Marvin, thank you for listening to Let’s Talk Dentistry. Call our number, 760-536-1199. I’m out of here until next week. I’m out.